From there, we ranked which state currently has produced the most NFL players. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Iowas defense-heavy mindset seemed to carry on to all of its NFL players as they come up on the short end of touchdowns scored in the NFL. Coach Urban Meyer preparing players for the NFL also was a huge attraction as many of those 65 players came under his tenure. California and Texas are still at the top of the list. Read on to see the results. Even though Florida has had over 385 former Gators suit up in the NFL, none of those players were ever drafted first overall out of UF. As one of the oldest teams in the league, the Cardinals have one of the largest rosters of players all-time, clocking in at over 1,800! To explain what we did, we cant think of a better team to spotlight than the aforementioned Arizona Cardinals, owners of the top overall pick this weekend. Ohio State is just one of three colleges to produce more than 400 NFL players. Westlake (Austin, Texas) High and Isidore Newman (New Orleans) School represent the only two ZIP codes in the country to produce multiple Super Bowl-winning starting quarterbacks. Heres the full chart that Feldman shared on Twitter below: The District of Columbia, with one NFL player for every 54,702 residents, has the most NFL players per capita. Switzer was a center, linebacker, and captain of the 1959 team that won the Southwest Conference and Gator Bowl. Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. With both expected to be top picks in the draft, Georgia will soon have 19 NFL quarterbacks. Data was culled from Pro Football Reference to figure out which states have over- or underperformed based on the expected number of NFL quarterbacks produced, decided by population size and the number of Division I programs in a state. Stay up to date with what you want to know. And Jacksonville, Florida, native Mac Jones is expected to be the third straight Alabama QB selected in the first round, with none of the three hailing from Alabama. Most touchdowns in NFL: Mike Alstott (71), Most games played in NFL: Drew Brees (287). We also looked at the three college teams who had the most players join each professional team in every decade. Here is an in-depth look at the top five states. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not Don Majkowski. Alabama, Ohio State, and LSU have been at the forefront of the supply chain of great talent for the NFL. Which ZIP code has produced the most NFL quarterbacks? And some make NFL players. Bottom line:Flordia had recent success under Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, but doesnt have decades of dominance under its belt and didnt become an elite program until the 1990s. But the Texas total computes to only 8.5 players per 100,000, about one-third of what Mississippi has produced. We center readers in everything we do, informingand engagingMississippians through reporting, podcasts, events and online communities. LSU's 3 permanent rivals for 9-game SEC schedule have been set, per report, Quinten Dormady, former Tennessee QB, under playbook investigation in XFL, Alabama basketball adds commitment from 4-star forward, Billy Napier addresses Florida staff openings at start of spring practice, BetMGM Massachusetts Bonus Code: How to Claim the $200 Bonus Bet Offer This Weekend, FanDuel Massachusetts Promo: Pre-Launch Special Scores $100 in Bonus Bets, Jalin Hyatt impresses in limited NFL Combine showing, WynnBET Mass Promo Code: How to Claim Big Value with Pre-Launch Bonus, BetMGM UFC 285 Promo Code: Claim $1,000 First Bet Offer on Any Fight, Texas A&M punctuates impressive SEC season with upset of No. Additionally, Miami wins the all-important Battle for Florida since it has more Pro Bowl selections (181) than Florida State (103) and Florida (89). Bottom line:Another one of the schools without a national title, the Hawkeyes are a perfect nickname for Iowa because their best two players seemingly had hawk eyes. The dominance of Florida, Florida State and Miami has dwindled slightly over the years, but they are still producing NFL players at a high rate. Jones was a Razorback starter at offensive guard and co-captain when the team won the national title. It also doesnt count, for instance, a player such as Peyton Manning whose roots are firmly in Mississippi soil and who spent much of his childhood in the Magnolia State. Another amazing fact: Jackson State, alone, has produced four Hall of Famers, three of them native Mississippians. 1 in health, wealth and education? by Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today November 1, 2021, This and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.. So we set out to determine what state produces the most NFL players. necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. In Georgia, one NFL player is played for every 81,409 people, while in Florida, one is played for every 91,847 people. The one thing lacking from The Ohio States NFL resume is a great, or even good, or even above-average, quarterback. The Bruins are considered a basketball school while nearby USC is considered the citys football school, but UCLA gets more than just the Trojans leftovers. With the 2020 season officially underway, CBS unveiled an incredible graphic that shows which states produce the most NFL players. Bottom line:Lots of schools have proclaimed themselves as "DB U" due to the prolific number of defensive backs they have sent to the NFL. The dominance of Florida, Florida State and Miami has dwindled slightly over the years, but they are still producing NFL players at a high rate. Ohio, a traditional Midwest football-mad state, is fifth on the list in terms of NFL players. 