Detroit Lions: 15 greatest draft-day steals of all-time
By John Buhler
Charlie Sanders is yet another Pro Football Hall of Fame player that the Lions drafted in the latter rounds of an NFL Draft. Detroit used the No. 74 overall pick in the 1968 NFL Draft to take Sanders in the third round out of Minnesota. He would go on to play for the Lions for the next decade.
The former Golden Gopher provided the Lions with 10 years of high-end play at tight end. He made the Pro Bowl his first four years in the league, totaling seven in his entire Pro Football Hall of Fame career. Sanders made three straight First-Team All-Pro squads from 1969 to 1971.
While he was never really a dominating pass catcher, Sanders certainly had the respect of his peers. He was named to the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team at tight end. Keep in mind that two of his better years came in the decade prior in the 1960s, as he was a two-time Pro Bowler his first two years in the league.
Regardless, Sanders finished with 336 career catches for 4,817 yards and 31 touchdowns, all coming in the Honolulu blue and silver as a member of the Lions. Those numbers wouldn’t hold up in today’s game, as the tight end position has focused more on pass-catching than run blocking. However, Sanders did eventually earn his rightful gold jacket, albeit decades after he probably should have.
Sanders might have retired after the 1977 NFL season at age 31, but it took 30 years for Sanders to have a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. While the wait was far too long, Detroit knew it drafted its greatest tight end in franchise history back in 1968. Sanders gave Lions fans plenty to cheer for in the ensuing decade.
The 1968 draft was a common draft between the rival leagues in the AFL and the NFL. Overall, eight future Pro Football Hall of Famers were taken in this draft, including Sanders No. 74 to the Lions.
Although perhaps underrated in the grand scheme of things, we have to wonder why Sanders fell to that spot if he is widely considered a top-10 player from that draft a full 50 years later? Was it the position he played? Could it have had something to do with Minnesota being past its glory years as a college football power? Perhaps it’s a combination of both?
At the end of the day, the Lions got tremendous value in selecting Sanders at No. 74 in the third round of the 1968 NFL Draft. Like with Yale Lary, Sanders could be seen as an NFL franchise’s best draft-day steal, given that he played his entire Hall of Fame career with the team that drafted him. But not in Detroit. We still have two more draft-day steals to touch on.