HoustonFrog
Dallas Frog
This is some interesting stuff in the Sports Guy column from ESPN.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/071207
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/071207
Of the 20 players selected in the top four of the NFL draft from 1998 to 2002, a whopping 10 of them are already out of the league, including three No. 1s (Courtney Brown, Michael Vick, Tim Couch), two No. 2s (Charles Rogers, LaVar Arrington, Ryan Leaf), two No. 3s (Andre Wadsworth, Akili Smith) and two No. 4s (Peter Warrick, Mike Williams). Three more top-four picks from that era (David Carr, Joey Harrington and Gerard Warren) were major disappointments and should be joining them soon. Even stranger, the other seven top-four picks ended up succeeding and making a ton of money for themselves: Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, Donovan McNabb, Edge James, Leonard Davis, Justin Smith and Julius Peppers. Can you get more hit-or-miss than that? And how could a top-four pick be that hit-or-miss for five solid years? I just thought that was crazy.
(By the way, if you think this wasn't a convoluted excuse for me to sift through old NFL drafts for an hour, you're kidding yourself. Thank you, David Carr.)