2019 Draft

The SEC And Alabama Once Again Dominated The NFL Draft

by Chase Stuart on May 1, 2019

The Alabama Crimson Tide once again dominated the draft, as did the entire Southeastern Conference. Three Alabama players — defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, guard Jonah Williams, and running back Josh Jacobs — went in the first round, and the school had 10 players selected in the 2019 Draft, the most of any school this year. And based on the Football Perspective Draft Value Chart, Alabama also had the most draft value of any school, followed by Ohio State, Clemson, and Oklahoma.

The table below shows the draft value each school produced in 2019:

RK	College	Conference	Players	Draft Value
1	Alabama	SEC	10	91
2	Ohio St.	Big Ten	9	79.7
3	Clemson	ACC	6	78.8
4	Oklahoma	Big 12	8	76.4
5	Michigan	Big Ten	5	55.5
6	Mississippi St.	SEC	5	54.7
7	Washington	Pac-12	8	51
8	Iowa	Big Ten	4	46
9	Kentucky	SEC	5	40.7
10	LSU	SEC	3	37.8
11	Mississippi	SEC	6	34.8
12	Boston Col.	ACC	4	32.4
13	Florida	SEC	5	30
14	Georgia	SEC	7	29.4
15	North Carolina St.	ACC	4	29.3
16	Notre Dame	Ind	6	28.6
17	Houston	American	3	25.2
18	Texas A&M	SEC	7	24.3
19	Utah	Pac-12	5	23.8
20	Stanford	Pac-12	5	23.4
21	Duke	ACC	1	23.2
22	TCU	Big 12	3	23
23	Penn St.	Big Ten	6	22.3
24	West Virginia	Big 12	5	20
25	Maryland	Big Ten	3	17.8
26	Florida St.	ACC	2	17.5
27	Washington St.	Pac-12	2	16.5
28	Arizona St.	Pac-12	2	16.4
29	Temple	American	3	15.2
30	USC	Pac-12	4	14.8
31	Alabama St.	fcs	1	14.6
32	Wisconsin	Big Ten	4	14.5
33	South Carolina	SEC	3	13.1
34	Iowa St.	Big 12	2	12.4
35	Central Michigan	MAC	2	12.3
36	Vanderbilt	SEC	2	11.8
37	Auburn	SEC	6	11.7
37	Kansas St.	Big 12	2	11.7
39	Missouri	SEC	2	11.2
40	Memphis	American	2	11.2
40	Michigan St.	Big Ten	2	11.2
42	Miami (FL)	ACC	5	10.9
43	Northern Illinois	MAC	2	10.8
44	Hawaii	MWC	2	10.6
45	Toledo	MAC	2	9.3
46	Virginia	ACC	2	9.1
47	Central Florida	American	1	8.7
48	Delaware	fcs	1	8.5
49	Massachusetts	Ind	1	8.3
50	Arkansas	SEC	3	8.2
51	Baylor	Big 12	1	7.8
52	San Jose St.	MWC	1	7.6
53	Florida Atlantic	CUSA	2	7.4
54	Old Dominion	CUSA	2	7
55	BYU	Ind	1	6.7
56	Charlotte	CUSA	1	6.5
57	West. Illinois	fcs	1	6.4
58	Louisiana Tech	CUSA	1	6.3
59	San Diego St.	MWC	1	6.2
60	Oregon	Pac-12	4	5.9
60	Sioux Falls	fcs	1	5.9
62	Oklahoma St.	Big 12	3	5.8
63	Boise St.	MWC	1	5.1
64	East. Michigan	MAC	1	4.9
65	Wake Forest	ACC	1	3.9
66	Indiana	Big Ten	1	3.6
67	Charleston (WV)	fcs	1	3.4
68	Rutgers	Big Ten	2	2.6
68	Pittsburgh	ACC	1	2.6
70	Texas	Big 12	2	2.5
71	Minnesota	Big Ten	1	2.4
72	Tarleton St.	fcs	1	2.1
73	Northwestern	Big Ten	1	2
73	North Dakota St.	fcs	1	2
75	North Carolina	ACC	1	1.8
76	Fresno St.	MWC	1	1.7
77	Washburn	fcs	1	1.5
78	Colorado	Pac-12	1	1.3
79	SE Missouri St.	fcs	1	1.2
79	Wyoming	MWC	1	1.2
81	Elon	fcs	1	1.1
82	La-Monroe	Sun Belt	1	0.8
83	Bowling Green	MAC	1	0.6
83	Akron	MAC	1	0.6
85	Illinois	Big Ten	1	0.4
85	Utah St.	MWC	1	0.4
87	Tulane	American	1	0.2
87	South Dakota St.	fcs	1	0.2
89	Syracuse	ACC	1	0
89	Cincinnati	American	1	0
89	Texas Tech	Big 12	1	0
89	North Carolina A&T	fcs	1	0
89	James Madison	fcs	1	0
89	Prairie View	fcs	1	0
89	Valdosta St.	fcs	1	0
89	Idaho	fcs	1	0
89	Morgan St.	fcs	1	0
89	Colorado St.	MWC	1	0
89	Air Force	MWC	1	0
89	Arizona	Pac-12	1	0
89	UCLA	Pac-12	1	0

