National Football League

Pro Football 101: Jonathan Ogden ranks No. 49 on all-time list

Updated Feb. 24, 2022 5:09 p.m. ET

By Joe Posnanski
Special to FOX Sports

Editor's Note: Throughout 2021 and 2022, Joe Posnanski is ranking the 101 best players in pro football history, in collaboration with FOX Sports. Posnanski will publish a detailed look at all 101 players on Substack. The countdown continues today with player No. 49, Jonathan Ogden.

Let’s take a moment to look at the rather remarkable NFL Draft of 1996.

What makes it rather remarkable is that at the time, it was widely viewed as a singularly weak draft, in large part because there wasn’t even one first-round quarterback in the entire country. The consensus top talent was Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, but numerous teams were concerned about his off-the-field issues.

Meanwhile, there wasn’t supposed to be much offensive or defensive line depth. The one thing that draft had was a talented group of wide receivers, which was great as far as that goes, but wide receivers never really excited NFL teams or scouting directors. In the past 50 years, the top pick in the draft has been a wide receiver only twice.

In 1984, the Patriots took Irving Fryar.

And then in 1996, the New York Jets took Keyshawn Johnson.*

*Johnson certainly had a more-than-creditable NFL career — 11 seasons as a starter, three Pro Bowls — but he probably ended up being the third- or fourth-best receiver in that draft, behind Terrell Owens and Marvin Harrison and pretty close to even with Muhsin Muhammad, Eric Moulds and Joe Horn. In addition, that draft had Eddie Kennison, Terry Glenn, Amani Toomer and Bobby Engram. The experts were definitely right about that draft being loaded at receiver.

Point is, other than receiver, the ’96 draft was considered pretty sparse … but it ended up being one of the best drafts in NFL history. Thirty-three players from that draft went to the Pro Bowl, 17 were first-team All-Pro, and five are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with the strong possibility of linebacker Zach Thomas eventually making it six.

Jonathan Ogden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013. He is one of five Hall of Famers from the 1996 NFL Draft. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Of the five Hall of Famers — Harrison, Owens, Brian Dawkins, Ray Lewis and today’s special guest star, Jonathan Ogden — all are in the Pro Football 101.*

*I hope I’m not spoiling anything by telling you that Ray Lewis will be on the list.

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Jonathan Ogden was the fourth pick in that draft. He was taken behind Keyshawn Johnson, Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice, all three of whom had substantial and excellent careers. But looking back, it’s hard to see how Ogden wasn’t the first pick because there had never been an offensive line talent quite like him.

Here’s one way to think of it: Tackle Tony Boselli was the No. 2 pick in the 1995 draft. He ended up becoming a sensational NFL player before injuries ended his career, but the point is that Boselli, coming out of college, was basically considered the perfect offensive line specimen — 6-foot-7, 325 pounds, great feet, incredible strength. One GM called Boselli the best offensive line prospect since Anthony Munoz. Another said they should start chiseling his Hall of Fame bust* before he even played his first game.

*Although he had to retire at age 29 because of chronic shoulder problems, Boselli is unquestionably one of the greatest tackles in pro football history. So I was thrilled when he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame a few weeks ago.

And this seems a good excuse to break away for a moment and tell a story about Boselli and his modesty. He began dating Angi Aylor (now his wife of more than 20 years) in early 1994. On July 4 that year, Aylor went to a party, and there were a couple of Stanford players there. They found out she was dating a USC football player and asked who it was.

"Well," she said, "he doesn’t really play. He’s just on the team."

"Who is it?" they asked.

"Tony Boselli."

And their eyes about popped out of their heads. Tony Boselli? Didn’t play? Didn’t she know that Boselli was perhaps the best football player in America? They told her to go to the store and buy a Pac-10 preview magazine. It had Boselli on the cover. And that’s how she found out he was a superstar.

But here’s the funniest part of all: The reason she went to the party alone was that he was at the Walter Camp All-America awards ceremony. He had told her that, but she didn’t get it.

"He just told me he was at Walter Camp," she said. "I thought that was some sort of football camp where people try and get better and try to make the team."

Why go into Tony Boselli’s story here?

Because Jonathan Ogden was significantly bigger, stronger and faster than Boselli. At the combine, he measured better at every single athletic measurable.

