15 Greatest NFL Draft Steals of All-Time
By Daniel Tran
5. Bart Starr
You would think that when people in Wisconsin talk about Bart Starr, he was greatest thing since sliced cheese and was a heralded prospect. The reality though is far from the perception.
Starr played at the University of Alabama where he played quarterback, safety, and punter. He was a serviceable quarterback, but he was nowhere near star quality after his sophomore season unless you were talking about punting, where he was second in the nation with 41.4 yards per kick.
As a senior, Starr was replaced as the starter for the Crimson Tide when J.B. Whitworth would take over the team and decided to make a push with younger talent.
A severe back injury before his junior year would limit him the rest of his college football career, causing him to miss large chunks of his final two seasons. Those injuries scared away a lot of teams and Starr would not be picked until the 17th round of the 1956 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers.
Starr would remain on the bench until Vince Lombardi made him the full-time starting quarterback in 1959, and he would never relinquish the job. Starr would quarterback the Packers to two consecutive championships from 1961-1962, then reel off three straight NFL titles from 1965-1967, the only team to pull off that feat in the current NFL playoff system.
After retiring in 1971, Starr had a playoff record of 9-1 and has the highest playoff passer rating in NFL history at 104.8. His 57.4 career completion percentage was the highest in NFL history at the time of his retirement and he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1977.
Next: Johnny Unitas