The Best Event of the Offseason: The NFL Draft

The NFL is the most popular sport to watch among Americans. Every year around April, fans come together for the NFL draft to see who their favorite teams are going to pick to build their future. This data is NFL draft data, with information on every drafted player from 1970-2021. It contains draft data such as the round and pick each player was drafted at, their college, as well as the team that picked them and the age they were when they were picked. The data also contains basic career statistics for each player, including passing, rushing, and receiving stats for offensive players, and tackles, interceptions, and sacks for defensive players.

Analyzing the Draft

Quarterback Stats

Do passing yards lead to more passing touchdown? To give us a more accurate analysis, let’s look at quarterbacks with at least one full season played.

According to this graph, passing yards and passing touchdowns have a direct linear relationship. This makes sense even based on basic knowledge of football, as more passing yards are accrued, more passing touchdowns are scored.

Elite NFL Development

Which colleges have had the most players drafted with the first overall pick? This is a great look into the elite programs that develop top NFL picks.

According to our analysis, Oklahoma has produced the most #1 overall picks ever with 5 players. These players include Lee Roy Selmon, Billy Sims, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, and most recently Kyler Murray. This is an example of an elite college football program that develops phenomenal talent.

Yearly Award Recognitions

At the end of every year, the best players are recognized for having phenomenal seasons. These recognitions come in multiple ways, two of them being Pro Bowl selections and All-Pro selections. Do All Pro selections follow Pro Bowl selections? Additionally, does position have an effect on this relationship?

According to the graph, pro bowls have a positive, somewhat linear relationship with all pro selections. However, pro bowl selections seem to occur more often than all pro. Position doesn’t seem to have an impact, probably because each position gets a selection for each recognition every year.

Career Games

Every year, there is endless discussion about who will perform to their potential, and who will fail to meet expectations. Nobody really knows, but teams that draft players in the first few rounds hope that these players can contribute to the team’s success for many years. Let’s see if draft round gives any indication of career games played. Additionally, do certain positions have longer careers than others?

For most positions, there is a pattern of career games decreasing as a player’s draft round gets later, with some outliers. The positions where this doesn’t apply are Kickers, Punters, and Fullbacks. These positions are often drafted in later rounds regardless, and many successful players at these positions go undrafted.

Career Lengths

An interesting aspect of football history is the development of research on player safety. Protective gear has improved, and coaching on tackling has changed to protect the players. Let’s look at whether career lengths in terms of games played have increased over the years.

According to this graph, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of trend in terms of career length. Every position has random distributions of career games played across the years. So even though research and player safety has improved, it hasn’t necessarily extended careers across the league.