Draft rewatch: Randy Moss falls to the Vikings

Watching back the 1998 draft because... why not

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By Matthew Coller

The 1998 draft broadcast on ESPN opened with Chris Berman calling it “D-Day for the deal makers” with highlights of Charles Woodson intercepting passes, running back punts and putting a rose in his teeth. Then it quickly transitions into Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf.

The draft is inside Madison Square Garden Theater, where it was housed for many years before Roger Goodell figured out that he could coax crazed fans from all over the country to travel somewhere just to watch names being read off (rooting for you, Minneapolis in 2028!).

Drafts are often defined by the biggest hits and biggest misses but every time I rewatch a draft, there are several players who were marked as can’t-miss and then turned out to be a flop. When Berman welcomes us into MSG, the cameras show Manning, Leaf, Woodson and Curtis Enis. We’re not even two minutes in and I found myself saying out loud, remember Curtis Enis?

The desk is Mel Kiper Jr. and Joe Theisman.

Berman begins going around the country where ESPN has reporters stationed for the night and one of the places is West Virginia to cover the “most intriguing player in the draft, Marshall wide receiver Randy Moss.”

It would be hard to explain to someone now how intense the Leaf/Manning debates were. I’m not sure that there has ever been a discussion quite like it since then. Both were considered to have potential that went beyond franchise QB. They both had the talent to be legends. Knowing that Manning became a top-five QB in NFL history tells you even more about the type of prospect Leaf was. His arm talent was astonishing.

The broadcast sends it out to former QB Mark Malone for a report from Indianapolis. He says that the Colts spent the entire night before the draft trying to decide between the two. GM Bill Polian told Malone that they had then “a tenth-of-a-point apart.” Malone said that he and Polian talked for an hour about the pros and cons of each QB.

Manning had a bigger sample size than Leaf. He decided to come back for another year at Tennessee rather than coming out in the draft in 1997. Apparently Manning was nicknamed “The Caveman” because he watched so much film that it never felt like he came out of his cave. The intangibles, Malone says, will be the difference.

Kiper Jr. then lays out his big board. He has Andre Wadsworth as the No. 1 player in the draft. Yes, that’s right, Andre Wadsworth. “The next Bruce Smith,” Kiper Jr. says.

In case you’re asking, “who?” You’re not alone. Even I didn’t remember Wadsworth. That’s because he started 30 career games and got 8.0 total sacks in his career with the Cardinals.

This draft was preposterous in terms of the talent involved. Kiper Jr. says there is a “drop off” in talent and we see names like Takeo Spikes, Pro Bowl tackle Tra Thomas, Vonnie Holliday, Kyle Turley, Kevin Dyson and Grant Wistrom. All hits.

Moss’s name isn’t on Kiper Jr.’s list of the top players. Berman asks him about it.

“He was a man among boys when you talk about dominating cornerbacks in the MAC, he really stuck out,” Kiper Jr. said.

ESPN’s draft analyst notes that Moss needs development. Getting off press coverage, route running and so forth. Of course, he became the best receiver in football by about Week 3 of his rookie year.

The Colts are on the clock. Theismann presents Manning as more of a sure thing with a lower ceiling because of his physical ability.

Funny, Berman notes that the Colts brought jerseys with both players’ names on them to the draft. That means there’s a good chance that somewhere in a closet or a storage room there is a Colts Ryan Leaf jersey.

Before we get to the pick, ESPN pours some salt in the Colts’ wound by re-living the John Elway pick and runs down the ridiculous list of QBs between 1983 and 1998, including Jeff George, Jim Harbaugh and Chris Chandler. Yes, once upon a time the Colts were a franchise that couldn’t buy a good QB. Then they spent 25 years with excellence at the position.

Colts owner Jim Irsay is in the building and personally walks up the card. Berman notes that this basically never happens.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue makes the announcement and there’s a mix of cheers and boos. Theismann says that Manning has been working on getting rid of his little choppy steps while standing in the pocket. Naturally, he never actually did and it became a signature of his play.

