The 1983 Entire NFL Draft Review

Center, Randy Grimes
Tampa Bay Buccaneers first overall pick.

The 1983 draft was held April 26–27, 1983, at the New York Sheraton Hotel in New York City, New York. No teams elected to claim any players in the supplemental draft that year.

This year's draft is frequently referred to as the draft with the quarterback class of 1983, because six quarterbacks were taken in the first round, an unusually high number. Of these quarterbacks, four played in the Super Bowl, four were selected to play in the Pro Bowl, and three have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The next highest number of quarterbacks taken in the first round is the five taken in the 1999 NFL draft. All six quarterbacks were drafted by American Football Conference (AFC) teams, with every member of the five-team AFC East (the Colts, Dolphins, Bills, Jets and Patriots) selecting a quarterback. In eleven of the sixteen years following this draft, the AFC was represented in the Super Bowl by a team led by one of these quarterbacks: the Denver Broncos by John Elway (five times), the Buffalo Bills by Jim Kelly (four times), the Miami Dolphins by Dan Marino (once), or the New England Patriots by Tony Eason (once).

They met with little success in the Super Bowl, however, compiling a 2–9 record among them, with an 0–9 record for their first 14 years in the league. The only two wins were by Elway in his final two seasons, during Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII in 1998 and 1999. Three of the most lopsided Super Bowl losses in history came at the hands of quarterbacks from the Class of '83: Elway, a 55–10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV; Eason, a 46–10 loss to the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX; and Kelly, a 52–17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII. Marino, who had a successful overall career, would only reach the Super Bowl one time, a 38–16 loss to San Francisco in Super Bowl XIX, following the end of Marino's second season. Two of them, Todd Blackledge and Ken O'Brien, never reached the Super Bowl. Kelly and the Bills would appear in the Super Bowl for four consecutive years, from 1990 to 1993, and would lose all four.

Of the six first round quarterbacks drafted, two did not sign with the teams that selected them for the 1983 season. First overall pick Elway, who had made his antipathy towards the Colts known long before the draft, was also a promising baseball player in the New York Yankees organization. With Yankees owner George Steinbrenner aggressively pursuing a commitment from Elway to play baseball full-time, Elway and his agent, Marvin Demoff, successfully leveraged the threat of Elway abandoning football altogether to compel the Colts to trade Elway to the Broncos a few days after the draft.

The other holdout, Jim Kelly, missed the entire 1983 season and instead signed with the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League, where he led the springtime circuit in passing in both 1984 and 1985. Kelly was set to play for the New Jersey Generals, owned by Donald Trump, when the USFL planned to switch to a fall season in 1986, but when the USFL won only $1 (trebeled to $3) from its antitrust lawsuit vs. the NFL on July 29, 1986, Kelly finally signed with the Bills three weeks later.

A total of six players drafted in the first round have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (seven total have been inducted to date). Each round of this draft also contained at least one player who was later selected to play in the Pro Bowl. Bleacher Report named the 1983 draft class as the "greatest of all time".

The Buccaneers drafted alternatively 18, 17, 16, 15 and 19th through the 12 rounds of this draft. The additional 6th round pick came in return for a 4th round pick the following year from the San Fransisco 49ers.

Click Any Year Here To Review The Entire NFL Draft & Notable Undrafted Players

Player Selections

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Hall of Fame Inductees

• Eric Dickerson, Running Back from Southern Methodist University taken 1st round 2nd overall by the Los Angeles Rams.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 1999.

• Jim Kelly, Quarterback from the University of Miami taken 1st round 14th overall by the Buffalo Bills.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2002.

• John Elway, Quarterback from Stanford University taken 1st round 1st overall by the Baltimore Colts.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2004.

• Dan Marino, Quarterback from Pittsburgh taken 1st round 27th overall by the Miami Dolphins.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2005.

• Bruce Matthews, Offensive Lineman from University of Southern California taken 1st round 9th overall by the Houston Oilers.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2007.

• Darrell Green, Cornerback from Texas A&I University taken 1st round 28th overall by the Washington Redskins.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2008.

• Richard Dent, Defensive End from Tennessee State University taken 8th round, 203rd overall by the Chicago Bears.
  Inducted: Professional Football Hall of Fame Class of 2011.

Notable Undrafted Players