Sept. 10-16

Which teams are best on draft day? It’s a question we ponder often at Inside the League, and one we are posed quite often. It’s complicated. Is it purely the teams that enjoy the most success in the NFL? The ones that most often draft QBs that turn into franchise players? Could it be the team that produces the most general managers and executives? All of these are valid, but there’s one more measure we look at: the total number of the team’s former draftees that are still in the league. 

The start of a new league year, with rosters whittled down and players still at their healthiest, is a good time to take inventory, so that’s what we worked on this week. Entering the second week of NFL games, there are 1,580 former draftees still on NFL rosters as active players, on practice squad, on IR/PUP, or suspension. So which teams’ picks tend to have the most staying power around the league? Let’s take a look, but first, a few disclaimers:

  • Teams that regularly trade down or hoard draft picks are favored in these rankings, whereas teams that regularly trade up – perhaps showing more confidence in their respective draft boards – are disadvantaged.
  • Teams with more consistency at head coach are favored, too, as poor picks tend to stay on “scholarship” longer.
  • Teams in “win now” mode tend to swing for the fences and plug holes directly more often than building teams.
  • Finally, teams that do poorer and draft higher tend to have more picks that are widely regarded by other teams. 

With that in mind, here are the 10 teams with the most draftees in the NFL as of Week 2 of the 2022 season.

Ravens (70): Baltimore was known for being one of the better-drafting teams under former GM Ozzie Newsome. Four years later, under his successor, Eric DeCosta, the team hasn’t skipped a beat. 

Vikings (69): Rick Spielman may be gone, but his legacy remains. The Vikings have had one of the more underrated staffs for years, and it will be interesting to see how GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah melds the old with the new. 

Panthers (T57): Since Scott Fitterer arrived as GM before the 2021 draft, the team has drafted 10 sixth- or seventh-rounders that are still in the league, and half of them are with other teams. Almost half of the team’s 57-pick total was drafted since he was hired. 

Bengals (T57): Cincinnati got to the Super Bowl on the back of two picks, QB Joe Burrow (1/1, 2020) and WO Ja’Marr Chase (1/5), but the team has been doing less with more for years. The team gets it right late as 31 of its 57 still-alive former draftees were Day 3 selections.

Patriots (T57): The Patriots are often chided by other scouts for their work on draft day, but the numbers say otherwise. Just seven of New England’s 57-man total were first-rounders, and 35 of the 57 (61 percent) were Day 3 picks. That’s impressive. Two of last year’s BART List winners (Houston’s James Liipfert and New England’s Eliot Wolf) have had a hand in the Patriots’ picks.

Cowboys (T55): When you find a franchise QB in the fourth round, you know you’re doing something right. Though the team has lost some of its key staffers in the past 2-3 years, plenty of key parts remain in place under de facto GM Will McClay.

Rams (T55): So Los Angeles doesn’t value the draft, you say? Perhaps the team packaged enough picks to accumulate enough talented veterans to win a Super Bowl, but good teams can’t keep all their picks. The Rams are a good example of a team that gets the most out of its picks, even if the talent already on board doesn’t always allow for lengthy stays with the team.

Colts (54): Our first-ever BART List voting was dominated by the Colts with three of GM Chris Ballard’s evaluators (AGM Ed Dodds, college director Matt Terpening and assistant college director Jamie Moore) taking home plaques. The numbers indicate last year’s voting was no fluke. 

Jaguars (T53): Jacksonville’s ownership blew up the team’s scouting department after the 2020 season, but maybe it wasn’t the fault of the team’s evaluators. Of course, It’s worth noting that 34 of the 53 picks still alive are Day 1 or Day 2 picks accumulated due to the team’s struggles over the last 10 years. 

49ers (T53): The Niners won the Best Draft Award for its work in 2019 (led by Bosa and Deebo), and since then, two of the team’s staffers (Washington’s Martin Mayhew and Minnesota’s Adofo-Mensah) have been named GMs.

Want to see where your team ended up? All 32 teams with our draftee count and team rank are on the site. You can access it here.

Now for a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week.

Catching Up: Jeff Robinson, 55, spent 31 years with the Vikings, spending time in public relations, youth football ventures, and team operations, but most of it (23 years) in scouting. These days, he’s doing a different kind of evaluation. We caught up with him this week.

  • Where are you living and what are you doing now? “I’m working with the (NFL Alumni) Academy. I’m living in Minneapolis still; I’m from here originally. (Working with the Academy has) allowed me to, No. 1, help a lot of younger players get their shot at the league, but also helped me stay in touch with people around the league, the XFL, the CFL, the USFL. It has allowed me to stay connected without worrying about the wins and losses. But the main thing is, it’s really about helping players. I’ve have had my own camp for 20 years, and the overriding factor is to help people achieve their dreams. Everyone has a dream of making it into pro football, and the more help you get along the way, the better chance you have to get there.” 

