Every year leading up to the NFL Draft, there are hundreds of projections about how good or bad a player is going to be.
While that’s all fun and good, you never truly know how a player will turn out until the end of their career when you look back and consider the entire body of work.
Pro Football Focus recently did that with the 2007 NFL Draft, which had one of the best draft classes in NFL history for non-quarterback positions.
That draft included Cleveland Browns legend and recent Hall of Fame inductee Joe Thomas.
While Thomas was projected to be an excellent player coming out of college and was selected with the third overall pick, it’s fair to say that few people thought he would end up being a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Thanks to his incredible career on the field, Thomas received the highest career grade of anyone in his draft class (via PFF on Twitter).
The 2007 NFL Draft was SPECIAL 🌟 pic.twitter.com/zYopH0aDJW
— PFF (@PFF) April 13, 2024
Eric Weddle came in at a close second, followed by Darrelle Revis and Patrick Willis.
Notably, Thomas also came in ahead of offensive legends including fellow Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, and future Hall of Famers Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch.
The next closest offensive lineman to Thomas was Marshal Yanda of the Baltimore Ravens, who will likely go on to join Thomas in the HOF.
Selected with the third overall pick, there were only two players picked before Thomas, one of them being Johnson by the Detroit Lions.
The first overall pick of the draft was JaMarcus Russell by the Oakland Raiders, who would go on to be one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
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