_The 2025 NFL Draft starts on April 24 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with the 32 first-round picks. AL.com is counting down to the event by highlighting the best choice – overall, from the SEC and of players from Alabama high schools and colleges -- made with each of the first 32 picks in the 89 NFL drafts._
**Best No. 22 pick: Boston College defensive lineman Ernie Stautner by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1950**
Stautner was more than an original pitchman in Miller Lite’s “Less Filling, Tastes Great” (or the other way around) ad campaign in 1973.
Stautner’s football career came after he served with the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II, and he didn’t reach the NFL until he was 25 years old. The defensive tackle went to nine Pro Bowls during his 14-season career, all spent with the Steelers.
Stautner entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 1969 in his first year of eligibility, and he became the first player to have his jersey number retired by Pittsburgh.
Last year’s No. 22 pick was Toledo quarterback Quinyon Mitchell by the Philadelphia Eagles.
**Best No. 22 pick from the SEC: LSU wide receiver Justin Jefferson by the Minnesota Vikings in 2020**
Only five seasons into his NFL career, Jefferson already has done enough to earn this title. With 495 receptions for 7,432 yards and 40 touchdowns, Jefferson has the most receiving yards of any NFL player after his first five seasons, and his average of 96.5 receiving yards per game is the best in league history.
Jefferson has been invited to four Pro Bowls and made first-team All-Pro twice. He was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2022, when he led the league with 128 receptions and 1,809 receiving yards.
Fifteen SEC players have been chosen with the No. 22 pick, with Georgia linebacker Quay Walker by the Green Bay Packers in 2022 the most recent.
**Best No. 22 pick with Alabama football roots: Southern Miss cornerback Hanford Dixon by the Cleveland Browns in 1981**
When Cleveland used the 22nd selection in the 1981 NFL Draft on Dixon, they got more than a Pro Bowl cornerback. They got a legacy. The former Theodore High School star is the root of the Dawg Pound, the Browns’ cheering section in the east-end bleachers of their home stadium.
“The way this whole thing started,” Dixon recalled before his induction into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, “we were at a place called Lakeland Community College for training camp, and at Lakeland Community College the fans could get really close to the field. We always had two great corners, and we had two great linebackers in Clay Matthews and Chip Banks. I was trying to think of something to motivate the defensive line, and I was thinking about down South in my hometown and an old dog chasing a cat.
“I told those guys, ‘Hey man, we’re going to bark at you. You guys are the dogs, and when we bark at you, think of that quarterback as the cat and go after him.’ So we started barking. And again the fans were close to the field, and they just took over the whole thing.
“Now, not only was the defensive line the dogs, but the whole defense and the whole team became the dogs. And Arsenio Hall took over, and that thing took off before we knew it.”
Dixon spent his entire nine-season NFL career with Cleveland. He was a Pro Bowl selection three times and a first-team All-Pro choice twice while recording 26 career interceptions.
Dixon helped the Browns reach the AFC Championship Game three times in a four-season span, but each time, Cleveland was stopped short of the Super Bowl by quarterback John Elway and the Denver Broncos.
The Los Angeles Chargers hold the No. 22 pick in the NFL Draft on April 24.
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_Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at_ [_@AMarkG1_](https://twitter.com/AMarkG1)_._