Comments on: Four First Round Defensive Linemen http://www.footballperspective.com/four-first-round-defensive-linemen/ NFL History and Stats Tue, 20 May 2014 00:55:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Richie http://www.footballperspective.com/four-first-round-defensive-linemen/#comment-117624 Tue, 20 May 2014 00:55:40 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=19759#comment-117624 “The problem: Deacon Jones … started from 1961 to 1971.”

I hate problems like that!

]]> By: Kibbles http://www.footballperspective.com/four-first-round-defensive-linemen/#comment-117412 Mon, 19 May 2014 15:09:25 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=19759#comment-117412 The 2005 Denver Broncos (aka the infamous “Browncos”) featured Courtney Brown (#1 overall), Gerard Warren (#3 overall), Ebenezer Ekuban (#20 overall), and Trevor Pryce (#28 overall), though Ekuban was a rotational player who only logged 4 starts that year. Just for fun, Denver also threw in Marco Coleman (#12 overall) and John Engelberger (#35 overall) off the bench.

Those Broncos teams at the end of the Shanahan era were pretty addicted to acquiring aging former 1st rounders on the defensive line. In addition to those six, they had Daryl Gardener (#20 overall) in ’03, Ellis Johnson (#15 overall) and Luther Elliss (#20 overall) in ’04, Kenard Lang (#17 overall) in ’06, Simeon Rice (#3 overall), Sam Adams (#8 overall), and Jarvis Moss (#17 overall) in ’07, and Dewayne Robinson (#4 overall) in ’08. That’s thirteen DIFFERENT 1st round pick defensive linemen over a 6-year span, only two of which were actually drafted by the Broncos themselves. If you were over 30, played on the defensive line, and had been drafted in the first round, it was a near-certainty that you were going to wind up playing in Denver.

In case anyone thinks that might have been a fluke or an example of the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy, look at Shanahan’s time in Washington. He joined the Washington football franchise in 2010 and promptly signed Vonnie Holliday (19th overall) and Adam Carriker (13th overall), and in 2011 added Kentwan Balmer (#29 overall) and drafted Ryan Kerrigan (#16 overall). In fact, I think that Albert Haynesworth might be the only past-his-prime former 1st round defensive lineman Mike Shanahan *DIDN’T* like (well, Daryl Gardener, but even then there was a honeymoon period). Some people just have a type.

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