The 2019 NFL draft is now history and although much has and will be written about the players picked, the following breaks down some of the more unusual statistics generated.
The Power Five conferences dominated the draft.
Although over the last few years teams such as UCF & Houston has shown that the group of Five teams can compete with the best when it comes to drafting players NFL teams still favour the big 5. If we include the main FBS Independent Notre Dame then 0ut of 254 players drafted 197 came from the big five conferences. That’s over 77.5%!
Breaking this down further the SEC had 64 players drafted (a record by a single conference) and the Big Ten had 40. Behind them came the PAC 12 with 33, the ACC with 28 and Big 12 with 26. Notre Dame 6 players drafted.
Of these 10 came from Alabama, 9 from Ohio State and 8 each from Oklahoma and Washington.
30 of the 32 first-round draft picks also came from this group.
The Group of Five still struggles to recruit NFL calibre talent.
Based on the above it is clear that the kudos of the Power Five still hold sway when recruiting decisions are made. Only 37 players out of the 254 selected played for colleges in this group. That’s just over 14.5%.
The AAC had 11 players drafted including top 10 pick Ed Oliver while at the bottom the Sunbelt only had a single player drafted.
The FCS provided a first-round pick.
The FCS had a total of 18 players drafted including one in the 1st round – Tytus Howard out of SWAC Conference side Alabama State. Overall they made up 7% of the draft, and five were from teams who played in the NCAA Div II.
Despite the concentration, 104 different colleges were represented in the draft including some lesser known ones such as the Sioux Falls Cougars & The Tarleton State Texans. Well done to the players and coaching staff at those institutions.
Top Playing Positions Picked
Well somewhat surprisingly Cornerback was the most popular choice. – Despite only one being taken in round one, 32 were taken overall with seven going in round two and eight going in the sixth.
Next came Linebackers, with 31 taken. A quite staggering 12 ware taken in round five. Only two were expected to go round one and this proved to be the case.
This was expected to be a defense heavy draft but overall it was pretty evenly split, but the top 10 was D dominated with 7 linemen taken along with 2 QBs and a Tight End.
The following shows 254 players selected by position:
32 Cornerbacks
31 Linebackers
28 Wide receivers
26 Defensive ends
25 Running backs
23 Offensive tackles
21 Defensive tackles
19 Safeties
16 Tight ends
12 Offensive guards
11 Quarterbacks
5 Centers
2 Kickers
2 Punters
1 Long snapper
Yes, The Vikings drafted a Long Snapper, admittedly with pick 250 take a bow Austin Cutting out of the Airforce Academy; however, he will have to serve his country first for 24 months so he may not actually see the playing field in 2019 or 2020.
Tampa Bay will be hoping for better luck this time with Kicker Matt Gay who set a PAC-12 Field Goal record with 30 in 2017. Back in 2016, they took Kicker Roberto Aguayo with pick 59 (Honestly in the second Round!) and it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. His NFL Field Goal stats are currently 22-31 – less than 71% and his longest is 43 yards. Not surprisingly he is long gone from Tampa and its unlikely he will be in a starting squad in 2019.
