That is more than 30 percent of all active players listed Pro-Football-Reference.com. The school has produced Pro Bowlers at every other position on the field, but theyve yet to send a receiver to the Pro Bowl or have a receiver post a 1,000-yard season. Bottom line:Did you know that the Washington Huskies 40 game win streak from 1908 to 1914 is the second-longest in NCAA history? However, players of that caliber have been few and far between in recent years as the majority of Michigan States NFL alums played in the early days of the NFL. In fact, those three states rank 1-2-3 all-time for states where NFL. Many of the schools on this list are poised to send another great class of rookies to the NFL next season. These colleges have produced the most NFL players, and they have a track record of success on the gridiron. Only five players in the program's history have been selected first . The only thing UCLA is missing is an elite NFL receiver since theyve had Pro Bowlers at every position except out wide. Bottom line:While many of the aforementioned schools have had recent success but not decades of winning, the exact opposite can be said for Nebraska. Despite all of that success in the defensive backfield, the Sun Devils never have won a national championship, making them just one of six teams on this list without a natty. Oklahoma - 328 9. 1. The Lone Star State produced a plethora of talented quarterbacks, such as Drew Brees, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Ryan Tannehill. So we set out to determine what state produces the most NFL players. We may be compensated for the links provided on this page. We also looked at the three college teams who had the most players join each professional team in every decade. Despite putting 54 defensive backs in the NFL, including 14 first-rounders, no Bama corner has ever made a Pro Bowl. Current NFL players: 37. The school has produced at least one player from every season of NFL football since the league resumed play in 2012. Bottom line:Pittsburgh has just six Top 25 finishes in the last 35 years and hasnt won more than 10 games since 1981. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Several prestigious Texas programs have contributed to the current NFL talent pool. But the Texas total computes to only 8.5 players per 100,000, about one-third of what Mississippi has produced. This site .css-110721q{color:#0079F0;}contains commercial content. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. is known world wide for having some of the best athletes in the world. Florida ranked third with 149. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). We center readers in everything we do, informingand engagingMississippians through reporting, podcasts, events and online communities. The schools that dominate on Saturdays have their alumni playing on Sundays. From there, we ranked which state currently has produced the most NFL players. The second-most populous state, Texas also leads the country in a key formula component -- Division I football programs -- with 21, seven more than any other state. Coach Urban Meyer preparing players for the NFL also was a huge attraction as many of those 65 players came under his tenure. Bottom line:UT is home to four Hall of Famers, although one of them, Tom Landry, is enshrined in Canton due to his work as a coach rather than a player. California is more than just Tom Brady, and the great state of Texas hasn't been so great when it comes to producing NFL QBs, according to our formula, which counts a player's home state as the one in which he finished his high school career. Woodson has a Super Bowl ring, 71 career interceptions, 11 Pro Bowls and six All-Pro honors. Others create politicians. Try selecting a different location. And that team just happens to be the only one that outpaced USC in NFL players produced. Texas has produced more active NFL players than any other U.S. state. More:Mississippi State upends No. 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. Since 1936, 788 NFL players have come from Mississippi. The answer may surprise you. Youd probably expect huge numbers from the likes of Texas, California and Pennsylvania, but when you take into account population, it completely changes the outlook, Diallo said. Ohio State - 426 4. Read on to see the results. Bottom line: Oregon won a Rose Bowl in their first season in 1916. A cleveland.com review of opening week. Finally, we broke out every player by position and school to find which schools have produced the most players at specific positions for every NFL team. All rights reserved. Over those100-plus years, they have won two national championships (1920 and 1922) and produced many pro players. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. But the program has produced some elite NFL stars. Thats right, Mississippi, for its population, produces more pro football players than Texas, Florida, California and more than Louisiana and Alabama, as well. 