Ohio State: NFL Draft Analysis 1990-2007 Part One: Draft Day

Ohio State fans (myself included) are living in the present (and even future) more than ever these days. With this awareness of the moment comes a forgetfulness of the past or, shall we say, non-future.

That non-future now is the NFL Draft, which is fast approaching on April 26-27, 2008. You have not heard too much about in Buckeye Nation. I know I have not. Aside from Vernon Gholston’s bench press record and Pro Day at Ohio State, the 2008 Draft has received little fanfare in these parts. While a great deal of time and energy has been devoted to the Terrelle Pryor saga, spring football practice, and even the NIT, four former Buckeyes have been preparing, and performing, in anticipation of the next phase of their (football) lives.

What follows is historical look at former Ohio State players in the NFL Draft since 1990. Why 1990? For starters, it is a nice round number. Second, 1990 was John Cooper’s third season as head coach, which would have given him some time to bring in players. Love him or hate him, Cooper brought in some of the finest talent and assembled a few of the greatest teams in Ohio State history. (In my mind, his hiring signals the beginning of the most modern era of Ohio State football.) Finally, this period encompasses a significant and sufficient number of players and provides me with a good sample.

I am going to break this down in two parts. Part One will take a look at the actual draft. Part Two I will focus on the players after they were drafted.

Current state of affairs

First, here are the stats for Ohio State players currently in the league (as best as I could determine). While I will not dwell on these numbers, I wanted to give them to you up front. The information was provided the Ohio State official site.

Year by year

Let’s start with the chronological breakdown. Since the 1990 NFL Draft, 104 Ohio State players have been drafted.

Two years stand out right away - 1998 and 2004 - for opposite reasons. No Buckeyes were drafted in spring ’98, which in turn led to the best Ohio State in the last 20 years, in my opinion. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come this season as the 2008 NFL Draft is sure to see a low number of Buckeyes drafted (3 or 4). The last two times the Buckeyes had a low draft turnout the following season produced a juggernaut (the aforementioned 1998 and 2006).

In 2004, fourteen Buckeyes were drafted – a record for any college. Between the ’03 and ’04 drafts, 21 players were drafted from Ohio State’s 2002 National Championship team.

Aside from the spike in 2004, the number of players drafted per year in the Cooper years versus the Tressel years is very similar. It is important to remember that Cooper recruited many of the players drafted after he left.

Where they went

Now that you know how many players were drafted each season, you are probably wondering what teams draft the Buckeyes. There is no Conference bias at play, with the split between the NFC (53%) and AFC (47%) very close.

But, the team-by-team breakdown is a little more interesting. In the NFC, the spread was fairly even with only four teams having drafted fewer than three Ohio State players in that span – San Francisco, Tampa Bay, and Washington each drafted only one player, while Detroit has not drafted any. (Memo to Matt Millen: Draft some Buckeyes, win some games.) Four teams – Dallas (7), Green Bay (6), New Orleans (6), and St. Louis (5) – have drafted more than four players.

The AFC breakdown is a little more lopsided. Seven AFC teams - Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, New England, and Jacksonville - drafted two or fewer Buckeyes since 1990. Buffalo led the way with seven picks, including five defensive backs. Jacksonville has yet to select a former Ohio State footballer.

There does not seem to be any significant geographic trending either. Far flung teams like San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, and New Orleans have all drafted more players than Cincinnati and Cleveland. Of course, Detroit has not drafted any Ohio State players so perhaps that is evidence of a cultural bias. You can decide.

What they played

If you thought the Conference split was close, check out the breakdown between offense and defense.

If you plotted this information on a yearly basis you may see some trends, but a quick glance at our largest sample – 2004 – shows the same split. Of the fourteen draftees, eight played offense, six played defense.

I found a more specific drilldown by position interesting.

Obviously, there are more offensive linemen than any other offensive position on the field and I always felt as if OSU linemen were drafted in good numbers. So, I was particularly surprised when I saw that the number of wide receivers drafted easily outnumbered any other offensive position, including linemen. The WR category does include tight ends so that increases that category’s pure numbers, which help explain the discrepancy between WR and RB. But, to outpace every other position on offense was a shock.

Staying on the offensive side of the ball, it was surprised to see running backs drafted in equal numbers to offensive linemen. Again, the ratio is about 5-to-1.5 for OL, so that the draft ratio of 1-to-1 is a bit of a shock.

On defense, the numbers fell more in line with my mental projections. For many years, it seems like Ohio State defensive backs have flown off the shelves so I was not surprised it was the leading defensive category. I was a little surprised that 21 players had been drafted 18 years, but not stunned.

I think many people may be surprised to know that only two more linebackers than defensive linemen have been drafted over the past 18 years. Most folks, myself included, consider Ohio State a linebacker factory with good reason. Every season the Buckeyes seem to have a stud LB roaming the field. It is rarer for me to feel that way about the defensive linemen.

Check back tomorrow (or possibly tonight) for Part Two.