Four TCU Horned Frogs Who Made Their Mark in the NFL

Fort Worth sports fans often look first to the Dallas Cowboys, but the city's Texas Christian University has built its own football reputation. Since Dennis Franchione revived the program, the Horned Frogs have become a regular top-10 contender and a steady source of players who go on to the NFL. Four former Frogs stand out for what they achieved at the next level.

Bob Lilly played at TCU from 1958 to 1961, before the Franchione era, but his résumé demands a mention. Nicknamed "Mr. Cowboy," the 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive tackle was a consensus All-American as a senior in 1960 and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Dallas took him 13th overall in the first round of the 1961 draft, and he spent 14 seasons with the club, won a Super Bowl and earned first-team all-star recognition seven times. His 29-yard sack of Miami quarterback Bob Griese in Super Bowl VI remains one of the game's most memorable defensive plays. Lilly is now 85 and lives in Georgetown, Texas, with his wife of 50 years. The couple have 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

LaDainian Tomlinson was the first major star of the Franchione years. Across four seasons from 1997 to 2000, the running back played 44 games and piled up 5,263 rushing yards and 54 touchdowns. The San Diego Chargers used the fifth pick of the 2001 draft on him, and with the team badly in need of a back, he started immediately. As a rookie he played all 16 games, ran for 1,236 yards and scored ten touchdowns. He reached double-digit touchdowns in each of his nine seasons with the Chargers, and in all but one of them he topped 1,100 rushing yards.

His 2006 season was the peak. Tomlinson carried the ball 348 times for a career-best and league-leading 1,815 yards and set an NFL record with 28 rushing touchdowns, earning Associated Press NFL MVP honors. He closed his career with the New York Jets, retired in 2011 after an injury-hit final year, and finished with 13,684 rushing yards and 145 touchdowns, plus 4,772 receiving yards and 74 more scores. He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

Jerry Hughes arrived at TCU as a running back out of Austin High School in Fort Bend County, but Gary Patterson moved him to defensive end. From 2006 to 2009 Hughes recorded 139 tackles, 39 tackles for loss and 28.5 sacks. The Indianapolis Colts chose him 31st overall in 2010, making him the first TCU player taken in the opening round since Tomlinson. He started only seven of his 40 games over three seasons in Indianapolis before a trade to the Buffalo Bills.

In Buffalo, Hughes was a near constant presence for nine years apart from his first season there. By the end of his contract in 2021 he had 53 sacks for the Bills, the fourth-most in franchise history. He signed with the Houston Texans in May 2022 at age 35 and started 16 games that year, though his playing time has been limited since. His career totals include 479 tackles, 70 sacks and 19 forced fumbles.

Andy Dalton redshirted in 2006 but still traveled to every road game with the team. He became the starting quarterback the next season and, over four seasons and 50 games, threw for 10,314 yards and 71 touchdowns. He was the fifth quarterback taken in the 2011 draft, going 35th overall to the Cincinnati Bengals, and he started from the first day. His quietest year there was 2018, with 2,170 yards and 14 touchdowns. After the Bengals made Joe Burrow the first overall pick two years later, Dalton was no longer needed.

He then backed up Dak Prescott in Dallas, making nine starts in 11 appearances after Prescott was injured, and signed with the Chicago Bears in March 2021, where he played behind Justin Fields. A move to the New Orleans Saints followed in March 2022, and then a two-year deal with the Carolina Panthers, who had made Bryce Young the first overall pick. Dalton played only three games in the first season, but Young's struggles in 2024 opened the door, and Dalton has started four of the team's first six games this season.

Dalton has 39,407 regular-season passing yards and 86 touchdowns. Only 24 quarterbacks in NFL history have thrown for at least 40,000 yards, and Dalton appears close to joining them.