Ranking every Texas Longhorns first round draft pick of the last 25 years

Texas Longhorns Best first-round NFL draft pick of the last 25 years: Ricky Williams

Running back
New Orleans Saints: 1999-2001
Miami Dolphins: 2002-2010
Baltimore Ravens: 2011

Ricky Williams was such a talented running back that he missed two entire seasons and was still welcomed back with open arms both times. He still managed to amass more than 10,000 yards despite those two seasons he sat out.

Williams got off to a relatively slow start to his career, rushing for 884 yards in his rookie season, but he managed to top 1,000 yards in each of the next two seasons. He was then traded to the Miami Dolphins and then led the league in rushing with more than 1,800 yards.

The year after that, he had almost 1,400 yards on the ground and then retired. When he came back, he played in 12 games, rushed for 743 yards, and was suspended for an entire season for violating the league’s drug policy.

Showing that he was indeed one of the best running backs of his generation, Williams came back from that suspension and ran for at least 600 yards in each of the next three full seasons. He even logged one more 1,000-yard campaign before calling it a career. Ricky Williams makes the top of this list of former Texas Longhorns players because of his numbers and the fact that he almost certainly could have been even better if he’d really focused on being the best of the best.