He was something new. There had never been a 6-foot-9, 350-pound tackle who could move like Ogden. At UCLA, he not only was All-America, he not only won the Outland Trophy as the country's best interior lineman, but just for fun, he was also the NCAA shot-put champion. His throws coach, Art Venegas, would tell Sports Illustrated that, if he dedicated himself, he could win gold at the 2000 Olympics.

"I didn’t know he was an Olympic-caliber shot-putter," Hall of Famer Michael Strahan said. "But it makes sense. I have seen him shot-put quite a few guys across the football field."

At UCLA, Ogden was the best interior lineman in the nation and the NCAA shot-put champion. (Photo by Vince Compagnone/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Ogden loved throwing the shot put … but he also knew football was his future.

"He’s the best prospect I’ve ever seen," legendary offensive line coach Bobb McKittrick would say going into the draft.

"Once he devotes himself to football," Chargers player personnel director Billy Devaney said, "he’ll have a chance to be one of the all-time greats."

Looking back, it’s kind of hard to understand why Ogden wasn’t the first pick in the draft. It’s harder still to understand why he wasn’t the second pick. And it’s all but impossible to understand why he wasn’t the third pick. And, believe it or not, the Ravens almost didn’t make him the fourth pick.

This was just after the Cleveland Browns had moved to Baltimore, and owner Art Modell wanted to make a splashy pick. He wanted to take Lawrence Phillips. It was a whole thing — Modell had put together a plan to help rehabilitate Phillips and develop him into Baltimore’s first NFL star since the Colts left town.

In the end, when the Ravens had a choice between Ogden and Phillips, they took Ogden.

"His blocking won’t be as exciting as Phillips’ running," John Eisenberg wrote in The Baltimore Sun. "But it will serve as a fundamental asset for the Ravens for years. How can you turn that down?"

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The Ravens began with Ogden at guard because they already had a solid, Pro Bowl-caliber left tackle in Tony Jones (who saw the writing on the wall and demanded a trade). In his first season, Ogden scored as many touchdowns (one) as he had sacks allowed (one).

How good was Ogden? Well, it’s hard to put into perspective because he was doomed to spend his career playing on generally terrible and always one-dimensional offenses.

Ogden was a massive presence on Baltimore's offensive line for 12 years, helping the Ravens win Super Bowl XXXVII and paving the way for running back Jamal Lewis' 2,000-yard season in 2003. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images)

His quarterbacks, through the years, were an aging Vinny Testaverde, an aging Jim Harbaugh, Tony Banks, Trent Dilfer, an aging Elvis Grbac, an aging Jeff Blake, Kyle Boller and an aging Steve McNair.

There was a reason for this, and it also has something to do with that 1996 draft. The Ravens had a second pick in the first round of that draft … and they used it to select a Miami linebacker named Ray Lewis. As mentioned, we’ll get to him at some point in this series.

But the point is that behind Lewis, the Ravens would build great defenses. And so coach Brian Billick — ironically regarded as an offensive guru when Baltimore hired him — determined that the team’s best path forward was to play some veteran quarterback who might not screw up everything and then just run the ball behind Ogden with sturdy runners such as Bam Morris, Terry Allen, Willis McGahee and, mostly, Jamal Lewis.

So the offense was essentially the Jonathan Ogden show. He dominated every part of the game. As a quarterback protector, he was absolutely incredible. You obviously could not overpower him. But you couldn’t run by him either. In 2006, for example, the Ravens allowed just 17 sacks all season — even though, as usual, Ogden was the only Pro Bowler on the offensive line.

Historian Brad Oremland came up with this great stat: Over his career, Ogden made twice as many Pro Bowls as all of his teammates combined.

But as great as he was at pass-blocking, it was his run-blocking that made Ogden unique. He was a freight train. Jamal Lewis was certainly a fine running back — he was the fifth pick in the 2000 draft out of Tennessee — but his 2003 season, in which he ran for 2,066 yards and averaged 5.3 yards per carry, was certainly as much about Ogden’s blocking as it was about anything he did.

Ogden and Walter Jones were the dominant left tackles in the era of the left tackle, and they had a different persona on the field. Jones was utterly silent and placid on and off the field. Ogden, meanwhile, was constantly laughing, poking fun, making jokes. One of his favorite things was to destroy a defensive player on a play early in the game, getting deep into his head, and then say something like, "Man, it’s looking like this will be a long game."

"When you played Jonathan Ogden," Strahan said, "you prayed."

Joe Posnanski is a New York Times bestselling author and has been named the best sportswriter in America by five different organizations. His latest book, "The Baseball 100," came out last September.