The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since
1936. The
draft took place April 20–21, 2002 at
the Theater at Madison Square Garden
The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden is a theater located in New York City's Madison Square Garden. It seats between 2,000 and 5,600, and is used for concerts, shows, sports, meetings, and other events. It is located beneath the main Madis ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
New York. The draft was broadcast on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
both days and eventually moved to
ESPN2. The draft began with
the Houston Texans selecting
David Carr, and it ended with the Texans selecting
Mr. Irrelevant
Mr. Irrelevant is the nickname given to the last pick of the annual National Football League Draft. Although NFL drafts date back to 1936, the first person to be called Mr. Irrelevant was Kelvin Kirk of the 1976 NFL Draft.
History
"Mr. Irrele ...
,
Ahmad Miller. There were thirty-two compensatory selections distributed among eighteen teams, with
the Buffalo Bills receiving the most selections with four.
The University of Miami was the college most represented in the draft, having five of its players selected in the first round. Although
the Carolina Panthers finished with a 1–15 record which would normally have given them the first pick in each round, the Houston Texans were given the first pick because they were an expansion team. The league also held a
supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.
The last remaining active player from the 2002 draft was third-round quarterback
Josh McCown, who threw his last pass in 2019 for
the Philadelphia Eagles.
Player selections
Trades
In the explanations below, (D) denotes trades that took place during the draft, while (PD) indicates trades completed pre-draft.
;Round one
Round two
Round three
Round four
Round five
Round six
Round seven
Supplemental draft selections
For each player selected in the Supplemental Draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season.
Notable undrafted players
Hall of Famers
*
Ed Reed, free safety from Miami (FL), taken 1st round 24th overall by the Baltimore Ravens.
:Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019.
Notes
References
;General references
*
*
*
*
;Trade references
;Specific references
External links
*
{{2002 NFL season by team
2002
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
Draft
NFL draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
Madison Square Garden