NFL Draft Musings: Top Ten Picks Over the Past Decade

Cam Newton, Panthers

The 2011 NFL draft produced a lot of nice gems for teams to build on. When you consider the seasons that players like Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Aldon Smith and Von Miller had, this draft had to be one of the most productive drafts in a while. What’s even more remarkable is that these guys were able to have such incredible seasons despite having  their offseason shortened due to the lockout.

The top ten players in a draft can tell you a lot about the talent level of that draft as a whole and the 2011 draft had one of the most productive collection of top ten players in a while.

Looking back over the past ten drafts I ran across a few notable trends that caught my attention. Here are just a few draft facts concerning top ten players over the past decade.

AJ Green, Bengals

There has been at least one quarterback drafted in the top ten of every draft in the past decade. While that’s probably not a surprise, no other position had a player picked in all ten drafts. I dare you to pick the next two positions that were drafted the most years after the quarterback position.

If you guessed offensive tackle (9 years) and defensive tackle (7 years) then you are a true draftnik. The only time an offensive tackle wasn’t selected in the top ten was back in 2005 while a defensive tackle wasn’t selected in the top ten during the three year span from 2006-2008.

Jake Locker, Titans

2011 was the only time in the past decade that three quarterbacks went in the top ten. That hadn’t happened since Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith went 1, 2, 3 in the 1999 draft. Most would agree that McNabb had a pretty successful career while Couch and Smith flamed out. Could this year’s trio of Newton, Jake Locker and Blaine Gabbert follow suit? Only time will tell.

Although 2011 was the only time three quarterbacks were drafted in the top ten over the past decade, by comparison three offensive tackles have been drafted in the top ten twice and three wide receivers drafted in the top ten twice during the same time span.

Two wide receivers were drafted in the top ten of the 2011 draft. AJ Green and Julio Jones both had fabulous seasons but before you get the notion that drafting two receivers in the top ten is a rarity, at least two receivers went in the top ten six times over the past ten drafts.

There have only been seven running backs drafted in the top ten over the past decade and three of them were drafted in the same year. Ronnie Brown, Cedric Benson and Cadillac Williams were all top ten picks in the 2005 draft.

Aldon Smith, 49ers

The NFL is definitely a passing league now making pass rushers and cover corners more of a necessity. That’s why it was strange to see that four straight years passed (2006-2009) without a corner going in the top ten during the past decade.

Pass rushers were drafted pretty frequently with eight defensive ends and eight outside linebackers drafted in the top ten over the past decade. Twelve defensive tackles were also drafted over that time span with more teams trying to get pressure up the middle.

The last time a tight end was drafted in the top ten was back in 2006. Most teams like to draft tight ends lower in the draft so the fact that only two tight ends were drafted in the top ten over the past ten years comes as no surprise. Can you name them both? That’s right. Kellen Winslow and Vernon Davis.

Looking back at the 100 top ten players drafted over the past decade it would seem that teams can’t go wrong when drafting an offensive or defensive tackle in the top ten. Quarterbacks have been hit-or-miss and drafting either a defensive back or a running back is usually a pretty risky proposition. These are just a few things to keep in mind if your favorite team just so happens to be drafting in the top ten of this years’ draft. 

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and also writes for both The Penalty Flag and Outside The Redzone. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist.