Here’s a Look at Every Oklahoma State NFL Draft Pick Since 1988

With the 2020 NFL Draft taking place later on this week, I thought it would be fun to go back and look at all of OSU’s NFL Draft picks going back to the late-1980s. Why the late-1980s? Well, when I think about the modern era of OSU football, that’s what I think of.

If you really want to scroll back through, you can find that Daria Butler was picked in the 12th round of the 1978 draft by the Atlanta Falcons, but I’m going to try and keep things within my world.

I’ll break it down by coaches.

Pat Jones Era

I realize the Jones era stretches back to 1984, but I just wanted to start in 1988.

Thurman Thomas — No. 40 — Buffalo (1988)
Ricky Shaw — No. 92 — NYG (1988)
Barry Sanders — No. 3 — Detroit (1989)
Hart Lee Dykes — No. 16 — New England (1989)
Gerald Hudson — No. 232 — Minnesota (1991)
Curtis Mayfield — No. 253 — Denver (1991)
Corey Williams — No. 325 — Kansas City (1992)
Jason Gildon — No. 88 — Pittsburgh (1994)
Keith Burns — No. 210 — Denver (1994)
Linc Harden — No. 130 — Dallas (1995)

Bob Simmons era

Jevon Langford — No. 108 — Cincinnati (1996)
R.W. McQuarters — No. 28 — San Francisco (1998)
Jamal Williams — Supplemental — San Diego (1998)
Kevin Williams — No. 87 — NYJ (1998)
Alonzo Mayes — No. 94 — Chicago (1998)
Jacoby Shepherd — No. 62 — St. Louis (2000)
Ethan Howell — No. 250 — Washingon (2000)

Les Miles era

Kevin Williams — No. 9 — Minnesota (2003)
Rashaun Woods — No. 31 — San Francisco (2004)
Tatum Bell — No. 41 — Denver (2004)
Antonio Smith — No. 135 — Arizona (2004)
Darrent Williams — No. 56 — Denver (2005)
Vernand Morency — No. 73 — Houston (2005)
Billy Bajema — No. 249 — San Francisco (2005)

Mike Gundy era

Charlie Johnson — No. 199 — Indianapolis (2006)
Ryan McBean — No. 132 — Pittsburgh (2007)
Corey Hilliard — No. 209 — New England (2007)
Brandon Pettigrew — No. 20 — Detroit (2009)
Russell Okung — No. 6 — Seattle (2010)
Dez Bryant — No. 24 — Dallas (2010)
Perrish Cox — No. 137 — Denver (2010)
Kendall Hunter — No. 115 — San Francisco (2011)
Justin Blackmon — No. 5 — Jacksonville (2012)
Brandon Weeden — No. 22 — Cleveland (2012)
Markelle Martin — No. 190 — Tennessee (2012)
Joe Randle — No. 151 — Dallas (2013)
Justin Gilbert — No. 8 — Cleveland (2014)
Josh Furman — No. 252 — Denver (2015)
Emmanuel Ogbah — No. 32 — Cleveland (2016)
Vincent Taylor — No. 194 — Miami (2017)
Chris Carson — No. 249 — Seattle (2017)
James Washington — No. 60 — Pittsburgh (2018)
Mason Rudolph — No. 76 — Pittsburgh (2018)
Tre Flowers — No. 146 — Seattle (2018)
Marcell Ateman — No. 228 — Oakland (2018)
Justice Hill — No. 113 — Baltimore (2019)
Jordan Brailford — No. 253 — Washington (2019)

Some thoughts on these below.

• Man, Gundy has had some great players, and 2008 is the only year in which he’s not had somebody drafted, although 2020 could join it if A.J. Green’s name doesn’t get called.

• Corey Williams! More on him in a separate story that I’ll post later in the week.

• The five-highest picks in this timeframe are Barry Sanders, Justin Blackmon, Russell Okung, Justin Gilbert and Kevin Williams. No real take there other than I don’t think I could have guessed that off the top of my head.

• How loaded was that 2018 OSU team? Remember, it also included freshman Tylan and freshman Chuba. Framed like that, 10-3 is tough to stomach.

•  How did Alonzo Mayes slip to the fourth round, and how did Thurman Thomas slip to the 40th pick? Those were two huge takeaways for me from doing this list.

• R.W. was a superstar. People forget. If I was 15 years older, he would have been my Justin Gilbert.