4-year graduation rate: 90%. Bottom line:Pittsburgh has just six Top 25 finishes in the last 35 years and hasnt won more than 10 games since 1981. Alabama (17) was a distant fifth. NFL draft picks since 2000: 57. Bottom line:No program has more wins or a better win percentage since World War II than Oklahoma a testament to the great players who have come through Norman. Some colleges excel at producing Fortune 500 CEOs. A total of 721 quarterbacks have debuted and played at least one game in the NFL during the Super Bowl era (since 1966), and the Bayou State outperformed expectations the most in a study by ESPN and Pro Football Reference. In fact, those three states rank 1-2-3 all-time for states where NFL. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services. Arkansas has sent almost 300 players to the NFL. Bottom line:The dominance of Alabama under Nick Saban isnt limited to just the college game. Then he starred for the Steelers, Ravens, 49ers and Raiders in the NFL. After Georgia the drop-off is significant. Hall of Famers Warren Moon and Hugh McElhenny came from Los Angeles, six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz came from Hawaii, and Marcus Peters was from Oakland. This is another program that has experienced its most success in recent years, and only rival Alabama has more active NFL players. But that number dropped to 28 in 2022, due to some lean years for the Seminoles. The most NFL players have come from Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Miami, Florida, and the state of Florida. Vinny Testaverde. Most touchdowns in NFL: Tony Gonzalez (111), Most games played in NFL: Tony Gonzalez (270). 25. In Ohio, Cuyahoga County alone is the birthplace of 17 players. No. Michigan - 346 7. Pennsylvania State University--University. That is 48 more than the team with the next most Pro Bowl selections. California, with 141 quarterbacks, is tops in the union with 14 Super Bowl wins in 25 starts, three Hall of Famers, seven No. Of those 1,800+ players, the school that has produced the most Cardinals is Notre Dame, with an even 50, well ahead of LSU in second place. All four of those states are among the top 10 in producing NFL players, so Penn State is in an ideal location to land top talent. None are bigger than Drew Brees, who threw for 80,358 yards in his NFL career, more yards than any other quarterback in NFL history. Ohio State's Justin Fields was a five-star recruit at Harrison High. Bottom line:Whether or not Notre Dame is the greatest program in NCAA history is up for debate, but theres no denying the impact that the Fighting Irish football program has had on the NFL. They are followed by Florida, Texas, Georgia and then Ohio. Action Network's list of the top 10 states with the most active NFL players is listed below. Before making life miserable for NFL defenses, they were doing the same to opponents in college. This college has also produced the second-most players in the 2021 season. Iowa not only has the NFLs all-time interceptions leader in Paul Krause (81), but it also has the second all-time interceptions leader in Emlen Tunnell (79). He has covered the SEC since 2016. However, Nebraska hasnt finished in the top 10 in the final AP poll since the 2001 season, and its once-abundant NFL pipeline has all but dried up. Kiper's two-round mock draft: Top-five trade, record QB haul, Kiper's favorite draft prospects at every position, Biggest question marks for draft's top quarterbacks. Time will tell! And now, theres even data that would appear to back it up. During your secondary school years, you likely had a little One of the most common questions students hear is, What do you want to be when you grow up? For many individuals that answer is subject to change over time. Bottom line: Purdue is one of the oldest college football programs. About 20 miles on I-75 separate the Georgia high school homes of two of the draft's top QB prospects. It only seems as though Tom Brady has been playing long enough to have hung out with the Lizard King himself, and that Jim Morrison was talking about Brady and California QBs when he crooned, "The West is the best, get here and we'll do the rest." You cant edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. The Buckeye State had 78 players in the NFL ranks in 2014. Washington is 10th overall in our rankings thanks in large part to Drew Bledsoe, Chris Chandler, Mark Rypien and Jon Kitna, whose careers have the highest approximate values among the state's 22 QBs. Dont forget to take advantage of Caesars Sportsbooks NCAAF odds week-in and week-out! