Top five NFL draft values of the millennium at edge rusher: Chiefs uncovered two mid-round gems

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This offseason I am taking a position-by-position look at the best NFL draft values of the millennium: In short, which teams received the most bang for their draft-pick buck?

Higher draft picks were not dismissed for this exercise, but I tended to side with the highest-achieving lower selections. Extra weight was also given to longevity and the value those players provided for the teams that drafted them.

Pass rushers are clearly very high on the NFL food chain, often ranking just below quarterbacks in terms of positional importance. It’s therefore not much of a surprise that any list of the league’s best pass rushers (regardless of draft pedigree) is going to be littered with many former first-round picks.

Not surprisingly, some big names didn’t make the cut, including former first-rounder Cameron Jordan. I also omitted Trey Hendrickson, who was a third-round pick of the Saints, yet much of his big production has come since joining the Bengals. Saints fans might hold those two against me, but I would encourage them to check out the rest of this series, which features plenty of their fine draft work.

Drafted: Round 5 (No. 138 overall), 2003.

Mathis qualifies as one of the great all-time draft values, emerging from the flotsam and jetsam of the latter rounds to become a Colts legend. He was one of the most prolific pass rushers in SWAC history, racking up 20 sacks, 32 tackles for loss and 10 forced fumbles during his senior season at Alabama A&M but had trouble earning attention from the NFL, which roundly viewed him as too small at 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds.

But the Colts took a chance on the smaller-school rusher early in Round 5 and were richly rewarded. Mathis became the master of the strip sack, totaling 123 sacks and an NFL-record 54 forced fumbles in a brilliant 14-year career, spent entirely in Indianapolis. His career improved as it went along, too, going from a pass-rush specialist and Dwight Freeney’s sidekick to one of the league’s better defenders. Mathis’ 2013 season (21.5 sacks, 12 forced fumbles, including playoffs) was as good a campaign as almost any pass rusher has had in the past several decades.

The 2003 draft saw Terrell Suggs slip to the 10th pick after a poor combine workout, and Osi Umenyiora lasted until the 56th selection. But Mathis, a five-time Pro Bowler and one-time first-team All-Pro, ended up as the best value in that class, authoring what remains a criminally underrated career.

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