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Colorado State football in the NFL draft: All-time picks from CSU

Published

1 year ago

April 21, 2025

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Colorado State football in the NFL draft: All-time picks from CSU

Colorado State University has a long history of players being selected in the NFL draft, dating back to 1943.
Over 100 CSU Rams have been drafted, with selections ranging from the first overall pick to the 451st.
The article provides a year-by-year list of CSU players selected in the NFL draft, including their round, pick number and team.

Colorado State’s history in the NFL draft dates back to 1943.

The CSU football team has had players selected in the NFL draft from as high as No. 1 overall to as low as the No. 451 pick. More than 100 different former CSU players have been selected in the NFL draft.

Here’s a year-by-year look at selections of Colorado State football players in the NFL draft.

2024 NFL draft

Defensive end Mohamed Kamara: Selected Round 5, pick No. 158 overall by Miami Dolphins.

2022 NFL draft

Tight end Trey McBride: Selected Round No. 2, pick No. 55 overall by Arizona Cardinals.

2019 NFL draft

Receiver Olabisi Johnson: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 247 overall by Minnesota Vikings.

2018 NFL draft

Receiver Michael Gallup: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 81 overall by Dallas Cowboys.

2016 NFL draft

Receiver Rashard Higgins: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 172 overall by Cleveland Browns.
Linebacker Cory James: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 194 overall by Oakland Raiders.

2015 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Ty Sambrailo: Selected round No. 2, pick No. 59 overall by Denver Broncos.
Quarterback Garrett Grayson: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 75 overall by New Orleans Saints.

2014 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Weston Richburg: Selected round No. 2, pick No. 43 overall by New York Giants.
Tight end Crockett Gillmore: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 99 overall by Baltimore Ravens.

2010 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Shelley Smith: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 187 overall by Houston Texans.

2009 NFL draft

Running back Gartrell Johnson: Selected round No. 4, pick No. 134 overall by San Diego Chargers.

2007 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Clint Oldenburg: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 171 overall by New England Patriots.

2006 NFL draft

Receiver David Anderson: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 251 overall by Houston Texans.

2005 NFL draft

Tight end Joel Dreessen: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 198 overall by New York Jets.

2004 NFL draft

Defensive back/returner Dexter Wynn: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 192 overall by Philadelphia Eagles.
Quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 250 overall by Denver Broncos.
Linebacker Andre Sommersell: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 255 overall by Oakland Raiders.

2001 NFL draft

Defensive back John Howell: Selected round No. 4, pick No. 117 overall by Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Linebacker Rick Crowell: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 188 overall by Miami Dolphins.

2000 NFL draft

Linebacker Clark Haggans: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 137 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers.
Defensive back Erik Olson: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 236 overall by Jacksonville Jaguars.

1999 NFL draft

Linebacker Joey Porter: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 73 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers.
Offensive lineman Anthony Cesario: Selected round No. 8, pick No. 88 overall by Jacksonville Jaguars.
Defensive back Jason Craft: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 160 overall by Jacksonville Jaguars.
Receiver Darran Hall: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 186 overall by Tennessee Titans.

1998 NFL draft

Quarterback Moses Moreno: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 232 overall by Chicago Bears.

1997 NFL draft

Defensive back Calvin Branch: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 172 overall by Oakland Raiders.

1996 NFL draft

Defensive end Brady Smith: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 70 overall by New Orleans Saints.
Linebacker Sean Moran: Selected round No. 4, pick No. 120 overall by Buffalo Bills.
Defensive back Greg Myers: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 144 overall by Cincinnati Bengals.
Defensive back Raymond Jackson: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 156 overall by Buffalo Bills.

1992 NFL draft

Defensive back Selwyn Jones: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 177 overall by Cleveland Browns.

1987 NFL draft

Quarterback Kelly Stouffer: Selected round No. 1, pick No. 6 overall by St. Louis Cardinals.
Running back Steve Bartalo: Selected round No. 6, No. 143 overall by Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Kicker Steve DeLine: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 189 overall by San Francisco 49ers.

1986 NFL draft

Defensive lineman Terry Unrein: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 66 overall by San Diego Chargers.

1985 NFL draft

Tight end Keli McGregor: Selected round No. 4, pick No. 110 overall by Denver Broncos.
Tight end Harper LeBel: Selected round No. 12, pick No. 321 overall by Kansas City Chiefs.

1984 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Kevin Call: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 130 overall by Indianapolis Colts.
Quarterback Terry Nugent: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 158 overall by Cleveland Browns.

