UNC goes without an NFL draft pick for first time since 2016

North Carolina failed to have a player selected in this year’s NFL draft, snapping an eight-year streak and dealing a blow to the Tar Heels’ self-proclaimed status as the “33rd NFL team.”

UNC was one of just 10 Power Four programs without a draft pick, joining Colorado, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Syracuse, UCLA, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Tar Heels had produced at least one draft pick in each of the previous eight drafts. Six of those classes featured two or more players selected, three included a first-round pick and all eight had at least one player taken in the fifth round or earlier. The last time North Carolina went without a draft pick was 2016.

The drought reflects poorly not only on the state of the football program, but also on Bill Belichick’s experiment in Chapel Hill.

When Belichick took over and brought in former NFL assistant coaches as well as former NFL executive Michael Lombardi as general manager, North Carolina positioned itself as an NFL-style operation.

“Everything we do here is predicated on building a pro team,” Lombardi said. “We consider ourselves the 33rd (NFL) team because everybody who’s involved with our program has had some form or aspect in pro football.”

The results have not matched the rhetoric. The Tar Heels finished near the bottom of the ACC at 4-8 overall and 2-6 in league play last season, limited access for NFL scouts and even barred personnel from the New England Patriots amid an ongoing feud between Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft that followed Belichick’s dismissal.

Cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, considered UNC’s top NFL prospect, was invited to the scouting combine but went undrafted. He later signed with the as an undrafted free agent. Whether Dixon might have been drafted had Belichick allowed broader access for scouts is impossible to know.