Analysis of Safeties taken In Round 1 From 2000 to 2009

Here are the results for Safeties taken in the first round from 2000 to 2009.

 

Year Player Pick  Starts Tackles INT FF Pro Bowls  Rating
2000 Rashard Anderson 23 9 51 1 1 0 7
2001 Adam Archuleta 20 87 530 4 3 0 4
  Jamar Fletcher 26 12 170 7 1 0 5
  Derrick Gibson 28 32 194 3 1 0 5
2002 Roy Williams 8 96 534 19 9 5 2
  Ed Reed 24 117 458 46 8 6 1
  Mike Rumph 27 19 138 3 3 0 7
2003 Troy Polamalu 16 77 452 20 7 6 1
2004 Sean Taylor 5 53 299 12 8 3 2
2005 Antrel Rolle 8 69 335 12 3 1 3
  Marlin Jackson 29 225 43 1 8 0 4
2006 Michael Huff 7 51 250 4 1 0 5
  Donte Whitner 8 50 227 4 2 0 2
2007 Laron Landry 6 47 250 3 4 0 3
  Michael Griffin 19 41 206 11 4 0 4
  Reggie Nelson 21 42 187 7 1 0 4
  B. Meriweather 24 27 193 9 5 1 4
2008 Kenny Phillips 31 5 80 3 0 0 4
AVG SAFETY           1.2 3.7
LINEBACKER 0.9 3.2
DEFENSIVE TACKLE 0.6 4.1

 

Speaking objectively, just look at the last three lines for the positions broken down to date.  The original observation was that drafting Defensive Tackle in aggregate did not generate the kind of returns from the First Round we would expect.  So far, the data from using the elementary 1-7 Rating system and number of Pro Bowls collected bears this out.  We saw from the numbers that 31 Defensive Tackles generated 19 Pro Bowl appearances and knew that was low.  Well, here with the Safeties, we have 22 Pro Bowls from 16 players.  That is HALF the players generating more Pro Bowls. If we wanted to use more exhaustive criteria, would Defensive Tackle be able to close that kind of gap? This is pretty damning evidence that NFL GMs are drafting too many DTs too early.  We’ll keep going through all of the positions before making final conclusions. 

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