Kiper Jr. warns the audience about setting expectations too high. Theismann disagrees, saying that Manning’s stats at the end of Year 1 are going to look like a veteran. Score one for Kiper there. Manning led the NFL in interceptions and went 3-13. (He went 13-3 the following year, so he wasn’t that wrong).

Manning tells Mike Tirico that he knew he was going to be the pick. Polian is with Malone.

“We felt that Peyton, because of his experience and his maturity level in the game of football fit best for us in this particular situation,” Polian said.

Something I forgot was that the San Diego Chargers didn’t initially have the No. 2 overall pick. They traded up there with the Arizona Cardinals and sent a 1999 first, a second, Eric Metcalf and LB Patrick Sapp to move up one spot. Good trade by the Cardinals, it turns out.

The interesting part about the trade is that Arizona had Jake Plummer, who just had a promising debut season in 1997. So the Cards basically put the pick up for sale and got a great deal.

The analysis turns to Leaf. The focus is on his upside. His ability to throw on the move at his size (6-foot-5, 250 pounds) was ridiculous. Theismann compares him to Drew Bledsoe.

“Five years from now, it may not look like [the Chargers] gave up enough to trade up, this kid has tremendous potential,” Kiper Jr. says.

When they roll the highlights as Leaf is accepting his No. 16 jersey, you fully believe Kiper. Leaf looks like Josh Allen more than Bledsoe. He was throwing on the run, moving all over the place, firing rockets to every part of the field.

It’s an always-and-forever point to make about the draft: We never know how someone is going to handle the NFL environment. There is no earthly reason that a guy who played like this in college should have gone 4-17 but it’s a different universe.

Berman brings up that in Week 5 the Colts were set to play the Chargers. Manning vs. Leaf. Can’t wait! The game finished 17-12. Leaf threw for 160 yards and Manning had 137.

The Cardinals are on the clock at No. 3. The way Andre Wadsworth is being talked about is the same stuff you would have heard about Myles Garrett or Nick Bosa when they were in the draft. The broadcast shows a mashup of NFL people describing him with one word and Polian says, “Bruce Smith.”

I went looking for why Wadsworth turned out to be such a bust. He had a prolific college career, ran a 4.65 40-yard dash and had a 35.5 inch vertical at 6-foot-4, 278 pounds. The answer turned out to be injuries. He was pretty good in his first season and then had a knee injury in 1999, microfracture surgery in his knee in 2000 and then arthroscopic surgery on his other knee. That was pretty much that. Brutal.

Onto the No. 4 overall pick with the Raiders. Everyone knows it’s Charles Woodson. But to whom?

Sal Pal joins from New England and reports that the Raiders wanted to trade the Woodson pick to the Patriots. Can you imagine if a Patriots team that won the Super Bowl a few years later had Woodson? They ended up picking RB Robert Edwards, who had a career-altering injury at the Pro Bowl, and CB Tebucky Jones. The Pats got basically nothing out of that draft. Trading up is risky but it’s not always wrong.

Mort is in Miami. He’s reporting that the Raiders want to take Woodson and then make a trade with New Orleans to pick Randy Moss.

Yes, I spit out my Diet Dr. Pepper.

The Raiders turned into a powerhouse a few years after the Woodson draft when they got Rich Gannon. Imagine Randy Moss on the 2000-2002 Raiders instead of the Vikings. Those teams were absolutely loaded on offense. It would have been insane.

Mort says the Saints want the 1999 first-round pick from the Raiders. The Raiders decided not to do it. They ended up taking tackle Matt Stinchcomb in the first round of the ‘99 draft. I had to Google him. So, yeah.

The Raiders pick Woodson. They show his punt return TD against Ohio State. All childhood sports memories come flooding back to me at once.

The Bears are on the clock. Berman says, “the saga of Randy Moss really gets started…”

Mort reports that the Jaguars are trying to trade up, presumably to take Curtis Enis. They ended up taking borderline Hall of Famer Fred Taylor a few picks later. This is why we love the draft.

Any time I watch Berman from this era, it’s a reminder that he was a one-of-one personality. He casually mentions that the Bears have Edgar “Allen Poe” Bennett there without flinching and calls Chris Mortenson “Mortimer.”

