Ole Miss All-Time First-Round NFL Draft Picks

Ole Miss football has seen 259 players drafted into the NFL dating all the way back to 1939.

And some of the game’s best are in that group, including 2 NFL Hall of Famers (soon to be 3). On this page, we’ll highlight some of the most notable former Rebels in the NFL Draft.

Let’s start at the top, where most of the NFL’s best are (naturally) selected – Round 1. Ole Miss has seen 22 first-round draftees, starting with Parker Hall in 1939 through Ole Miss’s most recent member of the first-round club, Laremy Tunsil.

Here’s a look at all 22 first rounders to come out of Ole Miss:

Ole Miss No. 1 Overall Draft Picks

Not all schools can say they’ve produced a No. 1 overall pick. Ole Miss has just one: Eli Manning (though his dad was pretty close, being drafted No. 2 overall in 1971).

Eli Manning, QB — No. 1 Overall, 2004 NFL Draft (San Diego Chargers)

Eli Manning, unlike his brother Peyton, followed in his father’s footsteps and played college football in Oxford, leading the Rebels’ offense from 2001-2003. He was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year in 2003 and put up 3,600 yards passing with 29 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, leading Ole Miss to a 10-3 record.

Manning’s NFL Draft experience didn’t come without drama. Eli stated that he would refuse to play for the 4-12 Chargers were they to draft him at No. 1 overall. San Diego took him at No. 1 anyway, dealing him to the Giants in exchange for Philip Rivers. In the end it worked out well for both teams, considering the circumstances.

Manning’s NFL career will always be compared to his brother Peyton’s, but it was objectively a very strong one. He played 16 years, all with New York, and won 2 Super Bowls (and 2 Super Bowl MVPs) with 4 trips to the Pro Bowl. He was best known for his clutch factor and durability, as he never missed a game due to injury across his career. Manning owns the Giants’ franchise records for touchdowns and passing yards throughout a career, records that may take quite a while to fall.

It’s a topic of great debate, but Manning will likely be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame within the next 10 years. He becomes eligible for the honor in 2025.

More Notable Ole Miss Draft Picks

Patrick Willis, LB — No. 11 Overall, 2007 NFL Draft (San Francisco 49ers)

Patrick Willis represents Ole Miss’s latest entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s set to be enshrined in August of 2024 after a brief, but impactful, NFL career.

Willis saw 2 years of playing time at Ole Miss, 2006-2007. He put in work both of those seasons, finishing his Ole Miss career with 265 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 6 sacks. Willis was named the 2006 SEC Defensive Player of the Year and exited Mississippi with an All-American award in hand as well.

The 49ers selected Willis No. 11 overall in 2007, and he became a star on Day 1. Willis won Defensive Rookie of the Year and reached the Pro Bowl after totaling 174 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 5 pass deflections, 2 forced fumbles and 4 sacks. The next 6 years of his career were more or less the same. Willis was consistent and consistently one of the best defensive players on the planet.

Willis retired in 2014, a relatively short career that was sidelined by a toe issue which forced him to miss most of the 2014 season. When all was said and done Willis finished with 7 Pro Bowl appearances and 5 All-Pro selections.

Archie Manning, QB — No. 2 Overall, 1971 NFL Draft (New Orleans Saints)

The Mannings are the best “football family” in the game’s history, and before Eli there was Archie at Ole Miss.

Manning, a native of Drew, Mississippi, spent 4 seasons in Oxford with the Rebels and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He finished top 5 in Heisman voting twice (1969, 1970) and was a part of the first-ever televised primetime College Football game against Alabama.

Manning didn’t have near the NFL career his sons both would go on to have, but he still had a solid career. He threw for 23,911 passing yards and 125 touchdowns and made 2 trips to the Pro Bowl. Manning was in the league for 13 years, 11 of which came in New Orleans with the Saints after they drafted him No. 2 overall in the 1971 draft.

Laremy Tunsil, OT — No. 13 Overall, 2016 NFL Draft (Miami Dolphins)

Laremy Tunsil is one of the best active Ole Miss products in the NFL and one of the better offensive linemen to ever come out of the Rebels program.

Tunsil was expected by many to be selected much higher than No. 13 in 2016. Many experts labeled Tunsil as the No. 1 overall player in the draft and projected the Tennessee Titans to select him with the first pick.

But that’s not at all what happened. The Titans traded the No. 1 pick to Los Angeles, who needed a QB and took Jared Goff. Just before the draft, a now-infamous video surfaced of Tunsil wearing a gas mask and smoking marijuana, which sent some teams into a panic and caused his drop to the Dolphins at No. 13.

That turned out to be a mistake, though Tunsil didn’t fully bloom until landing in Houston with the Texans in 2019. Tunsil has reached 4 of the last 5 Pro Bowls since signing with Houston, and he only missed time in 2021 due to injury. Today, Tunsil is one of the top 10 offensive linemen in the league.

Ethan Stone

Ethan Stone was an editor for his student newspaper at the University of Tennessee and is now a News Manager for Saturday Down South.