Raiders Had Success With Heisman Winners

Winners of the Heisman Trophy, selected for being the best player in college football each season, have not always been stars in the National Football League, and some have been outright busts.

The Las Vegas-Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders have drafted only four Heisman Trophy winners over their 60 seasons since founding the American Football League in the 1960s. Still, they picked up eight others in free-agent signings and trades.

The Detroit Lions have drafted an NFL-high 10 players in the first round, and several of them did not work out.

NFL.com posted a story listing the top 10 Heisman Trophy winners in NFL history, three of which were Raiders. They are running back Marcus Allen, wide receiver Tim Brown, and defensive back Charles Woodson.

“The Raiders probably had the best success with Heisman Trophy winners in NFL history,” one NFL executive claimed.

Here is the list of Raiders who won the Heisman Trophy before wearing the Silver and Black:

--Billy Cannon, running back (and later tight end for the Raiders) from LSU in 1959.

--Jim Plunkett, quarterback (drafted by the New England Patriots in 1970), from Stanford after leading the Cardinal to victory in the Rose Bowl. Led the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories.

--Marcus Allen, a running back from USC in 1981, became the Raiders’ all-time leading rusher with 8,545 yards and was the Most Valuable Player in Super Bowl XVIII

--Bo Jackson, running back from Auburn in 1985, undoubtedly would have become a big star had he not sustained a career-ending hip injury in s 1991 playoff game. He also played major league baseball.

--Tim Brown, a wide receiver from USC in 1987, became the Raiders’ all-time receiving leader with 1,071 yards for 14,734 yards and 99 touchdowns.

--Desmond Howard, a wide receiver from Michigan selected by the Washington Redskins in 1982, played two seasons with the Raiders, in 1997 and 1998.

--Charles Woodson, a defensive back at Michigan in 1998, had 27 interceptions and returned two for touchdowns in his Raiders career while making the All-Pro team six times and playing in nine Pro Bowls.

--Carson Palmer, quarterback from Michigan, was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2006. Palmer started 25 games for the Raiders in 2011-12 and passed for 6,771 yards and 35 touchdowns.

--Matt Leinert, a quarterback from USC, was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in 2006, and in only two games with the Raiders, he passed for 115 yards with no touchdowns and an interception in 2012.

--Marcus Mariota, a quarterback from Oregon, was chosen by the Tennessee Titans in 2015, played the 2020-21 seasons with the Raiders as Derek Carr’s backup, and passed for 230 yards and one touchdown.

--The Raiders also signed quarterbacks Andre Ware (Houston, 1989) and Rashaan Salaam (Colorado, 1995), both Heisman Trophy winners, but they only played in preseason games for the Silver and Black.

The Raiders are the only team in NFL history to have four Heisman Trophy winners on the field simultaneously, with Brown, Howard, Woodson and Jackson doing that during the 1998 season.

Allen, Brown, and Woodson all have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and some claim that Cannon, a member of the All-Time AFL team who helped change the tight end position in pro football, should be there with them.

Not to mention Plunkett, one of only two two-time Super Bowl champion quarterbacks who have yet to be enshrined in Canton, Ohio.

The Las Vegas Raiders open training camp for the entire team on July 25, 2023.

The Silver and Black open the preseason by hosting the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Aug. 13, at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.

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