We sometimes talk about the running back dialogue as if it’s brand new in the NFL but Theismann says that he doesn’t think Chicago has the supporting cast to provide the best setup for a young running back. He suggests D-line or receiver. Imagine if they had listened and taken Moss. That would have been a nightmare for him.

Chris Myers is reporting that the St. Louis Rams want Enis but Chicago’s price is too high. The Rams found a little old running back named Marshall Faulk in a trade the following year. Do they take him if they pick Enis? The ripple effects of even the first five picks are wild.

Enis’ career was also derailed by injury. It turned out that he had a degenerative knee issue. When he did play, he was brutal, averaging 3.3 yards per carry for his career.

It’s interesting how the running back dialogue gets shaped from year to year by whatever the most recent results were. Spending a top-five pick on Enis rather than taking a bunch of other great prospects including Moss was crushing for a struggling Bears franchise. Recently we’ve seen Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson turn into stars, so it feels more like it might be worth the high selection to take Jeremiyah Love. There’s probably no perfect answer.

As Enis holds up his jersey, Sal Pal reports that the Bears were asking for three first-round picks from the Patriots to give him up. Whoops.

The Rams are next on the clock. They pick Grant Wistrom, who went on to have a good career and played a major role in their Super Bowl victory in ‘99.

Tom Jackson shows us how Wistrom avoids cut blocks with a random large man dressed up as an offensive lineman. TV gold.

Berman says, “there was no way the Rams were going to dabble with Randy Moss after the Lawrence Phillips debacle.” The Rams are one of the only teams in the draft that looks good for not picking Moss though.

The Moss conversation starts to heat up with the Saints on the clock with the No. 6. Berman takes us through Moss’s rap sheet.

The broadcast throws to a bunch of coaches who they asked about Moss.

Dick Vermeil says, “if you are going to invest a first-round pick in a player, there better not be any question marks in regard to his past performances off the field.”

Tony Dungy shows up. “You have to err on the side of caution because it can be very destructive to your salary cap, very destructive to getting the right kinds of guys in… sometimes you may miss on a guy who’s going to come in and do very, very well, but you have to play the percentages.”

Odd statement since Tony drafted Warren Sapp.

Mike Ditka explains that he grades character by whether it can be changed. “Do I think he’s changed already? I think he’s in the process of trying to change. Whether he’s changed or not, I don’t know.”

Andrea Kramer reports that she had a chance to read teams’ psychological assessments of Moss.

ESPN used to have some freaking good reporters, huh.

Here’s what Kramer found:

— One team was concerned about how Moss would handle getting millions of dollars. They also were worried about his lack of discipline effecting his “work habits.”

— A scout questioned his ability to lead and accept criticism.

— Another scout told Kramer that Moss had never been yelled at while he was at Marshall.

— Kramer said that a team gave phycologial tests to a bunch of players and the results of Moss’s were: “Until he develops more self discipline he will be his worst enemy.”

— She notes one report that wonders how Moss will handle bump-n-run coverage.

Basically, the league had no freaking idea what it was about to get hit with as soon as Moss took an NFL field.

Linda Cohn is live in West Virginia, who spent a couple days there learning about Moss.

Cohn spoke with coaches and teammates at Marshall.

“The Randy Moss that’s being talked about by some NFL teams is simply not the Randy Moss that they know,” she said.

Chad Pennington is featured.

“It’s amazing to see how much people base on perception,” Pennington said. “They make their point of view and opinions before they even meet a person, before they even get to know a person. When you do that, you can get somebody wrong and be mistaken. I think a lot of people are mistaken about Randy.”

Pennington says he believes Moss is “100% changed, he’s totally turned things around.” And his head coach says that they are just digging up old stuff from the past.

I cannot begin to tell you how much better TV this is than having 57 analysts spout opinions on Shedeur Sanders.

Before Cohn wraps up her report, she notes that another psychological report given to the Bears, Dolphins and Saints said the following: “This young man, under the right system should adjust quickly and respond positively in a most consistent manner.”

“It’s not all negative,” she says before sending it back to Boomer.

They continue the Moss discussion. You can tell that ESPN was planning on Moss going much higher than he actually did.

