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NFL Draft: 25 best first overall picks of all-time

By Gabe Encinas

18 Apr 1998: First overall pick Peyton Manning shows off his jersey after being selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York. Mandatory Credit: Ezra C. Shaw /Allsport
18 Apr 1998: First overall pick Peyton Manning shows off his jersey after being selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York. Mandatory Credit: Ezra C. Shaw /Allsport /
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Slowly but surely, Cam Newton has improved his game since he was taken with the No. 1 overall pick back in 2011. He had a long road to get to where he is today; a quick sting at Florida, then to Blinn College and finally Auburn, where he led the Tigers to a 13-0 season, capturing the Heisman Trophy and National Championship in the same year.

Since 2011, he’s slowly been a catalyst for the culture change in Carolina. You could see he had the physical attributes to be a successful quarterback in the NFL.

He’s a guy who is built like a tight end, has the speed of a running back and the arm of an elite quarterback. With measurables like that and his film from Auburn, it’s hard to imagine that Blaine Gabbert was actually considered to be the best prospect in the draft that year.

In 2015, Newton finally pieced it all together. You see the work in progress over the years, but this time, you could see Newton’s body of work as a whole.

He led the Panthers to a 15-1 regular season record, pushing them through the playoffs, taking a pretty rough path to get to the Super Bowl, only to fall short to Peyton Manning, another name on this list, and the Denver Broncos.

He’ll slowly cement his legacy in the NFL as one of the great quarterbacks of this era and if this list was compiled five years from now would definitely rank much higher.

Next: 12. Lee Roy Selmon

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