You know the story well by now. Kid comes out of a small school in Athens, Ohio to the big-time college known as Ohio State. He was a solid recruit, but not didn’t exactly have the blue-bloods of the sport shaking in their cleats. He got stuck behind a couple pretty good quarterbacks in Columbus. First J.T. Barret, then couldn’t surpass Dwayne Haskins during the spring of 2018.
Joe Burrow is his name. He then backed the U-Haul up to campus in Baton Rouge as a graduate transfer, got his feet wet, earning the starting nod for LSU in 2018 before absolutely blowing up this past season.
Burrow went from a rural, southern Ohio to Ohio State backup, to a Heisman winner holding a national championship trophy. He then capped it all off by becoming the first selection in the 2020 NFL Draft Thursday night.
It is a unique story, but not one that is completely new — at least as far as transferring, then becoming the first pick in an NFL draft. In fact, there are six total signal-callers that accomplished that feat. Thanks to Touchdown Wire and the research they’ve done, we’ve got all six for you.
Those six in addition to Joe Burrow are:
Next … The other five
Troy Aikman, UCLA
Transferred from Oklahoma to UCLA, then selected first in the 1989 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys.
Jeff George, Illinois
Transferred from Purdue to Illinois, then selected first in the 1990 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts.
Cam Newton, Auburn
Transferred from Florida to Auburn, then selected first in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers.
Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
Transferred from Texas Tech to Oklahoma, then selected first in the 2018 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.
Kyler Murray, Oklahoma
Transferred from Texas A&M to Oklahoma, then selected first in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals.
Now, not to look ahead, but Justin Fields transferred from Georgia to Ohio State in 2018. Might he be the next in line for next year’s NFL draft?
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