The 2025 NFL Draft starts on April 24 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with the 32 first-round picks. AL.com is counting down to the event by highlighting the best choice – overall, from the SEC and of players from Alabama high schools and colleges — made with each of the first 32 picks in the 89 NFL drafts.
Best No. 32 pick: Purdue quarterback Drew Brees by the San Diego Chargers in 2001
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson might one day be considered the best selection with the 32nd choice in an NFL draft, but his career achievements don’t match Brees’ yet.
During his 20 NFL seasons, Brees set the league career records for passing yards and touchdown passes, and he ranks second in both categories today. A 13-time Pro Bowler, Brees finished second in the voting for The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player of the Year four times and earned the MVP Award for Super Bowl XLIV, when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 to win the NFL championship for the 2009 season.
Brees was the second quarterback chosen in the 2001 draft, after Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick went at No. 1 to the Atlanta Falcons.
The most recent No. 32 pick is South Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette.
Best No. 32 pick from the SEC: Georgia center Ray Donaldson by the Baltimore Colts in 1980
Donaldson didn’t start a game during his rookie season. In the next 16 seasons, he started 228 of them — every game he played for the rest of his career with the Colts, Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys. Donaldson earned six Pro Bowl invitations along the way, including in each of his final two seasons.
The most recent No. 32 pick from the SEC is South Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette in 2024.
Best No. 32 pick with Alabama football roots: Auburn center Lee Gross by the New Orleans Saints in 1975
Gross is the only player from an Alabama high school or college selected with the 32nd pick in an NFL Draft. The Saints chose Gross one spot before the San Diego Chargers picked Louisiana Tech defensive end Fred Dean, who’s now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Gross earned All-SEC recognition in 1974, when Auburn posted a 10-2 mark and defeated Texas 27-3 in the Gator Bowl. Gross had been on the All-SEC second team in 1973 as a guard before moving to center to take the place of All-SEC selection Steve Taylor. Gross also had the skill to handle the duties of the player now known as the long snapper, which he did in the NFL.
In August 1975, New Orleans traded its starting center of the previous four seasons, John Didion, to the Chicago Bears. But it wasn’t Gross who got the spot. His transition to the NFL was slowed by his recovery from knee surgery (which also prevented him from playing in the Chicago Charities College All-Star Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers), and Gross didn’t make his first appearance for the Saints until the fifth game of his rookie season.
Obtained after being waived by the New York Giants, John Hill made the transition from tackle to center in the 1975 season with New Orleans, starting a run of 10 years at the position on his way to a place in the Saints Hall of Fame.
Gross played in 32 games in three seasons with New Orleans – the Saints’ first three years in the Louisiana Superdome — and completed a career adversely affected by knee injuries with 16 games for the Baltimore Colts in 1979.
Gross had been an All-State tackle for Lee-Montgomery (now named Percy Julian) in 1970, when the Generals posted a 13-0 record and defeated Minor 23-7 in the AHSAA Class 4A championship game.
The Philadelphia Eagles hold the No. 32 pick in the NFL Draft on April 24.
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