It took longer than anyone expected, but when Jermaine Johnson was (finally!) drafted in the first round on Thursday night, he joined a select fraternity of former Florida State greats.

Not only did Johnson become the 46th Florida State player drafted in the first round (tied with Tennessee for 10th most all time) but he became the 13th FSU defensive lineman selected in the first round.

With that in mind, I wanted to take a quick look back at the previous 12 and how they fared in the NFL and where Johnson might end up in the pantheon of great FSU linemen when his professional career is over.

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So, here's a quick refresher on the 12 before Johnson:

Alphonso Caraker, 1984 Green Bay Packers (12th overall)

Derrick Alexander, 1995 Minnesota Vikings (11th overall)

Peter Boulware, 1997 Baltimore Ravens (4th overall)

Reinard Wilson, 1997 Cincinatti Bengals (14th overall)

Andre Wadsworth, 1998 Arizona Cardnals (3rd overall)

Corey Simon, 2000 Philadelphia Eagles (6th overall)

Jamal Reynolds, 2001 Green Bay Packers (10th overall)

Travis Johnson, 2005 Houston Texans (16th overall)

Kam Wimbley, 2006 Cleveland Browns (13th overall)

Broderick Bunkley, 2006 Philadelphia Eagles (14th overall)

Bjoern Werner, 2013 Indianapolis Colts (24th overall)

Brian Burns, 2019 Carolina Panthers (16th overall).

So, when you look at those names, a couple of things stand out: First and foremost, those defensive lines in the mid 1990s were absolutely ferocious. I mean, good grief.

And, while there have been really good players that have come through Tallahassee over the last 15 years — including a few that helped the Seminoles to a national championship — it's rather striking to me that Johnson was just the third first-round pick off the FSU defensive line in the last 16 years.

Now let's examine the previous 12 guys. And if Johnson has a good career, where he might end up ranking on the all-time list of FSU defensive linemen.

First, he has to avoid the "bust" category that swallowed up a few of those aforementioned names. And I don't use the term "bust" loosely. And I really don't want it to be a catch-all to anyone that didn't live up to the draft expectations because all situations are different.

Like Wadsworth, who was the highest player ever drafted out of FSU before Jameis Winston came along, had all the makings of an exceptional player in the NFL. His career was undone by a knee injury from which he never fully recovered.

Werner and Reynolds just weren't good enough. At least not in the defensive schemes those two franchises ran at the time. I'll always wonder how good Werner could have been if he had been drafted by a team that ran a traditional 4-3, but alas, he wasn't, and like Reynolds he was out of the league when his rookie contract expired.

Here's hoping Johnson has a better, more fortunate career than those three, right?

The next step up in the pantheon are guys like Simon, Alexander and Wimbley.

Wimbley played nine seasons in the NFL and had 53.5 sacks. He wasn't a star, but he was a solid player for almost a decade.

Simon was an eight-year veteran in the league and made a Pro Bowl with the Eagles until a knee injury derailed his career. And Alexander played five years with the Vikings and recorded over 20 sacks in his career before his playing days were over.

Then there's the final level, which Johnson is looking to ascend to or even maybe pass one day. That's the fraternity of great professional defensive ends hailing from Florida State. And right now, as you sit here reading this story in April of 2022, it's a pretty small frat house.

Boulware is in it. He's the landlord. He's got the master bedroom and the big tub. And maybe, maybe, Burns is working himself into a room at the house.

First and foremost, if Johnson can have a career anywhere close to what Boulware did for the Ravens, the Jets will be mighty, mighty happy they traded up for him.

Boulware played nine seasons in the NFL, was the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, a four-time Pro Bowler, a Super Bowl champ and finished his career with 70 sacks. But, and stop me if you've read this already, his career was derailed by a knee injury.

And then there's Burns. The last great defensive lineman to come out of Florida State. The last first-rounder to come out of Florida State.

I'm not sure that he's in Boulware's fraternity quite yet, but he's banging on the door pretty loudly.

He's played three seasons with the Panthers and already has 25.5 sacks in his career — more than any other FSU first-rounders not named Boulware and Wimbley. He has 51.5 career tackles for loss. And he was named a Pro Bowler in 2021.

Burns looks like he could be wrecking offenses for the better part of the next decade.

Johnson will be hoping to do the same thing.

I don't know why he slipped so far past what the experts and analysts were predicting. I don't know what concerns teams might have had about him going into Thursday night.

All I know is what I saw on Saturdays and what I was told by FSU coaches.

He was a terrific college football player. One of the best to ever wear the garnet and gold. Truly.

He played hard every snap, he gave everything he had to a team that he had only joined a few months prior. He was, by all accounts, a great teammate and a great leader.

And as we all saw for 12 weeks, he was a great player.

Now we all get to sit back and see if he can have himself a great NFL career, and maybe come knocking on that Boulware-Burns front door one day.

No matter what, though, he must know he'll have an entire fanbase cheering like crazy for him.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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