AFC North Draft Comparison...Screwed by Primetime

Since I had too much to do this week and the NFL decided the first round deserves primetime on a Thursday (eat shit Goodell) I will not have the hugely anticipated (by no one) AFC North Draft comparison since 1991 ready before round 1.  It's mostly there but there are a lot of ways to slice and dice and compare and contrast so it will have to wait a few more days.

Basically, what I did (along with reader John D from NYC) was rank every draft pick made by an AFC North team subjectively from 1 to 5 (1 being best) and also classify them as being things like "productive starter", "pro bowler" or "from big name school".  Some preliminary findings:

Average rank of pre-Marvin draft pick:  4.1
Average rank of post-Marvin draft pick:  3.89
Average draft position pre-Marvin:  9
Average draft position post-Marvin:  17

So, right off the bat, you can see we draft better players from a comparatively worse position with Marvin.  Trust me, Cincinnati needs Marvin Lewis.

Also, remember the Jerome Simpson pick?  Yeah, me too.  It sucked.  Well, when we draft from lesser college programs (roughly 41 of 165 total picks), 85% of the time those picks rank as 5's.  85% of the time!  Remember, a 5 is basically a complete failure.  Compare that to 45% of the picks being 5's from big time programs.  Really only 4 draft picks in almost 20 years of drafts from small name schools have mattered.

This makes sense when you remember we don't have a scouting staff so how on earth would they know what's going on at a lesser program, let alone a larger one.  The most hilarious example if it wasn't so sickening?  In the 1992 draft we took players from Houston, Troy State, North Carolina A&T, Middle Tennessee State, Central State (WTF?), Houston again, Western Illinois and Louisiana Tech.  Read that again.  Now wipe the vomit off your mouth.

There is absolutely no way, in 1992, that you could reasonable say the Bengals canvased the college football scene so thoroughly that they should have selected most of their picks from schools like that.  A complete fucking joke.  Like the entire 90s.

Other things that jump out. 

The Ravens draft first rounders that become great players at an incredibly high rate.  Here's their list since 1996 (though I will allot them the Browns picks before then eventually b/c same personnel were involved in the selection process).

Michael Oher
Joe Flacco
Ben Grubbs
Haloti Ngata
Mark Clayton
Terrell Suggs
Kyle Boller
Ed Reed
Todd Heap
Jamal Lewis
Travis Taylor
Chris McAlister
Duane Starks
Peter Boulware
Jonathan Ogden
Ray Lewis

Holy unsolved double homicide outside a club, Batman!  Only 3 bad picks out of 16.  And they're not just good players...they are all time greats like Ray Ray, Ed Reed, and Ogden.  And now they just picked up franchise anchors Oher and Flacco (and Ray Rice).  Absurd.

The flipside? The list of Ravens WR busts is hilarious, they can't draft WR for shit.  2 of their only 3 crappy 1st round picks are WR...so just imagine how they fare with later rounds.

Also, the Steelers have been quietly racking up awful drafts in the recent past.  Worth noting.

And the Browns?  Oh boy.  Let's just say they might as well quit.  I would say they have the most horrendous record of capable of being produced by people whose job it is to actually draft.

Comments

[TY]

If the report from profootballtalk.com yesterday - which says the Bengals only select players they've had pre-draft visits with, and the NFL only allows 30 of those - then this is no surprise. And looking at this year's list of visits...three QB's, from Bowling Green, Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern...Penn State BACKUP tight end Mickey Shuler...and South Dakota St. DE Danny Batten, it appears we're up to our old tricks again.

[wch]

Only thing good about Goodell is his wife -- Jane Skinner!

[Leo deTrotskyo]

Could Mikey be trying to relive the glory that was selecting Ken Anderson from tiny Augustana?

Also, let's not annoint Flacco and Oher just yet...way too early in their careers.