List Of North Carolina Tar Heels In The NFL Draft
Each NFL franchise seeks to add new players through the annual NFL Draft. The draft rules were last updated in 2009. The team with the worst record the previous year picks first, the next-worst team second, and so on. Teams that did not make the playoffs are ordered by their regular-season record, with any remaining ties broken by strength of schedule. Playoff participants are sequenced after non-playoff teams, based on their round of elimination (wild card, division, conference, and Super Bowl).
Before the merger agreements in 1966, the American Football League (AFL) operated in direct competition with the NFL and held a separate draft. This led to a massive bidding war over top prospects between the two leagues, along with the subsequent drafting of the same player in each draft. As part of the merger agreement on June 8, 1966, the two leagues held a multiple round "Common Draft". Once the AFL officially merged with the NFL in 1970, the "Common Draft" simply became the NFL Draft.
Twenty-four Tar Heels have been drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, with the most recent being Mitch Trubisky in 2017. The single first round of the NFL Draft with the most Tar Heels selected was 1998 with three: Greg Ellis, Brian Simmons, and Vonnie Holliday. Of the Tar Heels selected in the NFL Draft, fifteen have been selected to a Pro Bowl, seventeen have been a member of a Super Bowl winning team; four have achieved both. The most Tar Heels selected in a single NFL Draft is nine, in 2011. Both Chris Hanburger and Taylor are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Key
B | Back | K | Kicker | NT | Nose tackle |
C | Center | LB | Linebacker | FB | Fullback |
DB | Defensive back | P | Punter | HB | Halfback |
DE | Defensive end | QB | Quarterback | WR | Wide receiver |
DT | Defensive tackle | RB | Running back | G | Guard |
E | End | T | Offensive tackle | TE | Tight end |
* | Selected to a Pro Bowl | ||||
† | Won a Super Bowl championship | ||||
‡ | Selected to a Pro Bowl and won a Super Bowl |
Players selected
![An American football player looking at the camera while wearing a blazer.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/LT_2009.jpg/220px-LT_2009.jpg)
![An American football player catching a football in mid-air.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Eric_Ebron_2013.jpg/220px-Eric_Ebron_2013.jpg)
![An American football player catching a football in mid-air.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Giovani_Bernard_2013_01.jpg/220px-Giovani_Bernard_2013_01.jpg)
![An American football player looks at the crowd. He is wearing his uniform on the field with some spectators in the background.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/DreBly.jpg/220px-DreBly.jpg)
![An American football player throwing a football. He is wearing a white jersey with the number 13 across the chest.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/TJ_Yates_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-TJ_Yates_%28cropped%29.jpg)