Kiper Jr. says that he thinks that if Lawrence Phillips hadn’t busted a few years before that Moss would have been a top-five pick.

Offensive lineman Kyle Turley goes to the New Orleans Saints. Chris Fowler notes that most mock drafts expected things to play out this way.

Now we’ve got former college coach Mike Gottfried talking Moss. The highlights are outrageous. Laugh out loud funny to see him flying around poor MAC players. Imagine being a current 47-year-old insurance salesman who once attempted to tackle Randy freaking Moss.

“He has a high upside — I mean, HIGH,” Gottfried said. “He has a downside as big as the Grand Canyon.” He added that Moss ran “undisciplined routes” and says that he takes plays off. Fowler wonders if he will listen to coaching.

What’s interesting is that some of the stuff that teams had in their reports about Moss were completely true. He did butt heads with people, especially post-Denny. He did struggle when things went sideways like when he walked off the field before the game was over in 2004.

What the evaluations missed was that he wasn’t just a freak athletically. He was a freak competitor who desperately wanted to prove everyone wrong. They also probably didn’t realize that Randy Moss is a really smart guy who was a football junkie.

With the broadcast in particular, when Fowler is talking about how Moss won’t listen to any coaching, it felt like we had crossed the threshold of piling on. Is Randy Moss a serial killer? You would have thought that the guy laid in a hammock with a shotgun during practice if you had never heard of him before and just watched draft night.

Now here’s the moment that would drive Moss for his entire career. The Dallas Cowboys are on the clock. According to Moss, Jerry Jones told him that the Cowboys were going to take him.

“If Moss ends up with the Cowboys, man, there’s a lotta storylines off that one,” Berman says.

Cohn says that the Cowboys have “serious interest” and notes that a scout has been staying in West Virginia to keep tabs on going on with him. She reports that Moss spent an hour with Randy and he also met Deion Sanders.

Chris Myers then reports they are not going to take him. In another moment that was said seriously but is comedic now, Myers says that the Cowboys brought in a “behavior consultant” because they had so many issues off the field with players. Classic.

They then toss it to Andrea Kramer. She is the first to bring up the Minnesota Vikings. Denny Green told her that “this is America, everyone deserves a second chance.” She reports that Moss’s brother is on the Vikings. I did not know that. Green told Kramer that they had not taken Moss off their draft board.

Berman predicts a free fall for Moss. Theismann suggests the Cowboys pick Moss. He was right again.

The Cowboys go with defensive end Greg Ellis and then the picks start flying off the shelf with no Moss to be found. Fred Taylor to the Jaguars. Cornerback Duane Starks gets taken by the Ravens. The Eagles pick tackle Tra Thomas. Linebacker Keith Brooking to Atlanta. The Bengals go with linebacker Takeo Spikes.

Let’s stop again and say… WHAT A DRAFT. If this was a different draft with less talent, it’s possible Moss goes much earlier.

The Panthers go DT. The Seahawks pick a linebacker and then the lights go out. Berman calls Kiper Jr. “The Prince of Darkness.” Is there anybody ever better than Berman for a strange moment of live TV like that?

Lights are back on and the Tennessee Titans are on the clock. They pick Kevin Dyson. Yep, that’s right. Randy Moss was not the first WR taken. Kiper Jr. says he was a “better all-around player than Randy Moss was.” Alrighty.

When Dyson is taken, the crowd lets out an, “uhhhhhh.”

Another hilarious moment. Berman says to Mel: “Is he a better receiver right now than Randy Moss?”

Mel replies: “I think so.”

Can’t miss by much more than that. But that’s the draft for you.

A few picks later, we’re back to trashing the hell out of Moss. The broadcast runs a montage of everyone saying negative things about him from earlier in the night. In case you missed it, Moss is theeeee woorrrssssssstt.

We’re now 2 hours and 45 minutes in and Cohn is reporting on what Moss is eating. It’s a little weird that we don’t see him at all like other players who fell down draft boards. There’s no distinct vision of him dropping, just talk, talk, talk, talk about it.

