Nebraska football might have its 10th quarterback taken in the NFL draft in Tanner Lee. In order to mark the moment, we’re taking a look at the men who came before him.
While there are those who don’t really consider a member of the Nebraska football team, he earned his way into the Cornhusker annals as a starting quarterback.
No his numbers weren’t great, but he also had the misfortune of playing on one of the worst teams in Husker history. Who knows what Lee might have done with a better coaching staff and a better supporting cast?
As it is, Lee is entering Thursday knowing there is at least a shot his name will be called in the NFL draft. No, he’s not likely to be a first or second, or third round pick.
He is likely to find himself at least one NFL team that is willing to give him a shot. The question is whether that shot will be as a draftee or an undrafted free agent.
If he is selected in the NFL draft’s seven rounds, Lee will go down in history as the 12th former Cornhusker ever to be drafted. Considering the long history of the program and that number is incredibly small compared to other teams.
Perhaps even more surprising is that he’s the first former Cornhusker quarterback to be drafted since 1992 that was drafted as a quarterback.
When looking over this list, Eric Crouch’s absence is going to stand out. That’s because Crouch was never thought to be an NFL quarterback and he was drafted as a wide receiver.
So … 26 years have gone by since a professional football team drafted a Nebraska football quarterback with the express purpose of trying him at quarterback. Some of the names on this list you’ve obviously heard of. Others might be names you forgot ever played in Lincoln. All saw their quarterbacking dreams make it to the next level, with mixed success.
If you’re a Nebraska football fan who hasn’t heard of Dennis Claridge, you’re probably not alone. This isn’t exactly a man who is talked about when discussing the great quarterbacks in Cornhuskers’ history.
Despite being a relative unknown, especially to the current generation of Husker fans, Claridge has a rather interesting backstory. Among the quarterback’s claim to fames is that he is the first Husker quarterback to be drafted into the NFL.
Claridge played in Lincoln from 1961-1963 and put up rather modest numbers during a period of time when most quarterbacks were putting up pretty modest numbers. Over his Cornhusker career, Claridge completed 125 of 198 passes for 1,733 yards, eight touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
While Husker quarterbacks weren’t running like we’ve seen in the recent past, he did add some numbers on the ground. Over his career, he carried 236 times for 624 yards. Where he stood out around the goal line. Dennis scored 16 touchdowns on the ground, including 10 in his junior year.
Claridge was drafted during a different era in the NFL for sure. He was the first pick in the 26th round and was selected by the New York Jets back in 1963.
While Claridge didn’t play in the pros for long, he had an interesting career. He never played a down for the Jets but in 1965 he threw exactly one pass (a 13-yard completion) for the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers.
In 1966, he played in seven games (and started three) for the Atlanta Falcons in their first ever season. Going 0-3 in those starts, the former Nebraska football player completed 40 of 70 passes for 471 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
While you might not have heard about Dennis Claridge, if you’re a Nebraska football fan you’ve heard about Jerry Tagge.
After an incredibly successful run for the Cornhuskers, Tagge was a first-round pick in the 1972 draft by the Green Bay Packers. It turns out he was one of the three first-round picks from the Huskers that year.
Unfortunately, the quarterback couldn’t show the same kind of success in the NFL he had in college football. In his final year with the Huskers, Tagge threw 17 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
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In his final year with Green Bay in 1974, he started six games for the Packers where he threw just one touchdown pass and 10 interceptions. That was the second straight season in which he started just six games and had more interceptions than touchdown passes.
Over the course of his career at Nebraska, Tagge completed 59.7 percent of his passes, throwing for just over 5,000 yards with 32 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. In his short career with the Packers, he completed 48 percent of his passes for just over 1,500 yards, four touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
While that’s not exactly a great professional run for the former Nebraska football star, it still marks one of the most successful stints of any former Husker signal caller. The Cornhuskers don’t have a great track record once they make it the next level at that position.
Did you know that two Nebraska football quarterbacks were taken in the 1972 draft? While Jerry Tagge went in the first round, and was the 11th overall pick, his backup in the 1971 season, Van Brownson was also drafted.
The then Baltimore Colts selected Brownson in the eighth round of that same draft, apparently on a bit of a whim. If nothing else, this shows just how dominant the Cornhuskers were when it comes to the College football world back then.
There has not been another NFL draft where two Husker quarterbacks were taken in the same year. These days, it appears there never will be, unless one of them is selected late in the run at another position.
Brownson had an interesting career in Lincoln, spending most of his time sharing the spotlight with Tagge. He completed 54 percent of his passes for 1,572 yards and 12 touchdowns to nine interceptions.
It turns out the Colts were not rewarded for the flyer they took on the backup quarterback as he never managed to become an impact player. In fact, Brownson never played a down of professional football in a live game.
The fact that Van Brownson was drafted at all, still puts him ahead of scores of other Nebraska football quarterbacks that came after him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0fLAmVzAcs
While Jerry Tagge was the first Nebraska football quarterback to really have a multi-year career in the NFL, Dave Humm had the longest. He managed to have that long career despite the fact that he started just one game in his 10 year NFL career.
Humm was drafted in the fifth round of the 1975 draft, marking the third Husker quarterback to be drafted over a three year period. He was one of a whopping 12 Huskers that was taken in the 1975 draft. He had a longer career than any of the others on that list.
In that long career, he managed to be a part of not one, but two Super Bowl champions. This is even more impressive considering he had not one, but two stints with the Raiders.
From 1975-1979 he appeared in 67 games without getting one start. Because he did indeed manage to make appearances here and there he was a bit of a fan favorite.
