We know the draft is important and certainly there are diamonds in the rough throughout a 7 round draft, but it might surprise you how many of the top players in the NFL were drafted in the 1st round.
I got to thinking about this last night, as teams prepare for the draft, how important is your 1st round pick? I figure, the value/importance of the pick is directly correlated to the % of top players in the NFL that were selected in that round. Here's what I found when I compiled a list of the Top 20 players with a little help from NFL.com (no specific order):
- Pat Mahomes (1)
- Russell Wilson (3)
- Drew Brees (2)
- Aaron Rodgers (1)
- Tom Brady (6)
- Aaron Donald (1)
- Khalil Mack (1)
- Stephon Gilmore (1)
- Christian McCaffrey (1)
- Saquan Barkley (1)
- DeAndre Hopkins (1)
- Michael Thomas (2)
- Travis Kelce (3)
- Tyreek Hill (5)
- Quenton Nelson (1)
- Ronnie Stanley (1)
- Julio Jones (1)
- Lamar Jackson (1)
- JJ Watt (1)
- Bobby Wagner (2)
We can save the debate for who belongs on that list and who doesn't for another day. The fact is, the guys listed above are at least in the conversation for Top 20 consideration.
13 of the top 20 were drafted inside of the 1st round.
3 were drafted in round 2
2 in round 3
1 in round 5
1 in round 6
Translation, hit on your early picks unless you plan on drafting Tom Brady in the 6th round. So often were told leading up to the draft what we don't know, I wrote the info above to give you something we do know...the best players get drafted early. Sounds simple, but now you can use this info as fact.
Have fun tonight!