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. Mississippi averages 26.6 NFL players for every 100,000 citizens. A debate between NFL players bubbled up on social media this week when former Galveston Ball High School star Mike Evans proclaimed that Texas high school football produces the best players. But one school often overlooked in this conversation is Arizona State. Note: Birthplace for 14 players could not immediately be determined. The Bobby Bowden-Jimbo Fisher era was the best run in program history, and that was evident by FSU having 46 active players in the NFL in 2019. By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with Mississippi Today. Among states with SEC schools, the per capita numbers are: Mississippi (first, 26.6), Louisiana (fourth, 21.2), Alabama (fifth, 17), Arkansas (12th, 13.4), Tennessee (13th, 13.3), South Carolina (14th, 11.5), Kentucky (16th, 9.9), Texas (23rd, 8.5), Florida (34th, 6), Georgia (35th, 6) andMissouri (38th, 5.3). USC - 479 3. Ousmane Diallo, a data analyst for Rise at Seven, led a team of five that did the research and tallied the results. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services. Jim Druckenmiller. Nebraska - 346 6. Here are the universities cultivating the talent: In Alabama, theres no denying which school is best at producing professional football players. More than 25 percent of its 98 Pro Bowl selections came from just four defensive backs: Mike Haynes (9), Eric Allen (6), Louis Wright (5) and Darren Woodson (5). Second is Ohio State with 67, followed by LSU with 62. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. He has covered the SEC since 2016. While ranking 22nd in all-time NFL players, Auburn ranks 23rd in active players after ranking eighth in 2019, pointing to their recent struggles. But great players in Norman havent translated to great players in the NFL. In the 1980's, the L.A. Rams featured one of the best NFL running backs of all time in Eric Dickerson, who tore defenses apart and set the league's single season rushing record in 1984. With your help, we've gotten a lot done but we're not finished yet! 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. What state produces the most NFL players header image. The state of Mississippi has placed the most players in the NFL capita, according to a by Sidelines. Bottom line:Michigan has the second most all-time wins in college football history (behind Alabama), produced perhaps the greatest quarterback in NFL history (Tom Brady) and even had a future president play for them (Gerald Ford). But Knoxville, with its close location to the Gulf Coast, the Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest, is still adept at attracting top college prospects. 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! In terms of players by decade, the NFL relied heavily on schools from the Midwest such as Notre Dame and Minnesota in the early days, before shifting their focus out west to USC in the 70s and 80s before settling into a varied approach that has seen schools from the Midwest, California, and the Southeast regularly headlining NFL rosters over the last 30 years. 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. Most touchdowns in NFL: James Lofton (76), Most games played in NFL: John Elway (234). That is, the Magnolia State, relatively small and poor in so many ways, kicks tail when it comes to producing football talent. The sheer size of California and the number of universities within it has propelled the state to #2 on the list. And of those, 11 come from high schools located within 30 miles of Atlanta. With the 2021 NFL Draft now firmly in the rearview mirror, here's an updated look at the 25 schools with the most all-time NFL Draft picks. Bottom line:The dominance of Alabama under Nick Saban isnt limited to just the college game. With all due respect to Fran Tarkenton and others drafted before 1980, the best players in Georgia history have come in the last 40 years. Though it might surprise some fans, the state of Florida actually has the most current NFL players. Its highest touchdown scorer, Elroy Hirsch, found the end zone just 66 times. The Ohio State University has produced a total of 411 players since the 17th NFL season in 1936. 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. A new, thorough study confirms what I have long contended to be true. Which Schools Have the Most NFL Players? So we didnt. All six of the Nittany Lions' Pro Football Hall of Famers come from those states, including Franco Harris and Jack Ham, who were Penn State teammates and then teammates with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The research was done by Sidelines, a sports technology and digital media company, which also found that Texas has produced the most NFL players (2,515) of any state. 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. While Brady (and his seven rings) is the headliner, the Golden State's dominance is more than just the Golden Boy, a sixth-round pick who graduated from Serra High School in 1995. Across NFL draft history, Notre Dame and USC have seen the most alums get drafted, according to drafthistory.com -- and they are also the most popular programs for the Eagles over time. Arkansas football also produced Jerry Jones, Hall of Fame owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, two Super Bowl-winning coaches in Dallas. Texas surprisingly has no quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame (based on our criteria for players since 1966), and the collective approximate value of the state's QBs is watered down because many are not key contributors (its 62% start average ranked 15th among states with at least 500 games played).