One for the books: Cohn reports the Packers told Randy’s agent that they “simply have too many receivers” to pick Moss. WHOOPS.

Myers reports that the Vikings are considering Moss but their focus is cornerback. Can you imagine? Are they the Los Angeles Vikings right now if that had happened?

The Pack trade up to take DL Vonnie Holliday and the Lions go with Terry Fair. They would pay for those decisions just a little in the next six years.

Now we have finally arrived at the Vikings’ pick. They run in the pick. It’s Randy Moss. The crowd goes crazy.

They start playing the highlights. No matter how many times you watch, you just can’t believe it.

Mel questions Moss’s ability to get off the line of scrimmage but the former quarterback Theismann is beaming.

“If you see a big grin in Minnesota, it’s Brian Billick, the offensive coordinator,” he says.

Theismann was on a heater in this draft.

“Moss brings a real deep threat,” he says. “I also think there are very positive influences around him.”

Now we’ve got Jaws.

“It’s a great fit because he’s got the size in the red zone to go up and get the football,” he says.

He’s concerned about Moss’s lack of route running discipline but he’s amped too.

Now everybody likes Moss?!

Cohn is with Moss. She asks about his conversation with Denny Green.

“He just said to be encouraged and let all the stuff tonight, just keep it in the back [of my mind] and concentrate on what I do best,” Moss says.

Moss admits to telling Cohn that if he knew he was going to face so much scrutiny, he might have considered staying in college another year.

So freaking many things had to happen in order for him to become a Viking.

Randy claims that he’s not holding a grudge against the teams that passed on him. Sure, Randy.

Berman returns with this gem: “We now know the Vikings are no rolling stones because rolling stones gather no moss.”

Amazing.

Dennis Green is up next and he has the biggest smile of his life.

“This is old, old news, it’s not like it happened yesterday,” Green says indignantly. “That’s been our philosophy, we’re taking the best player on the board.”

He says he thought about getting Moss the previous November.

“Randy Moss teaming up with Cris Carter and Jake Reed with Robert Smith in the backfield and Andrew Glover running down the middle with give us the most potent offense in the National Football League,” Green said. “That’s why we drafted him.”

Whew. Bang on.

Green is so animated he’s basically putting on a WWE promo.

“This is a great player who made some mistakes in his past, he was 18 and 19 years old,” Green says. “We are taking the high road. We’re saying we have a full glass of water here and we have a football player who’s going to mean a lot to our football team.”

Green then says he’s going to re-work the playbook now that Moss is there.

Berman is loving it. He asks if Moss is coachable and buzzes the tower about the Vikings passing on Warren Sapp. Yet he did it in a very approachable way that didn’t get a defensive response.

Green is sweating confidence about Moss.

They say goodbye to Green and that’s that. Moss is a Minnesota Viking.

Whew.

After a full rewatch of the first round, one thing that kept coming to mind is that things haven’t changed with these broadcasts. If it bleeds, it leads. The most focus was on the controversial player who drops in the draft rather than most of the best players at the top. Like Shedeur Sanders taking the spotlight from Cam Ward in 2025, there was basically zero discussion of Manning and Leaf beyond the first two picks. You would have barely known that they were picked.

It’s hard to believe that we haven’t found a better way to cover players like this, including with the “off-field issues,” that are always treated like they are one singular problem and not specific to the individual.

Every year it’s fascinating to study the dominoes that fall and how they impact the future but this is one of the craziest drafts ever for that. Are they still the San Diego Chargers if they pick Peyton Manning? What if Chicago selected Fred Taylor instead of Curtis Enis? How about all those trades offers that teams turned down because the prices were so high? If a team like Arizona or the Mike Ditka Saints take Moss, what does he become? Or is he so good that it doesn’t matter?

What do the Vikings become if Moss doesn’t come here? Right now there is an entire generation of fans who watched the Vikings because of Moss. Does Green last a few more years if they didn’t have Moss and were a mid-pack offense? Then again, without Moss, there’s a certain heartbreak that doesn’t happen.

Looking back at an old draft is a little bit like a Twilight Zone episode. You imagine all the things that could have been and think about all of the things that were just because of decisions made on one night in April.

Wild.

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