2002 NFL Draft
Encyclopedia
The 2002 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) teams selected amateur college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936
1936 NFL Draft
The 1936 National Football League Draft was the first draft of the National Football League. It took place on February 8, 1936 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has taken place every year since. The draft was instituted in an effort to equalize strength amongst the...
. The draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
took place April 20–21, 2002 at the theater at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
.
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
both days and eventually moved to ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
. The draft began with the Houston Texans
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
selecting David Carr
David Carr
David Duke Carr is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Houston Texans first overall in the 2002 NFL Draft...
, and it ended with the Texans selecting Mr. Irrelevant
Mr. Irrelevant
"Mr. Irrelevant" is the title bestowed each year upon the last pick of the annual National Football League draft.- Irrelevant Week :The name arose in 1976, when former Southern California and NFL receiver Paul Salata founded "Irrelevant Week" in Newport Beach, California. He announced the final...
, Ahmad Miller
Ahmad Miller
Ahmad Rasheed Miller is a former defensive tackle for the National Football League. He was chosen with the final pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, giving him the nickname Mr. Irrelevant. After being drafted by the Houston Texans, he went through training camp but was cut prior to their final preseason...
. There were thirty-two compensatory selections distributed among eighteen teams, with the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
receiving the most selections with four. The University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
was the college most represented in the draft, having five of its players selected in the first round. Although the Carolina Panthers
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are currently members of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Panthers, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, joined the NFL as expansion...
finished with a 1-15 record which would normally have given them the first pick in each round, the Houston Texans were given the first pick because they were an expansion team. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.
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Running back A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running... s Quarterback Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line... s Guard (American football) In American and Canadian football, a guard is a player that lines up between the center and the tackles on the offensive line of a football team.... s |
Center (American football) Center is a position in American football and Canadian football . The center is the innermost lineman of the offensive line on a football team's offense... s Fullback (American football) A fullback is a position in the offensive backfield in American and Canadian football, and is one of the two running back positions along with the halfback... s Placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker , is the title of the player in American and Canadian football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals, extra points... s Punter (football position) A punter in American or Canadian football is a special teams player who receives the snapped ball directly from the line of scrimmage and then punts the football to the opposing team so as to limit any field position advantage. This generally happens on a fourth down in American football and a... s |
Player selections
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Supplemental draft selections
For each player selected in the Supplemental Draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season.Notable undrafted players
| † | = Pro Bowl Pro Bowl In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those... er |