{"id":869004,"date":"2026-04-18T08:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869004\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T08:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:28:22","slug":"moments-in-nfl-draft-history-1998-draft-yields-hall-of-fame-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869004\/","title":{"rendered":"Moments in NFL Draft History: 1998 draft yields Hall of Fame talent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the National Football League heads into the first full month of its new season, the Pro Football Hall of Fame will look back at a few of the many NFL drafts held in April that affected not only the landscape of football history but also started the careers of individuals who settled into the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>In 1936, Eagles owner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballhof.com\/players\/bert-bell\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BERT BELL<\/a>, a future NFL commissioner and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame\u2019s inaugural Class of 1963, hatched a plan to maintain competitiveness in the league. His idea: a \u201cdraft style\u201d event in which teams with worse records would have the opportunity to pick top college prospects before the more successful teams. From that day to what has become a three-day NFL tentpole event, the draft is one of the most important and anticipated events on the NFL\u2019s annual calendar.<\/p>\n<p>1998 NFL Draft (April 18, 1998)<\/p>\n<p>Round 1 (1st Overall): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballhof.com\/players\/peyton-manning\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PEYTON MANNING<\/a> to the Indianapolis Colts<\/p>\n<p>Round 1 (4th Overall): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballhof.com\/players\/charles-woodson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CHARLES WOODSON<\/a> to the Oakland Raiders<\/p>\n<p>Round 1 (21st Overall): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballhof.com\/players\/randy-moss\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RANDY MOSS<\/a> to the Minnesota Vikings<\/p>\n<p>Round 1 (26th Overall): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballhof.com\/players\/alan-faneca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ALAN FANECA<\/a> to the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/p>\n<p>The 1998 NFL Draft had a few \u201cfirsts.\u201d Manning, Woodson and Faneca were all the first player taken at their positions (Moss was the second at his). Manning (SEC), Woodson (Big Ten) and Moss (Mid-American) were the first players taken from their respective collegiate conference; Faneca was the seventh from the SEC.<\/p>\n<p>While all four future Hall of Famers enjoyed successful collegiate careers, Manning and Woodson were award winners in their final seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Manning won the 1997 Maxwell Award (the 12th Hall of Famer to take home that award) and Woodson was awarded the 1997 Heisman Trophy, later becoming only the 10th Heisman winner elected to the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>Faneca, Manning and Woodson remained connected as members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2021. Moss was enshrined in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>This article from the Hall of Fame Communications Team is part of a recurring series celebrating memorable moments in NFL history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the National Football League heads into the first full month of its new season, the Pro Football&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,7,2004,392,2381,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-869004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indianapolis","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-indianapoliscolts","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116424770108463772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869004","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=869004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}