Where Was The Best Player Selected In Each Draft?

by Chase Stuart on April 12, 2018

You know who the best player was in the 2000 Draft: Tom Brady, who has a career AV of 171. Brian Urlacher (118) is the only other player with a career AV of over 100.

I looked at the 46 drafts from 1967 (the first AFL-NFL common draft) through 2012 (there’s no clear cut-off of when to stop, but 2012 is about as late as you can push it). Of those 46 drafts, the top overall pick had the most AV in 6 drafts, and in another 7 drafts, the top AV came from the 2nd or 3rd overall pick. In half of these drafts, the top AV came from a top-15 pick, while in four of 46 drafts, it came from a player outside of the top 100.

The graph below shows, for each year, the draft pick that produced the most career AV.

And here’s the full list in table form:

Year	Pick	Player	Car AV
1967	15	Alan Page	135
1968	1	Ron Yary	97
1969	33	Ted Hendricks	107
1970	1	Terry Bradshaw	106
1971	67	Ken Anderson	121
1972	13	Franco Harris	102
1973	64	Dan Fouts	122
1974	125	Mike Webster	116
1975	4	Walter Payton	128
1976	5	Mike Haynes	105
1977	2	Tony Dorsett	108
1978	6	James Lofton	101
1979	82	Joe Montana	123
1980	3	Anthony Munoz	133
1981	2	Lawrence Taylor	137
1982	10	Marcus Allen	103
1983	27	Dan Marino	145
1984	38	Boomer Esiason	106
1985	16	Jerry Rice	159
1986	60	Pat Swilling	99
1987	10	Rod Woodson	140
1988	19	Randall McDaniel	119
1989	3	Barry Sanders	121
1990	17	Emmitt Smith	129
1991	33	Brett Favre	156
1992	36	Jimmy Smith	109
1993	40	Michael Strahan	121
1994	2	Marshall Faulk	133
1995	28	Derrick Brooks	141
1996	26	Ray Lewis	158
1997	73	Jason Taylor	117
1998	1	Peyton Manning	177
1999	4	Edgerrin James	114
2000	199	Tom Brady	171
2001	32	Drew Brees	159
2002	2	Julius Peppers	128
2003	1	Carson Palmer	108
2004	4	Philip Rivers	134
2005	24	Aaron Rodgers	128
2006	108	Jahri Evans	111
2007	11	Patrick Willis	92
2008	3	Matt Ryan	120
2009	1	Matthew Stafford	85
2010	195	Antonio Brown	80
2011	1	Cam Newton	95
2012	75	Russell Wilson	88

What stands out to you?

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