FSU football: 15 greatest NFL careers ever by former Seminoles
By Joey Loose
FSU football greatest NFL career No. 9: Warrick Dunn
Warrick Dunn was an elite running back at Florida State in the 90s and is the only running back in program history to have his jersey honored, though Dalvin Cook might change that one day. After racking up three straight 1000-yard seasons with the Seminoles, he was drafted in the 1st round of the 1997 NFL Draft.
Dunn was taken with the 12th pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and settled into the NFL game right off the bat. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1997, rushing for 978 yards and making the first Pro Bowl of his career.
By year two, he was a 1000-yard rusher and would eclipse 1200 yards from scrimmage in each of his first four seasons in the NFL. He, unfortunately, would leave Tampa after the 2001 season, just one year before the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl.
His career was far from over, as he was the starting running back of the Atlanta Falcons for much of the next three seasons, including three more 100-yard rushing seasons. He was a Pro Bowler for a third time in 2005 with the Falcons and even had a 142-yard rushing performance in a playoff win over the St. Louis Rams the year before.
He’d briefly return to Tampa at the end of his career and eclipsed 10,000 rushing yards across 12 NFL seasons. Dunn was a major factor for these two franchises, now division rivals, and also scored 64 career touchdowns, 49 on the ground and 15 through the air. His twelve years in the league were legitimately a long career for NFL running backs.