Ty Detmer finally got his call-up to the NFL on Monday, way down on the ninth round, down among the guys whose names are known only to their close relations and NFL scouts, and behind several quarterbacks who never came close to getting even a single Heisman Trophy vote.
The Green Bay Packers made the record-setting BYU quarterback the 230th overall selection. More surprisingly, he was the 15th quarterback chosen, after players like Ricky Jones of Alabama State, T.J. Rubley of Tulsa and Bucky Richardson of Texas A&M, who isn't even a real quarterback.Detmer said he wasn't surprised at either his ninth-round placement or the fact that so many other QBs went ahead of him.
"I expected to be down in the draft because of the size thing," he said. "All the guys taken ahead of me were bigger guys."
On the bright side, though, Detmer is going to a team where the new head coach, Mike Holmgren, is definitely among his fans. Holmgren, a former BYU assistant coach who most recently was the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, has said that Detmer could thrive in a ball-control system, such as the Niners have employed. Holmgren has also compared Detmer favorably to Joe Montana at a similar stage.
"I've met coach Holmgren a couple of times and look forward to working with him," Detmer said. "But they've got quite a few quarterbacks on the team right now."
No kidding. Don Majkowski is the No. 1 guy and very popular in Green Bay, and while injured part of last season he was replaced by Mike Tomczak, the former Bears QB. The third-string signalcaller was seven-year pro Blair Kiel.
And as if that wasn't enough, the Packers traded a first-round draft choice to Atlanta on Feb. 11 for Brett Favre, a second-round draft choice of the Falcons last year out of Southern Mississippi.
Detmer said it was Holmgren who called him with the news of his selection. Besides telling him all the usual stuff about how happy they are to have him, Holmgren told Detmer that they hoped to see him at mini-camp May 7-9.
From the historical perspective, it's interesting to note that the last BYU quarterback drafted, Robbie Bosco in 1986, also went to the Packers.
Also worth noting is that not since 1974 has the first BYU player taken in the draft gone as low as the ninth round. That year, defensive back Dave Atkinson was the first Cougar taken, in the 10th round.
Detmer was the first - and only - player drafted with Utah connections midway through the ninth round. Others expected to have a good possibility of being taken by the end of the 12-round draft included linebacker Anthony Davis and defensive end Keith Embray of Utah; offensive guard Bryan May of BYU; punter Rusty Carlsen of Utah State; and tight end Alfred Pupunu of Weber State.
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(Additional information)
1992 NFL Draft
First Round Results
(Order of selection for the first round of the 1992 National Football League draft
Pick Team Player Pos. School
1 Indianapolis *Steve Emtman DL, Washington
2 Indianapolis (fr. Tampa Bay) Quentin Coryatt LB, Texas A&M
3 Los Angeles Rams Sean Gilbert DL, Pittsburgh
4 Washington (fr. Cincinnati) *Desmond Howard WR, Michigan
5 Green Bay *Terrell Buckley DB, Florida State
6 Cincinnati (fr. Wash. via S.D.)David Klinger QB, Houston
7 Miami (fr. Phoenix) Troy Vincent DB, Wisconsin
8 Atlanta (fr. New England) *Bob Whitfield OT, Stanford
9 Cleveland Tommy Vardell RB, STanford
10 Seattle Ray Roberts OL, Virginia
11 Pittsburgh Leon Searcy OT, Miami
12 Miami Marco Coleman LB, Georgia Tech.
13 N.E. Pats (fr. Minn. via Dallas) Eugene Chung OL, Virginia Tech.
14 New York Giants Derek Brown TE, Notre Dame
15 New York Jets *Johnny Mitchell TE, Nebraska
16 Los Angeles Raiders *C McGlockton DT, Clemson
17 Dallas (Fr. Phila. via G.B./Atl.) Kevin Smith DB, Texas A&M 18 San Francisco Dana Hall DB, Washington
19 Atlanta (fr. Atl. via Dallas/N.E.)Tony Smith RB, Southern Miss.
20 Kansas City Dale Carter DB, Tennessee
21 New Orleans Vaughn Dunbar RB, Indiana
22 Chicago *Alonzo Spellman DL, Ohio State
23 San Diego (fr. Houston) Chris Mims DL, Tennessee
24 Dallas Robert Jones LB, E. Carolina
25 Denver *Tommy Maddox QB, UCLA
26 Detroit Robert Porcher DL, S. Carolina St.
27 Buffalo John Fina OL, Arizona
28 Cincinnati(fr. Wash.) *Darryl Williams DB, Miami
*Underclassmen; All others are seniors