In 1980, Humm played one season for the Buffalo Bills. In 1981, he got his one and only career start for the Baltimore Colts. He lost that game, completing just seven of 24 passes.
In 1983, he returned to Oakland and played the final two seasons of his career. Sadly, Humm passed away earlier this year but he’ll always leave a legacy as one of the most successful Nebraska football quarterbacks to play the game.
Vince Ferragamo is the Nebraska football quarterback who easily had the most success when it came to being a starting quarterback in the NFL. Ferragamo is also the rare Husker quarterback that didn’t start his career in Lincoln.
The former Husker quarterback started his college career with Cal but he transferred to Nebraska and took over the starting job there in 1975. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1977 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams.
In 1980, Ferragamo, won the starting quarterback job for the Rams and led the team to an 11-4 record in his games. In those games he threw 30 touchdowns and 19 interceptions with over 3,100 yards.
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Two years later, he led the Rams to another winning record at 9-7. That year he threw for over 3,700 yards, though he also had 23 interceptions and 22 touchdowns.
After that season, he began to struggle a bit and was eventually let go by the Rams and signed by the Buffalo Bills. A season where he went 1-8 and threw five touchdowns and 17 interceptions had his Bills career run short.
The former Nebraska football star finished his professional career in 1986 with the Green Bay Packers where he appeared in three games as a backup.
When talking about Nebraska football quarterbacks who managed to have a professional career against all odds, you certainly can’t leave out Bruce Mathison.
This is another former Cornhusker quarterback that you may not have really heard about unless you were a true historian of the program. The quarterback played for the Huskers from 1980 to 1982 and mostly served as a backup.
His most extensive action as a passer in Lincoln was his senior year, when he completed 13 of 29 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown. Despite those numbers, Mathison was drafted in the 10th round of the 1983 draft by the San Diego Chargers.
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After two years as a backup, he played one season with the Buffalo Bills. During that season, Mathison became one of what was a long run of underperforming quarterbacks that played for the Bills before the great Jim Kelly.
During that 1985 season, Mathison appeared in 10 games and started seven. He didn’t have much success when he took over the starting job, going 1-6.
The record wasn’t the worst part of his season, as he threw four touchdowns and 14 interceptions. In 1986 Mathison returned to the Chargers for one season before he ended his career with the Seattle Seahawks.
In his final season in the NFL he appeared in three games and started two. The former Nebraska football star went 1-1 and threw three touchdowns and five interceptions.
Steve Taylor could be classified as the first Nebraska football quarterback from the modern era. Taylor was one who was a much better runner than a passer but he had enough of an arm that at least one NFL team took a flyer.
Taylor played for the Huskers from 1985-88. In that time he passed for over 2,800 yards and 30 touchdowns compared to 24 interceptions. Despite those numbers, he completed just 45.5 percent of his passes.
On the ground, he ran for over 2,000 yards in his career and 32 touchdowns. That includes a little over 800 yards and 13 touchdowns rushing in his senior year.
While the Colts did indeed decide to see what he could do in the NFL, he didn’t manage to ever see the field in a regular season game. That lack of an appearance was not particularly surprising.
While Taylor is one of the better quarterbacks to ever play for the Nebraska football team, he’s one of those that would never have been drafted if the NFL draft had only been seven rounds back then.
At the same time, it’s a safe bet someone might have been willing to give him a shot at running back, or on the defensive side of the ball.
Gerry Gdowksi is an interesting case when it comes to the Nebraska football team. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Gerry is that he was a starter for the Cornhuskers for one season, but that season was enough to get him drafted.
To be fair, that one season was insanely good. It could be argued it was one of the best all around seasons of any Husker quarterback. Running the ball, Gdwoski had 925 yards on 117 carries (7.9 yards per carry) and 13 touchdowns.
It was his ability to be effective through the air that got the NFL’s attention. Gdowski threw for over 1,300 yards and 19 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
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That 52.2 completion percentage was also something that was quite impressive to see when talking about Cornhusker quarterbacks.
That performance was good enough to get Gdowski drafted in the eighth round by the New Orleans Saints. Those Saints weren’t merely drafting the quarterback as a kind of long shot either.
While he didn’t end making the roster, there was talk for quite a while during the 1990 mini-camps that he might be able to make the roster.
Eventually, things didn’t work out for Gerry Gdowski and he never managed to appear in a game in the NFL. These days, the former Nebraska football quarterback is trying to help other QBs make the pros. He’s currently in his fifth season with Vanderbilt and third as the team’s quarterbacks coach.
Keithen McCant continued the pretty long run of Nebraska football quarterbacks who might have been drafted but never really got any kind of real shot at the NFL. Interestingly, he also continued a shorter run of one year starting quarterbacks making the NFL draft.
That streak still pops up every now and then, such as what we saw last year with Tanner Lee. Of course McCant and Lee are two entirely different typs of players. McCant played for the Huskers from 1989 to 1991 and was the starting QB in 1991.
During that season, McCant completed 57.7 percent of his passes for 1,454 yards and 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also ran the ball for over 600 yards and another seven touchdowns.
Like Gdowski, McCant’s performance was enough to get some attention from NFL scouts. Like Gdowski he wasn’t able to translate his college performance to the pros.
The Cleveland Browns selected McCant in the 12th round of the 1992 draft. He was a member of a group of seven Cornhuskers that were drafted in that draft, with tight end Johnny Michell being the only first round pick for the group.
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McCant did try to make his professional dreams work, but he didn’t last long and never made it onto the field for the Browns.