I was thinking about draft order for the upcoming draft and realized we will end up in the dead zone again (14-20) unless we have a complete turnaround and run the table.

 

Over the past 7 years, 6 teams have had only 1 selection in the first 16 picks:

 

01 - Andrew Luck - IND

10 - Jerod Mayo - NE

12 - Haolti Ngata - BAL

14 - Chris Williams - CHI

15 - Lawrence Timmons - PIT

15 - Jason Pierre Paul - NYG

 

First, what seems pretty interesting is the fact that these teams represent 5 SuperBowl winners and 5 losers, totaling 10 Super Bowl appearances in the last 7 years. Now this would make sense because good teams pick in the 2nd half of the round, but I was surprised at the sustained success of all these teams compared to teams like STL and BUF who have picked 7 times in the last 7 years in the top half of the draft.

 

Looking at the names above, every team drafted an impact player except for the Bears. Now take that out to 10 years for the same teams:

 

04 - Phillip Rivers - NYG

04 - Cedric Benson - CHI

10 - Terrell Suggs - BAL

11 - Ben Roethlisberger - PIT

13 - Ty Warren - NE

14 - Tommie Harris - CHI

16 - Troy Polamalu - PIT

 

The Bears again tanked compared to the selections other than NE. The Giants turned Rivers into Manning, while Suggs, Roethlisberger, and Polamalu all have been franchise players since being drafted. I know the Bear's top picks have always been scrutinized, but it is hard to defend our picks when other teams have had success year in and year out without having good picks as well.

 

Good post. Another interesting point about the first set of teams is that, aside from Indy who had a horrible year without Manning, the other teams are teams that have consistently been a threat to win it all. The Bears have consistently been a threat to make the playoffs, but the majority of the time nobody was really worried about the Bears running the table.

Good post. Another interesting point about the first set of teams is that, aside from Indy who had a horrible year without Manning, the other teams are teams that have consistently been a threat to win it all. The Bears have consistently been a threat to make the playoffs, but the majority of the time nobody was really worried about the Bears running the table.

Exactly, I was surprised we were in that group.