As the NFL Draft approaches this week, it’s always interesting to look back at recent history to see what trends can be spotted.
USA Today has a study out about which schools have produced the riskiest and the safest first-round picks in recent history (over the past 15 years), and it turns out that, despite that period of time not being the most successful on the field for UT, the Vols have produced the second-safest first-round draft picks.
Of the 13 first-round picks out of UT during the time period studied, only three were categorized as “busts” by USA Today, giving UT a bust rate of just 23%.
The study doesn’t clarify who, or what qualifies, the bust category. Regardless, UT has certainly had plenty of hits in the draft in this time span including Eric Berry, Jerod Mayo, John Henderson, Albert Haynesworth and Ja’Wuan James, among others.
The riskiest first-round pick have come from UT rival Florida, which produced eight busts in 15 first-round picks (53.3 bust %) in the study.
