thesaintsfan

I was looking at our rookies' rankings in the three draft magazines I have and my favorite draft site (NFL Draft Countdown) and if you go by them we got some steals. The three mags I have are Pro Football Weekly, Lindy's, and The Sporting News. I consider those mags to be very solid every year. NFL Draft Countdown is the best draft site IMHO. I took the rankings for each player from the four sources and figured up their average ranking. The results put a smile on my face. These are the averages:

Ellis--#2 DT
Tracy Porter--#10 CB
Carl Nicks--#7 OT
Jolonn Dunbar--#8 MLB
DeMario Pressley--#9 DT
Taylor Mehlhaff--#1 PK


I know that these average rankings don't mean much but I thought it was great that all these guys had a top ten avg ranking at their respective posistions. I was shocked at how highly regarded Dunbar was. I have to admit that I knew nothing about him but from what I've read and heard it seems like he has a great shot at making the team. Mike Mayock said that Carl Nicks might be the best run blocker in the entire class and Porter has the best skill set out of any of the CBs. He also said that both are very raw and have alot of work to do in order to reach their full potential.

For some reason nobody seems to like Adrian Arrington though. He was ranked in the 20s and The Sporting News had him ranked as the 43rd best WR. WTF! Did they not see what he did to Florida? I'm a Penn State fan and I've had to watch this guy tear us up for the past few years. He might not be the best WR but he's a damn sight better than 43rd. Anyway, that's my two cents on our draft class for what it's worth.

We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams.

JKool

TSF, that is interesting.

It would be nice if we had some correlations between draft ranking and success in the NFL. Even some generalities like "players ranked top 3 at their position tend to make the team that selected them" would be very interesting.

I guess, I'm just not sold that a guy ranked at #10 at his position has much chance of even making an NFL squad, let alone a starting line up. Obviously, that said, it will depend on the position. For example, Porter, ranked at 10, but since teams play two starting CBs, it isn't as bad that he is ranked #10, whereas a #10 ranked kicker is likely not to get drafted at all.

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks

JKool

I'm doing some research on whether there are any correlations of note, and I haven't found anything yet.

Here is an article that is quite interesting regarding the overall project:

Finding the right stats could be key to the NFL draft - Apr. 28, 2006

Notice the claim that 40 times are pretty worthless for guaging the success of an NFL draftee.

JKool

Here's another really interesting article that suggests that QB statistical analysis can help identify who will succeed in the Pros:

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Football analysis and NFL stats for the Moneyball era - Authors of Pro Football Prospectus 2008

Most interesting finding: for QBs, there is no correlation between draft rank and success in the NFL!

Most interesting tid-bit: the most important stats for judging a QB - completion percentage and games played.

thesaintsfan

Thanks JKool, good reads.

saintsrule

It seems they were able to get the top players for each spot.