Has anyone ever correlated the NFL draft with rivals or scout star rankings? I'd be interested to see the first 2 rounds of this years draft, and what their ranking was out of high school.
That's actually a really good idea. I've never really thought about that, aside from the more obvious and notable players from the past...I guess the only ones I can think of right now is Peyton and Eli Manning (regardless of what you think of Eli, he was one of the most coveted QBs out of high school and the number 1 draft pick). The only players I can think of right now who was a Blue Chip out of high school are Marcus Spears and Cedric Benson.
Here are the first two rounds. I looked at the rivals100 and I dont think that they go back far enough for me to tell where they were ranked coming out of HS. It only goes back to 2001, and a lot of these guys were in the 1999 and 2000 classes. 1 (1) San Francisco Alex Smith * QB JR Utah 2 (2) Miami Ronnie Brown * RB SR* Auburn 3 (3) Cleveland Braylon Edwards * WR SR Michigan 4 (4) Chicago Cedric Benson * RB SR Texas 5 (5) Tampa Bay Carnell Williams * RB SR Auburn 6 (6) Tennessee Adam Jones * CB JR West Virginia 7 (7) Minnesota Troy Williamson * WR JR South Carolina 8 (8) Arizona Antrel Rolle * CB SR Miami (Fl) 9 (9) Washington Carlos Rogers * CB SR Auburn 10 (10) Detroit Mike Williams * WR JR USC 11 (11) Dallas Demarcus Ware * OLB SR Troy State 12 (12) San Diego Shawne Merriman * DE JR Maryland 13 (13) New Orleans Jammal Brown * OT SR Oklahoma 14 (14) Carolina Thomas Davis * S JR Georgia 15 (15) Kansas City Derrick Johnson * OLB SR Texas 16 (16) Houston Travis Johnson * DT SR* Florida State 17 (17) Cincinnati David Pollack * DE SR Georgia 18 (18) Minnesota Erasmus James * DE SR* Wisconsin 19 (19) St. Louis Alex Barron * OT SR* Florida State 20 (20) Dallas Marcus Spears * DE SR LSU 21 (21) Jacksonville Matt Jones * TE SR Arkansas 22 (22) Baltimore Mark Clayton * WR SR Oklahoma 23 (23) Oakland Fabian Washington * CB JR Nebraska 24 (24) Green Bay Aaron Rodgers * QB JR California 25 (25) Washington Jason Campbell * QB SR* Auburn 26 (26) Seattle Chris Spencer * C JR* Mississippi 27 (27) Atlanta Roddy White WR SR UAB 28 (28) San Diego Luis Castillo * DT SR Northwestern 29 (29) Indianapolis Marlin Jackson * CB SR Michigan 30 (30) Pittsburgh Heath Miller * TE JR* Virginia 31 (31) Philadelphia Mike Patterson * DT SR USC 32 (32) New England Logan Mankins OG SR Fresno State 1 (33) San Francisco David Baas * OG SR* Michigan 2 (34) Cleveland Brodney Pool * S JR Oklahoma 3 (35) Philadelphia Reggie Brown * WR SR Georgia 4 (36) Tampa Bay Barrett Ruud * MLB SR Nebraska 5 (37) Detroit Shaun Cody * DT SR USC 6 (38) Oakland Stanford Routt CB SR Houston 7 (39) Chicago Mark Bradley WR SR Oklahoma 8 (40) New Orleans Josh Bullocks * S JR Nebraska 9 (41) Tennessee Michael Roos * OT SR* Eastern Washington 10 (42) Dallas Kevin Burnett * OLB SR Tennessee 11 (43) NY Giants Corey Webster * CB SR* LSU 12 (44) Arizona J.J. Arrington * RB SR California 13 (45) Seattle Lofa Tatupu * MLB JR* USC 14 (46) Miami Matt Roth * DE SR Iowa 15 (47) NY Jets Mike Nugent * K SR Ohio State 16 (48) Cincinnati Odell Thurman * MLB JR Georgia 17 (49) Minnesota Marcus Johnson * OG SR* Mississippi 18 (50) St. Louis Ronald Bartell, Jr. CB SR Howard 19 (51) Green Bay Nick Collins * CB SR Bethune Cookman 20 (52) Jacksonville Khalif Barnes * OT SR* Washington 21 (53) Baltimore Dan Cody * DE SR Oklahoma 22 (54) Carolina Eric Shelton * RB JR Louisville 23 (55) Buffalo Roscoe Parrish * WR JR Miami (Fl) 24 (56) Denver Darrent Williams CB SR Oklahoma State 25 (57) NY Jets Justin Miller * CB JR Clemson 26 (58) Green Bay Terrence Murphy * WR SR Texas A&M 27 (59) Atlanta Jonathan Babineaux * DT SR Iowa 28 (60) Indianapolis Kelvin Hayden * CB SR Illinois 29 (61) San Diego Vincent Jackson * WR SR Northern Colorado 30 (62) Pittsburgh Bryant McFadden * CB SR* Florida State 31 (63) Philadelphia Matthew McCoy OLB JR San Diego State 32 (64) Baltimore Adam Terry * OT SR Syracuse
Ive seen a report about star rankings vs college success and how it relates to the draft but it was in a magazine I saw a while back. The conclusion was pretty much a large number of HS players with 4 and 5 stars dont make it in college nevermind getting drafted. The only place I know of where you can look at recruiting stats from 2001 and before is http://interact.collegesports.com/recruiting . There is a data base option at the bottom of the page and you can see the top 150 prospects for whatever year but no star rankings. Just go through the list from 2000 and you will see only a handful of names that where taken in the first few rounds of the draft. It just further cements why stars and success are not related in college or pros.
Stars are only a measure of talent. To succeed it takes alot more than that. I think the kids ranked 4 & 5 stars have the opportunity to make more of themselves but often fall to bad grades, drugs, crime & even unmotivation. My bet is that the 4 & 5 star kids that make it through college without those things stand a better statistical chance at getting drafted higher. It's probably just that there are so many 3 & 2 star kids you never hear about failing & only hear about the ones succeeding that make it seem like the star rankings are irrelevant.
