The Dolphins finished with only one
win in 2007,then made it to the playoffs
in 2008. They used their no.1 pick
to draft a tackle, Jake Long.
For the last couple days, I've been looking at other teams' success related to their top five pick. I looked at teams that drafted wide receivers in the top five from 2000-2008 and calculated their records after the draft.
The results were not good for those teams, which had a .369 win percentage. It's only fair that I take a look at other positions to see if they performed similarly. The records may just be the product of overall bad teams; afterall they were picking in the top five, which is never good.
This week I'll be taking a look at teams that drafted tackles in the top five. Did drafting a tackle produce better results than a wide receiver?
To Continue...
Yes, but only slightly. After using a coveted top five draft pick to select a tackle, the five teams finished with a .427 win percentage. That's about .06 better than the teams who drafted a WR.
The Raiders threw off that average considerably, at 20-60, kind of like what the Lions did to the WR averages. Without the Raiders, the teams would have a .468 win percentage.
Redskins: Chris Samuels T 2000 no. 3
Bills: Mike Williams T 2002 No. 4
Raiders: Robert Gallery T 2004 Raiders no. 2
Jets: D'Brickashaw Ferguson T 2006 No. 4
Browns: Joe Thomas T 2007 no. 3
Dolphins: Jake Long T 2008 no.1
Bills 49-63
Redskins 66-78
Raiders 20-60
Jets 26-25
Dolphins 11-5
Browns 14-18
This isn't to say that drafting a Tackle so high is is the only reason for the slightly better win percentage, but it could play a roll. The results aren't surprising because most people would say that a great line trumps a great WR corps.
Just take a look at some of the teams that drafted great WRs since 2000 and you'll see what I'm talking about. The Lions drafted two in that timespan and look how poorly that turned out for them. Someone posted that the Seahawks may have won a few more games with Larry Fitzgerald, but the Lions couldn't win a SINGLE game with Calvin Johnson.
