Michael Strahan – DE – Texas Southern
1993 Draft / 2nd Round / New York Giants
Coming out of Texas Southern University, Michael Strahan brought his All American college resume with him to the bright lights of the big city. The record holder for career sacks at Texas Southern with 41.5 he managed 19 sacks in his senior season alone not including 32 tackles for losses totaling 142 yards. By the time Strahan was drafted by the New York Giants in the second round of the 1992 draft, five other defensive ends had been selected but none drafted ahead of him would have the career longevity or impact of Big Blue’s #92.
A seven time Pro Bowler, Strahan holds the Giants career sack record with 141.5. Coincidentally, those 141.5 sacks also have him tied with the real LT – Lawrence Taylor – for the unofficial Giants sack record. In Taylor’s 1981 rookie season he amassed 9.5 sacks, but are not included in his career record of 132.5 sacks because they were not an official NFL statistical category until the next season. During his 2001 NFL Defensive MVP season Strahan broke Mark Gastineau’s single season sack record when he recorded 22.5 sacks capped off by a controversial sack of Brett Favre in a game against the Green Bay Packers.
The 1993 draft did not produce many stand out defensive lineman. Of the five pure defensive ends that were drafted before Strahan not one lasted longer than 7 seasons in the league and combined only produced 76 total sacks. The player with the second best career statistics in the draft is DT Dana Stubblefield (Kansas, 1st, 26th overall) who played the bulk of his 11 year career with the San Francisco 49ers. With 42.5 career sacks DE Chidi Ahanotu (California, 6th, 145th) ended up being the second best defensive end in this draft purely based on the statistics. We can even go deeper into the draft and make mention of DE Maa Tanuvasa (Hawaii, 8th, 209th overall) to find an end that did more in the league than during stints with the Rams, Broncos and Chargers than nearly all of the ends drafted in the first round.
After playing in over 200 career games and finally winning the big prize in Super Bowl XLII the “will he, or won’t he” watch has begun again. Strahan held out all of training camp before the 2007 season with thoughts of retirement. After 16 seasons, 794 total tackles, 4 picks, 21 forced fumbles, 2 touchdowns and a Super Bowl ring there isn’t much left for Strahan to accomplish in the league. While we would certainly understand if Strahan decided to call it a career the league would sorely miss his loquaciousness as he shot you his trademark gap toothed grin.
For a table of all of the players selected at his position in this draft click here.
Statistics courtesy of nfl.com and databasefootball.com.
