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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…]

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In the last 20 years of draft picks, you might be surprised to learn that just 2 of them have played in a Super Bowl: Eli Manning and Cam Newton. Just one more, Alex Smith, was on a team that made a Super Bowl (Smith started 9 games for the 2012 49ers, but did not appear in the Super Bowl as the backup to Colin Kaepernick). So that means Manning is the last #1 pick to win a Super Bowl, and his brother Peyton (now that’s a new one) is the second-to-last player to be drafted first overall and win a Super Bowl.

Jared Goff, the first overall pick in the 2016 Draft, will join the Mannings, Newton, and Smith when he starts for the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.   The cupboard is far from bare — Eric Fisher nearly made it this year, too, and Jadeveon Clowney and Andrew Luck were on playoff teams, while the Browns have the two most recent #1 picks and an exciting future to ponder.

The graph below shows all #1 overall picks since 1970, and how many Super Bowl they’ve appeared in: [continue reading…]

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