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Madison, Wisconsin, may not be the first location that many transfers think of when deciding where they want to finish their college careers, but it has proven to be a much-sought-after destination for some of the NFLs best players. But now, Florida has joined them as one of the three biggest producers of NFL talent. While that number seems impressive, its a low number for this list and ranks just 81st in terms of all college football programs. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images). Together these seven states are the birthplaces of 846 NFL players. Penn State - 359 5. Bottom line: Youll notice a trend with nearly all of the schools on this list most reside in small college towns and outside of major cities. But Florida State is rising up the ranks, and of its four Hall of Famers, three have been enshrined in Canton this decade. Oct 6, 2011, 8:10 AM Historically, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania have been hotbeds for football talent. Founded in 2016 as the states first nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom, Mississippi Todays roots in Capitol coverage have grown to encompass a myriad of beats beyond politics and policy, including education, public health, justice, environment, equity, and, yes, sports. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using. Bottom line: Stanford didn't invent football, but the school helped popularize it in the 1920s and '30s with Pop Warner, who coached the Cardinal from 1924 to 1932. With Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, Georgia will get a boost after the 2021 draft, climbing into the top five for the 2010s with six NFL quarterbacks. The schools that dominate on Saturdays have their alumni playing on Sundays. Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. First-rounders: 6. . In fact, those three states rank 1-2-3 all-time for states where NFL players were born. Tittle, Steve Van Buren and Kevin Mawae. The school actually has more Heisman winners (2) than Pro Football Hall of Famers (1), though Von Miller or even Shane Lechler may one day even things up. Nebraska (21.3 per 100,000), Oklahoma (also 21.3), and Louisiana (21.2) were the three states closest to Mississippi in NFL players per capita. 13 Texas A&M at Kyle Field, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. That makes them a bit of an outlier since every other school in the top seven is in a warm-weather location in either the South or Southern California. The population of New York State is nearly 20 million, compared to Mississippis fewer than 3 million. We support responsible gambling. Its one of the most exciting times of the year for football fans around the country. Second is Ohio State with 67, followed by LSU with 62. Bottom line: Oregon won a Rose Bowl in their first season in 1916. However, 13 Wolverines have reached 1,000 NFL rushing yards with the latest being the greatest, Tom Brady. 4 on the leagues all-time passing yardage list. After starring at Snider High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Woodson stayed close to home and became an All-American for the Boilermakers. Subscribe to get the latest insight from Mel Kiper Jr., Todd McShay and all of our experts heading into the NFL draft, plus thousands of your favorite sporting events. Or should. Louisiana is famous for its Cajun food, jazz music, Mardi Gras -- and quarterbacks. Notably, however, LSU was the school most represented on the 2018 Cardinals roster. And of those, 11 come from high schools located within 30 miles of Atlanta. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alabama round out the top five. From John Brodie and Jim Plunkett to John Elway and Andrew Luck, there's a reason Stanford has a reputation as Quarterback U. LSU - 325 10. Only Purdue (676), Oregon (687) and Arkansas (706) have fewer NFL touchdowns. Troy Aikman, Jonathan Ogden and Jimmy Johnson all have rejected USC for Westwood and currently reside in the Hall of Fame. The remaining seven states to crack the top 10 are Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, North Carolina and New Jersey. The District of Columbia, with one NFL player for every 54,702 residents, has the most NFL players per capita. Over those100-plus years, they have won two national championships (1920 and 1922) and produced many pro players. A cleveland.com review of opening week rosters found Florida leads with the way with 193 players, based on the place of birth of each player. That is, the Magnolia State, relatively small and poor in so many ways, kicks tail when it comes to producing football talent. We also identified the college football programs that sent the most players to the NFL within those states. The sheer size of California and the number of universities within it has propelled the state to #2 on the list. Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. We prefer Author Name, Mississippi Today in the byline. Notre Dame and USC were actually tied for the most draft selections ever entering the 2021 draft with 511.