The best NFL draft pick ever at every slot from No. 1 to 262 - ESPN

You're watching Day 3 of the NFL draft, catching a couple of names you recognize from college here and there and wondering when your favorite team picks next. Pick No. 188 goes across the board, and a little voice in your head wonders: «Why even bother making pick No. 188? Pick 188 is never going to matter. Who's even the best player to come out of Pick 188?»

Danny Trevathan. The best 188th pick ever was Danny Trevathan.

I know this because I've spent the past month or so looking at every draft pick since the common draft era began (1967) and using the modern seven-round format (Nos. 1-262) to answer that very question: Who was the best player taken at this draft slot? Plenty of «Oh, I remember him!» moments… and plenty of impossible decisions.

How I went about things:

I took «best» to mean some combination of «most talented» and «most successful.» As is always the challenge in debating the bestness of football players, any argument that exclusively looks at Super Bowl wins and All-Pro nods is insufficient and lacks context. Similarly, any argument that leans solely on individual player stats and film impressions is lacking as well. I generally tried to use historical accolades to contextualize career-long production. Peak season performance and single-season record-setting also mattered to me; this isn't just a measure of who played the longest but also who played… well, the best. And of course, rings matter because rings always matter. But there's no formula here. There's my read on each pick, levied as fairly as I could make it. Disagreement is expected.

In order to be the best draft pick, you kind of have to play for the team that drafted you. I only used this rule to the water's edge — I'm not dumb enough to knock