The Michigan Wolverines had the most picks in the 2017 NFL draft, a flat-out impressive achievement, especially considering those players were recruited by a doomed, prior regime.
Why Alabama, not Michigan, actually won the 2017 NFL draft
The Wolverines had one more pick, but it’s all about draft value.
Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
But if we try a slightly more sophisticated scoring system, we see Michigan didn’t produce the most pro value this time around. Smh, it’s the Alabama Crimson Tide again. I’ll explain it below this chart.
Ranking | Team | Conference | Draft Points | Picks | Average |
|---|
This here’s draft points, which awards 250 points for the first pick (Aggies on the board!), 249 for the second, and on down to one point for the 250th pick and any lingering picks after that.
If you’d still rather go by raw picks (aka, if you’re a Michigan or Miami fan or just hate Nick Saban), that’s cool, but this gives us a simple way to look at who’s actually sending the most top talent, rather than just the most top-250 talent.
We’ve been doing it for a couple years now. It changed the ranking order in 2015 as well, and last year, Ohio State had the best draft class ever, according to this system (and any of the many similar systems, including the classic trade value chart or one based on the average NFL production gained from the players in each spot). The updated top 10 shows 2017 is Bama’s best class ever.
Ranking | Class | Draft Points | Top pick | Total picks in top 250 |
|---|
Michigan had five players picked in the first 95. That’s an elite accomplishment, considering most Power 5 schools didn’t even have five players picked in total.
But Alabama had five in the top 34 and nine in the top 79. Bama had more first-round defenders than Michigan had first-rounders. The Tide won by loading up the first few rounds, and that’s despite watching its first-round crew briefly slip behind Western Michigan and Temple, to much internet delight.
The beatings will continue, as Alabama just signed the highest-rated recruiting class of its seven-year Signing Day streak and had the top-rated remaining recruit from the 2014 class just chilling on its roster as his peers got picked in the 2017 first round. At least five Tide players already have potential 2018 first-round buzz.
And just think: Mr. Irrelevant beat this program. That’s wild.
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