Importance of the draft. 90% of Pro-Bowlers represented (1 Viewer)

[Andy Dufresne]

Didn't know where else to put this, but I thought it was an interesting fact that may lift the spirits of those fans whose teams have been a bit quiet in free agency. Now I know that an entire roster isn't made up of Pro-Bowlers, but still, I found this fascinating.

Link

In a league of some 1,800 players, approximately 300 become free agents each year. Some stay put, some find themselves out of the league, most find new homes. What these players don’t find – or at least they didn't in 2006 – are tickets to Hawaii and the Pro Bowl.

Of the 97 players that were on the Pro Bowl roster for the 2006 season (voted in or replacing injured guys), an amazing 87 of them made it representing the team that picked them in the draft or signed them as a rookie free agent.

Five members of the free-agent class of 2006 made it – Hutchinson, Drew Brees, Larry Allen, Walt Harris and Julian Peterson. Four others from previous free agencies – Brendon Ayanbadejo, Lorenzo Neal, John Lynch and Antonio Pierce – joined them. Champ Bailey was acquired in a trade from Washington.

Other than that, it was all guys on their original teams. And while there are some good players changing hands this winter, it’s worth noting that only one Pro Bowler from 2006, Adalius Thomas, hit the free-agent market in 2007, signing with the Patriots.

 

[bostonfred]

That's why Kraft referred to the Thomas signing as an "inefficiency in the system" - pro bowl caliber players just don't become free agents that often, let along guys who are coming off a pro bowl and are still in their prime.

 

[perry147]

Didn't know where else to put this, but I thought it was an interesting fact that may lift the spirits of those fans whose teams have been a bit quiet in free agency. Now I know that an entire roster isn't made up of Pro-Bowlers, but still, I found this fascinating.

Link

In a league of some 1,800 players, approximately 300 become free agents each year. Some stay put, some find themselves out of the league, most find new homes. What these players don’t find – or at least they didn't in 2006 – are tickets to Hawaii and the Pro Bowl.

Of the 97 players that were on the Pro Bowl roster for the 2006 season (voted in or replacing injured guys), an amazing 87 of them made it representing the team that picked them in the draft or signed them as a rookie free agent.

Five members of the free-agent class of 2006 made it – Hutchinson, Drew Brees, Larry Allen, Walt Harris and Julian Peterson. Four others from previous free agencies – Brendon Ayanbadejo, Lorenzo Neal, John Lynch and Antonio Pierce – joined them. Champ Bailey was acquired in a trade from Washington.

Other than that, it was all guys on their original teams. And while there are some good players changing hands this winter, it’s worth noting that only one Pro Bowler from 2006, Adalius Thomas, hit the free-agent market in 2007, signing with the Patriots.

Andy - There could be multiple reasons for this:1. Do you think that teams that try to improve via free agency as often poorly managed/coached and thus players in their system do not do as well as on their original teams?

2. Player who become FA are often past their primes (this year Dré Bly comes to mind).

3. Once a player gets their Payday they stop working as hard and are soon average players (Randy Moss comes to mind.)

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Andy - There could be multiple reasons for this:1. Do you think that teams that try to improve via free agency as often poorly managed/coached and thus players in their system do not do as well as on their original teams?2. Player who become FA are often past their primes (this year Dré Bly comes to mind).3. Once a player gets their Payday they stop working as hard and are soon average players (Randy Moss comes to mind.)

It's probably that by the time a guy's rookie contract runs out, the team knows what it has in him. And with the improvement of most teams in managing the salary cap, they lock up the Pro-Bowlers to extensions rather than letting them leave.To expand on your first point, it would be interesting to see a chart ranking the teams by the number of Pro-Bowlers they've had over the last 5-10 years. The poor drafting teams typically try to fix the problem signing free agents and are left with lousy teams.

 

[GroveDiesel]

It'd be interesting to see the percentages from previous years as well. I imagine that it will still largely be true since teams have the ability to franchise their best players and it gives them leverage in getting deals done with them. It also wouldn't surprise me though if the numbers this year were higher than typical either.

Also, this article seems wrong. Other guys that I know came from other teams are Pat Williams, Ruben Brown and Derrick Burgess. That's still about 87% though.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

It'd be interesting to see the percentages from previous years as well. I imagine that it will still largely be true since teams have the ability to franchise their best players and it gives them leverage in getting deals done with them. It also wouldn't surprise me though if the numbers this year were higher than typical either.

Also, this article seems wrong. Other guys that I know came from other teams are Pat Williams, Ruben Brown and Derrick Burgess. That's still about 87% though.

Those guys weren't 2006 free agents.

 

[GroveDiesel]

It'd be interesting to see the percentages from previous years as well. I imagine that it will still largely be true since teams have the ability to franchise their best players and it gives them leverage in getting deals done with them. It also wouldn't surprise me though if the numbers this year were higher than typical either.

Also, this article seems wrong. Other guys that I know came from other teams are Pat Williams, Ruben Brown and Derrick Burgess. That's still about 87% though.

Those guys weren't 2006 free agents.

The article said that other than Hutchinson, Drew Brees, Larry Allen, Walt Harris, Julian Peterson, Brendon Ayanbadejo, Lorenzo Neal, John Lynch, Antonio Pierce and Champ Bailey, ALL of the other players were either drafted by their team or signed as rookie free agents. As I pointed out, that's not true. There are at least 3 other guys that they missed and I may have even missed a few more. And it's obviously not just about 2006 free agents since Ayanbadejo, Neal, Lynch and Pierce all changed teams in 2005 (just like Pat Williams and Burgess). But like I said, it's still a very large percentage.

 

[uwgb96]

I don't know how to do a table so it isn't very pretty, but:

02-06 Team

28 kan

24 pit

24 phi

23 ind

22 bal

19 chi

19 sea

18 sdg

18 dal

17 atl

17 gnb

16 mia

15 new

15 tam

14 cin

14 den

14 min

14 stl

13 car

12 nyg

11 buf

11 nor

11 sfo

10 nyj

9 was

7 oak

6 ten

6 det

5 jax

5 ari

4 hou

0 cle

97-06 Team

46 tam

43 kan

41 bal

40 min

38 den

37 pit

37 phi

35 dal

32 ind

32 gnb

30 sfo

30 stl

29 buf

29 sea

28 new

26 mia

26 sdg

25 ten

25 car

24 nyj

24 atl

23 chi

23 nor

23 nyg

22 oak

20 jax

19 was

18 cin

18 det

10 ari

4 hou

1 cle

I grabbed the rosters from profootballreference, but it may not be 100% accurate