1981 NFL draft

Running back Alvin Lewis: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 151 overall by Denver Broncos.
Running back Larry Jones: Selected round No. 10, pick No. 270 overall by Houston Oilers.

1980 NFL draft

Defensive back Keith Lee: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 129 overall by Buffalo Bills.
Defensive back Dupree Branch: Selected round No. 8, pick No. 198 overall by St. Louis Cardinals.

1979 NFL draft

Defensive end Mike Bell: Selected round No. 1, pick No. 2 overall by Kansas City Chiefs.
Defensive end Mark E. Bell: Selected round No. 4, pick No. 102 overall by Seattle Seahawks.
Receiver Mark R. Bell: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 130 overall by St. Louis Cardinals.
Offensive lineman Bill Leer: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 292 overall by Atlanta Falcons.

1978 NFL draft

Defensive end Al “Bubba” Baker: Selected round No. 2, pick No. 40 overall by Detroit Lions.
Defensive back Cliff Featherstone: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 180 overall by San Diego Chargers.
Linebacker Mark R. Nichols: Selected round No. 8, pick No. 207 overall by Oakland Raiders.
Punter Mike Deutsch: Selected round No. 9, pick No. 240 overall by Minnesota Vikings.
Running back Ron Harris: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 299 overall by Minnesota Vikings.

1977 NFL draft

Linebacker Keith King: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 77 overall by San Diego Chargers.

1976 NFL draft

Linebacker Kevin McLain: Selected round No. 1, pick No. 26 overall by Los Angeles Rams.
Defensive back Jerome Dove: Selected round No. 8, pick No. 220 overall by Oakland Raiders.
Defensive back Melvin Washington: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 292 overall by Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Defensive end Gary Paulson: Selected round No. 13, pick No. 372 overall by Minnesota Vikings.
Quarterback Mark Driscoll: Selected round No. 13, pick No. 374 overall by Dallas Cowboys.

1975 NFL draft

Defensive end Mark Mullaney: Selected round No. 1, pick No. 25 overall by Minnesota Vikings.
Offensive lineman Al Simpson: Selected round No. 2, pick No. 27 overall by New York Giants.
Running back Kim Jones: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 157 overall by Baltimore Colts.
Receiver Willie Miller: Selected round No. 12, pick No. 302 by Houston Oilers.
Quarterback Jack Graham: Selected round No. 14, pick No. 361 overall by Miami Dolphins.
Tight end Pete Clark: Selected round No. 16, pick No. 407 overall by Dallas Cowboys.

1974 NFL draft

Tight end Jimmie Kennedy: Selected round No. 9, pick No. 233 overall by Washington.
Defensive back Greg Battle: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 269 overall by San Francisco 49ers.

1973 NFL draft

Defensive back Perry Smith: Selected round No. 4, pick No. 92 overall by Oakland Raiders.
Offensive lineman Gerald Caswell: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 282 overall by Dallas Cowboys.

1972 NFL draft

Running back Lawrence McCutcheon: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 70 overall by Los Angeles Rams.
Defensive end Jim White: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 73 overall by New England Patriots.

1971 NFL draft

Defensive back Phil Webb: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 281 overall by Detroit Lions.

1970 NFL draft

Defensive back Earlie Thomas: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 280 overall by New York Jets.

1969 NFL draft

Defensive back Bill Kishman: Selected round No. 5, pick No. 114 overall by Washington.
Receiver Terry Swarn: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 147 overall by San Diego Chargers.
Defensive back Floyd Kerr: Selected round No. 16, pick No. 414 overall by Dallas Cowboys.

1968 NFL draft

Receiver Jon Henderson: Selected round No. 3, pick No. 61 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers.
Running back Oscar Reed: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 167 overall by Minnesota Vikings.
Defensive back Al Lavan: Selected round No. 8, pick No. 204 overall by Philadelphia Eagles.
Defensive lineman Mike Tomasini: Selected round No. 10, pick No. 248 overall by Atlanta Falcons.
Running back Jim Oliver: Selected round No. 15, pick No. 391 overall by Detroit Lions.
Defensive lineman Gene Layton: Selected round No. 17, pick No. 451 overall by Chicago Bears.

1964 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Dick Evers: Selected round No. 15, pick No. 199 overall by Washington (Evers was also selected round No. 22, pick No. 170 overall by Kansas City Chiefs in the 1964 AFL draft).

