TOGETHER AGAIN
While odds may seemingly be slim with only 32 teams and 257 picks in this year’s draft, Clemson could actually have a pair of teammates drafted by a single team for the eighth time in an 11-year span. A total of 20 NFL Drafts have featured at least one team drafting a pair of Clemson teammates, including the 1946, 1951, 1955, 1959, 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1983, 1991, 1998, 2003, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024 drafts.
In addition, in 1984, the New York Giants selected Jim Scott in the NFL Draft and added James Robinson via the Supplemental Draft for USFL Players. The 1960 AFL Draft also featured both Lou Cordileone and Harold Olson’s selections by the Buffalo Bills.
For three-and-a-half decades, the Giants held the record for the most Clemson players selected in one draft, selecting Terry Kinard, Andy Headen and Frank Magwood in the famed 1983 NFL Draft. In 2019, the Raiders matched that mark, selecting Clelin Ferrell, Trayvon Mullen and Hunter Renfrow in the 2019 NFL Draft.
The Raiders made a little more Clemson teammate history in 2020, selecting Tanner Muse with the No. 100 overall pick and John Simpson with the No. 109 overall pick. The span of nine picks represented the shortest span of picks between one team selecting two Clemson players in school history, passing the 14 picks between the Denver Broncos’ selections of Nick Eason and Bryant McNeal in 2003.
In 2021, the Jacksonville Jaguars made Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne the first quarterback/running back duo from a single school ever to be drafted by the same team in the first round of an NFL Draft in the Common Draft era.
The most recent pair of Clemson teammates to be drafted to the same team came in 2024. The Philadelphia Eagles selected running back Will Shipley in the fourth round and added linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. The duo would help the Eagles to a title in Super Bowl LIX in their rookie campaigns.
The 1991 and 1998 NFL Drafts both featured two sets of Clemson teammates sticking together in the selection meeting. In 1991, Chris Gardocki and Stacy Long were both selected by the Chicago Bears while Dexter Davis and Vince Hammond went to the Phoenix Cardinals. In 1998, the St. Louis Rams selected Raymond Priester and Glenn Rountree and the Miami Dolphins selected Lorenzo Bromell and Jim Bundren.
Eighteen of the NFL’s 32 active franchises have selected Clemson teammates in a single draft. The teams to do so include the Bears (1991), Bills (1960…