Alabama’s dominance in the draft was part of an even more impressive showing by the conference as a whole. Eight of the top 18 teams in draft value came from the SEC, including 5 teams from the SEC West. The graph below shows how much draft value each conference produced in 2019:

And here’s the same data in table form:

Rk	Conf	Draft Value
1	SEC	398.7
2	Big Ten	258
3	ACC	209.5
4	Big 12	159.6
5	Pac-12	153.1
6	American	60.5
-	fcs	46.9
-	Ind	43.6
7	MAC	38.5
8	MWC	32.8
9	CUSA	27.2
10	Sun Belt	0.8

Some other draft notes:

Tennessee was the only SEC school that did not produce a draft pick in 2019.
In the Big 10, Purdue and Nebraska were the only two schools that did not have a player drafted. For Nebraska, this ended a steak of having at least one player drafted in every year since 1963.
Kansas was the only Big 12 school without a draft pick in 2019.
In the Pac 12, California and Oregon State were the two schools shut out from the Draft.
Louisville, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech were ACC schools without a player selected in the 2019 Draft.
Houston, Temple, and Central Michigan were the three non-Power 5 schools with the most draft value.
Three schools went 1-11 and still produced at least one draft pick: Rutgers, San Jose State, and Central Michigan.
Just two first round picks did not go to a Power 5 school, and both have Houston ties. With the 9th pick, the Bills selected Houston DT Ed Oliver, and with the 23rd pick, the Texans drafted Alabama State OT Tytus Howard.

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The 2019 Draft Class Was Another QB-Heavy Draft

by Chase Stuart on April 30, 2019

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The 2019 Draft was another good one for quarterbacks. Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray was the first overall pick to the Cardinals, Duke passer Daniel Jones was taken by the Giants with sixth pick, and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins was the 15th pick to Washington. The Broncos took Missouri Tiger Drew Lock with the 42nd pick, rounding out the class of top prospects.

Over the last 20 years, there were 56 quarterbacks selected in the first round, or just under three per year; there were also 68 quarterbacks taken in the first 50 picks, so the 2019 class was slightly more quarterback-heavy than normal. It was also the 14th time in the last 20 drafts that a quarterback went first overall.

The draft below shows the draft capital — using the Football Perspective Draft Value Chart to assign draft capital to each pick — used on quarterbacks in all drafts since 1967. As you can see, 2019 was not as quarterback-heavy as 2018, but it was still a draft that saw more draft capital used on quarterbacks than average.

[continue reading…]

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The 2019 NFL Draft, Value By Position: The Big Bodies Are On Defense

by Chase Stuart on April 29, 2019

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The NFL Draft is a good way to measure how the league values particular positions. Last year, it seemed as though the running game was back in vogue: after quarterback, running back was perhaps the most highly valued position in the 2018 Draft, and a lot of draft capital was used on non-pass rushing linebackers.

Which positions did NFL teams focus on in the 2019 NFL Draft? We can use the Football Perspective Draft Value Chart to answer that question pretty easily for the first 224 picks (all picks after that have been excluded, since they have a draft value of zero). This was a draft for interior defensive linemen and edge rushers, but even more notable was the absence of draft capital spent on interior offensive linemen.

Consider that 3 out of every 22 players on a football field, at all times, is a guard or center. All else being equal, you would expect 14% of all draft picks and all draft capital to be spent on interior offensive linemen. That means 1 out of every 7.3 draft picks should be an offensive guard or center, but in the first 73 draft picks, there were just 5 interior offensive linemen selected. Just 8% of the first 100 picks were guards or centers, and overall, only 8.4% of all draft capital was spent on guards and centers. Here’s the full list of draftees. [continue reading…]

Tagged as: 2019 Draft, Draft

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