1961 NFL draft

Receiver Kay McFarland: Selected round No. 18, pick No. 248 overall by San Francisco 49ers.
Offensive lineman Leo Reed: Selected round No. 20, pick No. 274 overall by St. Louis Cardinals.
Note: Halfback Myron Pearson was selected round No. 19, pick No. 152 overall by Houston Oilers in 1961 AFL draft. Offensive lineman Wayne Lee was selected round No. 28, pick No. 217 overall by Denver Broncos in 1961 AFL draft.

1960 NFL draft

Linebacker Jim Eifrid: Selected round No. 11, pick No. 124 by Washington.
Defensive back Brady Keys: Selected round No. 14, pick No. 162 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers.

1959 NFL draft

Offensive lineman Ron Stehouwer: Selected round No. 12, pick No. 136 overall by Detroit Lions.
Defensive back Fred Glick: Selected round No. 23, pick No. 266 overall by Chicago Cardinals.

1956 NFL draft

Defensive back Gary Glick: Selected round No. 1, pick No. 1 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers.
Fullback Larry Barnes: Selected round No. 7, pick No. 75 overall by San Francisco 49ers.
Back Jerry Zaleski: Selected round No. 10, pick No. 112 overall by San Francisco 49ers.

1955 NFL draft

Back Jerry Callahan: Selected round No. 23, pick No. 272 overall by New York Giants.

1954 NFL draft

End Kirk Hinderlider: Selected round No. 15, pick No. 181 overall by Detroit Lions.
Back Alex Burl: Selected round No. 30, pick No. 350 overall by Chicago Cardinals.

1953 NFL draft

Tackle Harvey Achziger: Selected round No. 26, pick No. 308 overall by Philadelphia Eagles.

1952 NFL draft

Defensive back Jim David: Selected round No. 22, pick No. 261 overall by Detroit Lions.

1952 NFL draft

Guard Dale Dodrill: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 67 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers.
Defensive back Jack Christiansen: Selected round No. 6, pick No. 69 overall by Detroit Lions.

1950 NFL draft

Defensive tackle Thurman “Fum” McGraw: Selected round No. 2, pick No. 27 overall by Detroit Lions.

1949 NFL draft

Back Bob Hainlen: Selected round No. 19, pick No. 188 overall by Washington.

1944 NFL draft

Back Roy Clay: Selected round No. 8, pick No. 70 overall by New York Giants.

1943 NFL draft

Back Chet Maeda: Selected round No. 18, pick No. 161 by the Detroit Lions.
Back Lou “Dude” Dent: Selected round No. 24, pick No. 223 by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on X and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

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Colorado

‘We couldn’t do this in another place’: Horror film looks to make Southern Colorado the next Hollywood

Published

4 hours ago

May 29, 2026

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‘We couldn’t do this in another place’: Horror film looks to make Southern Colorado the next Hollywood

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – It’s commonly understood that many of the best blockbusters are made in Southern California but a group of local filmmakers wants to prove Southern Colorado can be a destination for both aspiring and established auteurs.

Shooting began in Fountain this spring on ‘Devil In The Trunk’, a new horror film set in Colorado’s eastern plains.

“Devil In The Trunk is about a small-town woman who encounters a mysterious traveler driving this car right here who claims to have the actual devil trapped in the trunk of her car,” executive producer Leon Kelly said. “As you can imagine, when the devil comes to your small town, terrible and dangerous things can happen.”

Director, writer, and producer Evan Alderson said they wanted to make the film as Colorado as possible.

“We ended up finding a local Colorado writer, and we ended up collaborating to come up with this idea that could act as a love letter to Colorado,” he said.

While Colorado may be most famous for its soaring mountain peaks, Kelly said the plains were a much more fitting setting.

“It’s both beautiful and dangerous at the same time,” he said. “One of the underlying themes is the desolation and the loneliness and how vulnerable some folks can be in small towns and out in rural areas.”

Kelly said not only is the film meant to showcase Colorado’s natural beauty, but also to showcase the talent of the people who live there.

“It’s a proof of concept, to show that we have not only the talented people but the infrastructure that can support really high-quality, independent films,” he said. “We know we’ve got great filmmakers here, we know we have really talented craftspeople here, but they don’t necessarily have the opportunities to work on something like this on this scale that’s a narrative film.”

With the Sundance Film Festival set to make its debut in Boulder in 2027, Kelly said people are asking new questions about what Colorado can do for those looking to tell stories on the big screen.

