April 22, 1990: Colts take Illinois quarterback Jeff George with first pick of NFL Draft
The Dallas Cowboys finished an NFL-worst 1-15 in the 1989 season and would have picked first overall in the 1990 NFL Draft … except they forfeited that pick by selecting Miami (Fla.) quarterback Steve Walsh in the first round of the previous year's supplemental draft. Thus, the 1990 first pick belonged to the Atlanta Falcons, but they traded it to the Indianapolis Colts along with a fourth-round pick for Pro Bowl tackle Chris Hinton, wide receiver Andre Rison, the Colts' first-round draft choice in 1991 and a fifth-round pick in 1990.
That trade definitely did not work out for the Colts as they took rocket-armed University of Illinois quarterback Jeff George at No. 1 overall in 1990 and he never lived up to the hype. George, the first-ever Gatorade National Player of the Year in high school in Indianapolis, had all the physical tools a team would want in a quarterback but just wasn't very good most of the time, finishing with a 46-78 career record.
George stayed with the Colts through the 1993 campaign, then played for the Falcons (1994-96), Raiders (1997-98), Vikings (1999) and Redskins (2000-01). He completed 57.9 percent of his passes career for 27,602 yards, 154 touchdowns and 113 picks for a rating of 80.4. That latter number would have been fourth-worst in the NFL last year among qualified starters.
The No. 2 pick that year also was a bust: Penn State running back Blair Thomas to the New York Jets. In retrospect, the Colts should have taken Miami (Fla.) defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy (No. 3 to Seattle), USC linebacker Junior Seau (No. 5 to Chargers) or a running back from the University of Florida named Emmitt Smith (No. 17 to Dallas).
The 1990 NFL Draft was an atrocious one for quarterbacks as the best pro turned out to be Neil O'Donnell, who went No. 70 to Pittsburgh.
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