The 2017 NFL Draft Updated Position Rankings Guide (4/18/17)
With the 2016 college football season completed along with the All-Star Games, the Combine, Pro Days and individual workouts, the intent is for this to be a database of position players and guide as it contains a lot of testing results, stats (production) and other information to help form an opinion on each player.
The Codes or abbreviations in the position rankings are as follows:
AC-C (All Conference-Coaches)
AC-M (All Conference-Media - usually the AP)
AC2 or ACHM (All Conference Second Team or All Conference Honorable Mention)
AC-C&M would be All Conference by both the Coaches and Media, with the media being the AP, except for the ACC, which has its own media group. C/M such as the Mountain West and Sun Belt have is the Coaches and Media jointly selecting the teams.
I didn't deal with the All-American teams as there are too many; with the exception of some DII AA mentions or FCS AA mentions.
After each year that the player played such as: 2015 there might be 7/13 which means he started in 7 games and played in 13. The number of starts and games played gives more relevance to the stats, with an exception being that some teams rotate players more than others.
ST after the 7/13 means the player also contributed on Special Teams.
OPOY would be Offensive Player of the Year;
RS is for Redshirt; JRr would be Junior Redshirt.
ACA-AC if for Academic All Conference or ACA-AC2 or ACA-ACHM; in addition to the SEC which I have SEC-HR for SEC Honor Roll.
(P) is an indication that there was some type of behavioral problem, which could have been a violation of team rules, drinking or arrest or something even more serious.
The forty times under the players names such as: 4.52 - 4.72 (4.62) are the best, worst and average times of the player and were found on CBS Draftscout; which is a huge database for draft-able players; while the forty times in brackets [4.82] were found on Scout.com or HUDL and then the players High School rating were from Rivals where they have a 2*, 3*, 4* or 5* star rating with 5 being the best. Rivals also gives a number rating within each grouping: 5.0 - 5.4 (2*); 5.5-5.7 (3*); and 5.8 -6.0 (4*). All 5 star players have a 6.1 rating. So you might see 3*/5.5 which is pretty good and sometimes 3*/5.5/4.9@280Lbs. with the 4.9 being his forty time in H.S. and the weight at which he ran the forty time. NR would be No Rating by Rivals.
Defensive statistics - all colleges give a Sack figure and than a Tackle for Loss figure which includes the Sacks. I think that it is easier to follow by giving the Sack figure and then just the actual TFL figure, thus 8.0-4.0, as opposed to 8.0-12.0 that the colleges would reflect in their stats. Dotted lines - - - - - - means there weren't sufficient stats worth reporting. It seems that Georgia, Auburn and Virginia Tech have a different method of tabulating Quarterback Hurries than other teams as their players always have a significantly higher amount.
As for the Quarterbacks, I have a number of statistics but have one change from the norm in that I believe that Yards per Completion (YPC) is a better metric than Yards per Attempt which is normally shown with the reasoning that YPA includes dropped passes and balls thrown away, which is unfair to the QB. ESPN in their QB ratings, adds in RAW QBR and ADJ RAT which are also good metrics but for which I didn't have the space and didn't want to be too heavy with statistics.
With a few of the Quarterbacks I have added their Passing Velocity score which is taken at the Combine. There were only a few of the scores published and is measured in Miles Per Hour (MPH) by a radar gun. This was started many years ago by the Dallas Cowboys as they counld't rely on their scouts eyes to measure the arm strength of QBs. The pass is the 20 yard out pass measured from the far hash mark and this doesn't measure arm strength as far as throwing a deep pass. Supposedly the standard is at least 55 MPH which is revealing in that Deshaun Watson was at 49 MPH and Mike Glennon who just signed a huge contract with the Chicago Bears was also at 49 MPH when he came out of college.
SB is for Senior Bowl, the most coveted of the all-star invitations; EW is for the East/West Shrine Game, the next most coveted all-star game and CB is for the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl which has only been around a few years (founded 2012). And new starting in 2016 was the Tropic Bowl (TB) which was played but was not televised. There were also a couple of other minor All-Star games which also weren't televised but I didn't include them.
D is for an underclassmen who Declared for the draft and while eligible for the Combine was not eligible for the Senior Bowl, East/West Shrine Game or other All-Star games. The exception being some underclassmen football eligibility wise but have graduated and thus are eligible for the Senior Bowl and other games.
And S is for Sleepers, that is those players who are not highly ranked, but have exhibited certain traits which could land them spots on NFL rosters or Practice Squads and even become starters.
1 or 2 or 3/4 is the round or rounds where the players could be drafted and if a player has no number than that player falls into the Undrafted Free Agent category. Note that I have some players rated higher but drafted lower than the player rated behind. That is because I believe the one player to be better but won't be drafted higher.
C is for players who received an invitation to the NFL Combine which this year includes 330 players, but remember the draft is for 224 players. But there are also 32 Compensatory picks this year for a total of 256 drafted players, minus 3 forfeited picks for transgressions, meaning 77 players participating at the Combine will not be drafted. Throw in the fact that there will be a number of players who were not included in the Combine who will be drafted so there could be close to 100 players at the Combine who will not be drafted but very likely will be signed as Undrafted Free Agents. There are also Regional Combines in different parts of the U.S. where other players can request a tryout and be put through many of the same drills as at the Combine, as well as the Pro Days at each of the major colleges.
The code for the numbers after the C (Combine) are for the 1st 40 time - the 2nd forty time and 4.56 (purple) is the official forty time - then the 10 yard splits where I could get them such as 1.55 or where I couldn't get the figure XX - BP is for Bench Press - VJ Vertical Jump - BJ is Broad Jump - SS is the 20 yard Short Shuttle - #C is the # Cone drill - 60S is the 60 yard Shuttle.
In 2015 there were 323 participants at the Combine with 99 of them not being drafted. There were 32 non-Combine invites who were drafted. Also in 2015 there were 84 underclassmen who Declared for the draft with 60 being drafted. In 2016, 117 or 35.2% of the Combine attendees were not drafted while 38 (15%) of players drafted were not at the Combine. Some notable players who were not invited to the Combine: Julian Edelman, Wes Welker, Sebastian Vollmer, Victor Cruz, Doug Baldwin, Usi Umenyiora, James Harrison, Sam Sheilds, Malcolm Butler, Chris Hogan and Paul Worrilou and just last year: Taylor Heinicke, David Andrews, Shaquille Mason, Eric Lefeld, Xavier Williams, Zach Vigil and Bryce Callahan. There are usually well over 400 players on NFL rosters who were not drafted, which works out to about 20 percent.