“Can Colorado become a hub? Can that be a place, a destination where others come? Can that be a place where our own filmmakers can come into their own?” he said.

Alderson said once the film is finished they will put it out on the film festival circuit, and even look for distribution.

“That will look like a theatrical release, potentially, in an ideal world, or it will be straight to streaming services like Amazon, Hulu, that type of stuff,” he said.

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Victim shot in the face takes the stand in second day of Colorado trial for Brent Metz

Published

16 hours ago

May 28, 2026

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Victim shot in the face takes the stand in second day of Colorado trial for Brent Metz

The now 19-year-old victim, who Brent Metz is accused of shooting in the face, took the stand in Metz’s trial Thursday. Metz, a former town of Mountain View councilman, was in the second day of his trial hearings.

CBS

The teenager, who has recovered well physically from the shooting back in September of 2024, told the story of what led up to the shooting, then said he blacked out for a period after he was shot.

The young man, Jack (CBS Colorado is not sharing the victim’s last name) said he and his younger friend went to ask for permission to take pictures at a scenic home near Conifer. At first, they parked outside the gated driveway and tried to figure out how to contact someone there. They then hopped a low fence and went up to the house.

Jack said he had difficulty locating a front door on the home, but the large property also had a garage and barn. They heard music coming from the barn, which is a common practice for people with animals to leave music playing to calm animals while away.

“We decided to knock on the barn door and then after a couple a minutes we decided to go back down the driveway,” Jack said in court.

The two friends went back over the fence and moved the car to a spot not blocking the driveway along the right-of-way at the road. Minutes later, Brent Metz drove up in his black GMC pickup truck, blocking their car in. Metz got out. Jack testified that he raised his hands at some point, a claim the defense questioned in cross examination. He related that he was getting out to try to greet the person getting out of the truck.

“I just (got) the door open I kind of turned to open my door and then turned to get out, and I saw someone get out, and then it was black,” Jack said.

The victim soon awoke bleeding and injured. “I looked down and I thought I was going to die. So I said that a couple times,” Jack testified.

“My mouth was on fire and it felt like my upper lip was gone, and I could taste little fragments,” Jack told the court. Jack’s friend and Metz tried to help him out of the car.

“The one who shot me was trying to help me get out of the car.”

Soon after, Metz left his side.

“He helped me sit down, and then he walked away,” Jack said.

“I started to realize I needed to stay as calm as I could, and when I got out of the car, I sat down, but I was very anxious,” Jack recalled.

Later, the victim had to have surgery in order to have the bullet fragments removed from his face. One of the fragments was more than an inch in size. He had trouble breathing through his right nostril due to the injuries to his nose. His eye was blackened for a long time, and a tooth was shattered.

Jack did not remember Metz saying much.

The testimony followed hours of testimony from a gun testing expert who looked at the weapon at the request of the prosecution. Derek Watkins is an engineer who said he has seen many claims of weapons not working properly.

“My experience is that, if you manufacture a firearm, at some point in time, it’s going, you’re going to run across the claim that it behaves in a defective manner,” Watkins said.

Metz’s defense is centered on a claim that the Sig Sauer P320 he had fired on its own without Metz pulling the trigger.

“There was nothing about the gun through the testing or through the examination of the components indicating it would function any other way than it was designed and left the factory,” Watkins said.

The defense had little luck getting Watkins to agree the gun could fire on its own, but did try to point out to the jury in questions that Watkins has previously testified in civil litigation about the gun’s integrity on behalf of the manufacturer.

The case continues Friday when it could wrap up. Metz faces four charges, the most serious of which is second-degree assault, but also two menacing charges and one of illegal discharge of a firearm.

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Catholic Colorado: The Semiquincentennial in the Centennial State

Published

1 day ago

May 28, 2026

Press Room

Catholic Colorado: The Semiquincentennial in the Centennial State

On the cusp of the United States’ 250^th anniversary and Colorado’s 150^th, the Centennial State and its Catholic witnesses show modern Catholics a path forward.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, completed in 1912, has stood as a visible symbol of the Catholic faith in Colorado for over a century. (Photo: Archdiocese of Denver Archives)

Colorado celebrates its own 150th anniversary this year, as the rest of the country marks 250 years since the founding of the United States. The two milestones bear an interesting connection. In the very year of independence, one of the most important explorations of Colorado was undertaken by two Franciscan friars: Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante.

