Best Late Round Picks in Sports History

Before we get into it, here is the short version.

Key Insights:

• Tom Brady going 199th overall is the most famous draft robbery in sports history, but he is far from the only one
• The NBA, MLB, and NHL all have their own versions of "we had every chance to pick him and passed" stories
• Late round steals follow a pattern: underrated athleticism, late development, and scouts who trusted their spreadsheets too much

NFL: The Sixth Round Is Basically a Hall of Fame Waiting Room

Nobody is paying close attention by round six. Teams are tired, boards are thin, and the picks start feeling like formalities. Turns out, some of the best players in football history were just sitting there waiting.

1. Tom Brady, 199th overall (2000) — Too slow. Too weak. Not athletic enough. Six Super Bowls later, every team that passed on him has had two decades to think about it.
2. John Randle, Undrafted (1990) — Literally talked his way onto the Vikings roster. Went on to become a Hall of Fame defensive tackle. Zero draft capital. Maximum embarrassment for everyone who said no.
3. Priest Holmes, Undrafted (1997) — Spent his early career on practice squads before rushing for over 8,000 yards and making three Pro Bowls. Nobody wanted him. Oops.
4. Tony Romo, Undrafted (2003) — Eastern Illinois kid who nobody drafted and then nearly carried Dallas to a Super Bowl. Four Pro Bowls. His broadcasting career might actually be better than his playing career. Not a bad consolation prize.
5. Rod Smith, Undrafted (1994) — 849 catches, two Super Bowls, and a career that started with zero teams wanting him. Missouri Southern State product who made everyone look silly.

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NBA: Two Rounds Is All You Get, So Missing Hurts More

The NBA only gives you two rounds to find your guys. Falling to the second round already stings. Falling to the very last pick means every single team in the league took a pass on you. Some of those guys went on to become the best players of their generation.

1. Nikola Jokic, 41st overall (2014) — A Taco Bell commercial was literally airing on TV when the Nuggets picked him. He has three MVPs now. Every GM who passed is somewhere pretending they had him on their board.
2. Manu Ginobili, 57th overall (1999) — Last pick in the draft. Four championships. Two All-Star games. The Spurs robbed everyone and did it with the very last selection available.
3. Draymond Green, 35th overall (2012) — Projected as a mid-first round pick and somehow fell out of the first round entirely. Three championships and a Defensive Player of the Year award. Teams had one job.
4. Marc Gasol, 48th overall (2007) — Picked as an afterthought, became a Defensive Player of the Year, and won a championship in Toronto. Casual.
5. Isaiah Thomas, 60th overall (2011) — Dead last in the entire draft. Averaged 29 points a game for Boston in 2017. The smallest player on the court with the largest chip on his shoulder.

MLB: The Draft Goes 20-Plus Rounds, So There Is Really No Excuse

Baseball gives teams more chances to find talent than any other sport. The draft runs deep, the pool is massive, and scouts have months to evaluate players. And still, some of the best hitters and pitchers in history slipped through with barely anyone noticing.

1. Mike Piazza, 62nd round (1988) — Drafted as a personal favor because his dad knew Tommy Lasorda. Became the greatest hitting catcher of all time. Round 62. There are no words.
2. Albert Pujols, 13th round (1999) — The Cardinals got one of the best hitters in baseball history with a pick most teams use on guys who never make it out of A-ball.
3. Roy Halladay, 17th round (1995) — Two Cy Young Awards and a perfect game. Fell that far because of one bad workout. One.
4. David Ortiz, 2nd round (1992) — Seattle drafted him and cut him. Minnesota picked him up and cut him too. Boston grabbed him off the scrap heap and got 14 years of Big Papi. Two teams let that happen.
5. Dan Quisenberry, Undrafted — Found through an open tryout and became one of the best closers of the 1980s. No draft slot, no hype, just consistent dominance.

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NHL: Seven Rounds and Detroit Still Found Steals Everyone Else Missed

The NHL draft runs seven rounds, which is plenty of time to find hidden talent. Some teams used every pick wisely. Others watched Detroit quietly build a dynasty out of players nobody else bothered with.

1. Pavel Datsyuk, 171st overall (1998) — Sixth round. Two Stanley Cups. Four Lady Byng trophies. One of the most skilled players to ever play the game. The Red Wings found him while other teams were basically already packing up to go home.
2. Martin St. Louis, Undrafted — Too small, everyone said. Not worth a pick, everyone said. Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Stanley Cup. Undrafted. Nobody looks smart in this story except St. Louis.
3. Henrik Zetterberg, 210th overall (1999) — Seventh round. Detroit again. Another dynasty piece sitting right there while 29 other teams looked the other way.
4. Tomas Holmstrom, 257th overall (1994) — Pick 257. Ninth round. One of the best net-front players in NHL history and a key part of multiple Cup runs. The Red Wings scouting staff in the late nineties deserves its own documentary.
5. Saku Koivu, Undrafted — Career captain in Montreal, beloved by an entire fanbase, and built a legacy on toughness and skill that had nothing to do with draft hype.

Why Scouts Keep Getting This Wrong

Here is the thing nobody in a draft room wants to say out loud: the process has real blind spots, and these players all fell through them. Brady's combine numbers looked average. Jokic was playing in Serbia. Piazza was picked as a favor. The misses were not random bad luck. They were predictable failures hiding behind confident sounding evaluations.

Every player on this list had at least one of these going against them:

• Athleticism that did not show up in workouts but showed up everywhere on the field
• A development timeline that did not fit the scout's preferred schedule
• A smaller market or league that did not get the attention it deserved
• A work ethic and competitive drive that no combine drill can measure

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FAQ

Who is the most famous late round pick in sports history?

Tom Brady at 199th overall. Six Super Bowls from the sixth round. It is the gold standard for draft day disasters that turned into all-time greatness.

Has any undrafted player made a Hall of Fame?

Yes, more than a few. John Randle and Warren Moon in the NFL, Martin St. Louis in the NHL. Going undrafted just means the story gets better when it all works out.

Why do teams keep missing on late round talent?

By the time late rounds hit, attention drops, boards get thin, and teams follow the crowd instead of doing independent work. Combine numbers and consensus rankings take over, and players who do not fit the mold get ignored.

Is one sport better than others for finding late round value?

MLB gives you the most chances just because the draft runs so long. But the NFL and NBA have the most famous individual misses because the stakes are higher and the rosters are smaller.

Late round picks are where the draft stops pretending and gets real. Every team thinks they have it figured out, and every year a handful of players prove they did not. Someone is sitting in a late round right now that everyone is about to sleep on. History says you should probably pay attention.

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