{"id":211364,"date":"2025-07-16T10:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T10:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/211364\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T10:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T10:36:11","slug":"former-nebraska-running-back-named-best-ever-no-49-draft-pick-in-nfl-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/211364\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Nebraska running back named best-ever No. 49 draft pick in NFL history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former Nebraska running back has been named the greatest draft pick at his draft slot. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/45597769\/picking-best-nfl-draft-picks-ever-every-slot-common-era-1967-2024\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN&#039;s Ben Solak selected Roger Craig;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">ESPN&#8217;s Ben Solak selected Roger Craig<\/a> as the greatest No. 49 draft pick in NFL history.<\/p>\n<p>Craig was the first player in NFL history to have 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in the same season (1985). The Davenport, Iowa native played at Nebraska from 1979-1982 and was a second-round selection in the 1983 draft by the <a href=\"https:\/\/ninerswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:San Francisco 49ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">San Francisco 49ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He was a three-time Super Bowl winner in San Fransico\u00a0with four Pro Bowl selections and an All-Pro selection in 1988. The former Husker is also a member of the NFL&#8217;s 1980s All-Decade Team and the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/san-francisco-49ers\/359\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:49ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">49ers<\/a> Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Craig wins largely on the back of two seasons: his 1988 Offensive Player of the Year campaign, in which he totaled more than 2,000 scrimmage yards and powered the 49ers to a Super Bowl win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In his four seasons at Nebraska, he ran for 2,446 yards and 26 touchdowns on 407 carries. Craig&#8217;s professional career ended with the <a href=\"https:\/\/vikingswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Minnesota Vikings;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Minnesota Vikings<\/a> in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>Contact\/Follow us<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CornhuskersWire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@CornhuskersWire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> @CornhuskersWire<\/a> on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CornhuskersWire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> Facebook<\/a> to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes, and opinions.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/cornhuskerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/cornhuskers\/football\/2025\/07\/16\/nebraska-football-roger-craig-san-francisco-49ers-nfl-draft\/85224282007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Former Nebraska RB Roger Craig named best-ever No. 49 draft pick;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Former Nebraska RB Roger Craig named best-ever No. 49 draft pick<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Nebraska running back has been named the greatest draft pick at his draft slot. ESPN&#8217;s Ben&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16499,7,259,1003,6,15,6436,40913,3866,44459,6746,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-211364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-ben-solak","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-nebraska","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-draft","14":"tag-nfl-history","15":"tag-pro-bowl-selections","16":"tag-receiving-yards","17":"tag-roger-craig","18":"tag-rushing-yards","19":"tag-san-francisco-49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114862475480540933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}