Faith Crosses the Rockies

While the importance of the Domínguez-Escalante Expedition should not be overestimated — it didn’t lead to any settlements and mostly focused on Utah — it nonetheless symbolizes the coming of the Christian faith into Colorado. Their expedition traces the path the Church followed into the Rockies, initially coming up from the south, to be met later from the East by miners. Leaving Santa Fe in the very month independence was declared, the two friars and their companions crossed into the modern-day boundaries of Colorado at the beginning of August 1776. They were not the first Spaniards to enter the territory of the Ute and Arapahoe tribes north of Nueva Mexico — Juan de Oñate was in 1598, and they also relied on the previous expeditions of Rivera — but the friars opened up more regular access to it as they laid the foundation for the Santa Fe Trail that would lead from New Mexico to Southern California.

The friars found in Colorado beautiful mountain vistas, remarking that it was cold even in the summer, as well as dangerous canyons and abandoned settlements in the Mesa Verde area. Their journal remarks: “We traveled a league and turned west through very pleasant narrow valleys with woods, very abundant with pastures, with different blooms and flowers.” (The Domínguez-Escalante Journal, translated by Fray Angelico Chavez, University of Utah Press, 15). Focusing on possible mission sites more than a continental passage, they insisted to all their companions that they should not “have any purpose other than the one we had, which was God’s glory and the good of souls” (40). Their desires would take 110 years to come to fruition with the founding of the first Catholic mission to Native Americans in Colorado, St. Ignatius, on the Southern Ute Reservation in Ignacio, Colorado, in 1886.

From Frontier Territory to Catholic Settlement

Catholic life was slow to arrive in Colorado compared to other parts of the nation, especially given the early settlement of New Mexico not far to the south. The Spanish were never able to create permanent settlements in Colorado, with one failed attempt near Pueblo in 1787. This is where 1776 regains its significance, even for the Church’s development in the region. It was only after the United States annexed the Southwest following the Mexican-American War in 1848 that Catholic settlement began. From the south, settlers arrived from Taos to establish San Luis on April 9, 1851. Not long after, in 1858, the Pikes Peak Goldrush brought a flood of miners from the East. From this mix of New Mexican settlers, Native missions and Catholic miners, the Catholic Church of Colorado finally emerged.

In 1860, Father Joseph Projectus Machebeuf arrived from Santa Fe and, in the eight years before he became Denver’s first bishop, the energetic priest established eighteen churches. I first encountered him through Willa Cather’s fictional portrayal of him as the character Vaillant in her novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop (and she relied heavily on Machebeuf’s letters for the book). Though primarily set in New Mexico, Cather brings the history of the Church in the Southwest to life through the vibrant, often tense meetings of Natives, Mexicans, newly arrived Americans and the French clergy seeking to unite them into a cohesive whole. It was Bishop Machebeuf who presided over the Church when Colorado became a state in 1876.

A Little-Known Bishop With An Important Lesson

His successor, Bishop Nicholas Matz, likewise came to Colorado as a missionary from France and experienced firsthand the difficulties miners faced in mountain towns, especially as a pastor in Georgetown. Seth Fabian brings this lesser-known figure to life in his new book, The Pilgrim Bishop: The Spiritual Biography of Nichols C. Matz (TAN Books, 2026).

Even after living in Colorado for nearly twelve years and working for the Archdiocese of Denver for six, I didn’t know much about this misunderstood and even controversial bishop, who often lacked support from his clergy. Even in a newly established state, still riding high from its mining operations, Bishop Matz interpreted the events around him with a lens formed by the violent revolutions of the Old World, fearing and overestimating the “potential reach of radical socialists or anarchists” (11).

Bishop Matz’s difficulty in addressing the social question in his diocese points to an ongoing difficulty for both Colorado and the entire nation in this celebratory year marking their founding. Dr. Fabian raises a fundamental question we must consider: “the question of how individual Catholics live their daily lives in a pluralist society” (386).

We have a strong legacy of Catholic settlement across the continent, of our ancestors seeking to consecrate this land to God. In fact, in just a few weeks, on June 11, the U.S. bishops will do so again when they consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Yet we face pressing challenges that call us to wade into difficult social questions, especially those related to technology and artificial intelligence, as Pope Leo XIV is expected to do in his first encyclical, to be released on May 25.

Despite the real challenges, if we advance, as Domínguez and Escalante did, seeking “God’s glory and the good of souls” above all else, we can continue our great Catholic legacy and open a path for future generations to follow.

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