  • Do you miss the job? What do you miss most? “What you miss the most is the thrill and rush of game day. The feeling of winning a game, there’s nothing better than that. It’s the buildup to it, and the networks have built themselves around game day. That’s what it’s all about. Once you reach a certain age, you don’t want to put your body through that, but there’s no adrenaline rush like game day. I like knowing I don’t have a vested interest in who wins and loses, but there’s nothing like having a vested interest in who wins and loses.” 

  • Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues? “Oh yeah, I still keep in touch with a lot of my former colleagues. The Academy helps you branch out and not only work with those people you worked with on a regular basis, but you need to connect with a lot more of your friends from around the league. It’s kind of a fun process because normally during the season you don’t talk to a lot of people because they’re your opponents, but now you do because you want to connect players with teams.” 

  • Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)? “I go to a lot of high school games because a lot of my son’s friends are still playing locally, and a lot of kids from my football camps are playing all around the state. Then a lot of kids from my camps are playing all around the country, so I stay connected with a lot of their families. They’re always looking for advice on how football goes and life in general. It’s not just about what happens on the field, but even more what happens off the field. So in summation, I still make it to a lot of games.”

  • Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game? “I have a cousin who plays for the Dolphins, so I try to keep tabs on the Dolphins, and my son works out with players in the league and he has friends on a lot of the teams, so I spot check on all of their games. You wouldn’t think in Minnesota there would be those connections, but because of what I do and who my son trains with, those branches go far and wide. There’s a lot of teams where I know players, so I try to root for them all.”

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

Monday night Zoom session: Incidentally, Jeff was part of ITL’s Monday night session with the NFL Alumni Academy’s Dean Dalton, who spent eight years coaching with the Vikings and many other years in media and executive roles. Dalton broke down all the features of the Academy, which is in its third year of operation and has several success stories during its short lifespan. For more than an hour, Dalton outlined the Academy and answered questions. If you wished you could join us, but couldn’t, you’re in luck. Video is here.

The Scouting Report Podcast: How did ITL start out? Where did ITL’s Neil Stratton even come from? What is ITL’s relationship with the College Gridiron Showcase? How are agencies changing and what do new agents need to know? These are all topics former Falcons area scout Rodrik David and Stratton discussed on David’s new podcast. The two dive into the business of the game and talk about how so many parts of the pre-draft process fit together on the Wednesday Special. Check it out here. 

Rep Rumblings: This week, we had four reports. On Monday, we looked at the head coaching change in Nebraska as it relates to representation of the new Interim coach, Mickey Joseph. We also had USFL buzz and a look at the NFL ties for one of Toledo’s best NFL prospects. Tuesday, we examined the players and coaches at Troy and their agent ties, plus we had the latest on one of the more prominent (ex-)coaching agents in the business and we had agent exam notes and more. On Wednesday, we saluted the 11 established firms that got agents certified this summer, plus we had scouting notes and dipped into the NFL ties among Tulsa’s coaches and players. Finally, on Thursday, we checked out Tulsa’s coaches and players, had a search firm development, and more. To review everything we posted this week and this year, click here.

Succeed in Football: We’re a week past the NFLPA disseminating exam scores to everyone who took the agent test this summer. We wanted to get a sense of the success rate for our exam prep clients, so we reached out to more than a hundred of them to get their feedback. What we found was that the technical issues experienced by this year’s agent class were much more extensive than we initially imagined. We also looked at how long it took to get exam results as well as our guess at the passing rate this year. If you took the exam, or plan to take it someday, make sure you check out this week’s post.

Next week: We’re catching up on a lot of the content we let lag this summer. This week, we hope to catch up on a few items and get back on a regular schedule.

  • We hope to have Agent Changes for the August-to-September term. We also hope to list Agents by Total Clients. 
  • We’re confident we’ll have our 2022 Draft by the Numbers this week, breaking down the numbers for UDFAs, tryout players, position by position, etc. We’re shooting for Thursday.
  • We’ll have five more schools in our Profile Reports as we get close to the end of this year’s run. Ahead are Utah State, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
  • With our Succeed in Football post, we’ll take another look at the 2022 draft class. If you enjoyed today’s Wrap, you’ll enjoy next week’s post.
  • The bits of insider info you’ve come to expect from our Rep Rumblings will be back next week, too. 

That’s not all; if anything big breaks, you know we’ll have the lowdown as quickly as possible. Like we always try to do.