Weekly Musings from a Content Blogger (4/13)

I'll be honest: I had a hard time coming up with anything for this week's column before I settled on this idea. I could have reported on where Michael Vick is or how TO doesn't know what an OTA is, but that's a waste of time and energy for me and a boring read for you.

Instead, I'm breaking down the draft selections throughout Jerry's tenure (2002 - 2008). Time to settle some debates about Jerry's drafting!

I realize that there's a lot of numbers/info here, but I attempted to make this as thorough as possible.

Overall Picks

2008: 12 selections
2007: 9 selections
2006: 7 selections
2005: 6 selections
2004: 8 selections
2003: 12 selections
2002: 9 selections

Total: 63 selections  

By Round

1^st round: 7 selections

2^nd round: 7 selections

3^rd round: 9 selections

4^th round: 9 selections

5^th round: 13 selections

6^th round: 8 selections

7^th round: 10 selections

Position by Round

1^st: 2 OT's....DE....QB....DT....RB....TE

2^nd: 2 DB's....2 WR's....DT....DE....RB

3^rd: 2 WR's....2 LB's....2 DT's....OG....RB....DB

4^th: 3 DB's....2 LB's....DE....DT....QB....OG

5^th: 4 DB's....3 WR's....2 DE's....LB....DT....QB....TE

6^th: 2 RB's....WR....TE....LB....DB....FB....OG

7^th: 3 DB's....2 OT's....2 OG's....DE....LB....WR

Grouping by Round (Offense vs. Defense)

1^st: 5 offense, 2 defense

2^nd: 4 defense, 3 offense

3^rd: 5 defense, 4 offense

4^th: 7 defense, 2 offense

5^th: 8 defense, 5 offense

6^th: 6 offense, 2 defense

7^th: 5 offense, 5 defense

By Position

QB: Three (4.7% of draft selections: 2003, 2004, 2005)

RB: Five (7.9% of draft selections: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008)

FB: One (1.5% of draft selections: 2006)

WR: Nine (14.2% of draft selections: 2002, 2003, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2008)

TE: Three (4.7% of draft selections: 2002, 2007, 2008)

OT: Four (6.3% of draft selections: 2002, 2007, 2008, 2008)

OG: Five (7.9% of draft selections: 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008)

DT: Six (9.5% of draft selections: 2003, 2003, 2004, 2004, 2006, 2008)

DE: Six (9.5% of draft selections: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008)

LB: Seven (11% of draft selections: 2002, 2003, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008)

DB: Fourteen (22% of draft selections: 2002, 2002, 2003, 2003, 2004, 2004, 2005, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2007, 2007, 2008, 2008)

Draft Selections still on Bears by Position

QB: None = 0%

RB: 3 out of 5 = 60%

FB: None = 0%

WR: 2 out of 9 = 22%

TE: 2 out of 3 = 66.7%

OT: 1 out of 4 = 25%

OG: 2 out of 5 = 40%

DT: 3 out of 6 = 50%

DE: 3 out of 6 = 50%

LB: 3 out of 7 = 42.8%

DB: 8 out of 14 = 57%

FYI: I listed J.D. Runnels as a FB, Devin Hester as a WR, and Danieal Manning as a DB for the previous two sections.

Draft Selections Still on Bears or in NFL

Legend:
ACT - Active with NFL team
FA - Free Agent (I did not use UFA's not with a team as current NFL players)
R/O - Retired/Out of League

2008

- Still on Bears: 9 out of 12 selections = 75%

- Still in NFL: 10 out of 12 selections = 83%

2007

- Still on Bears: 6 out of 9 selections = 66.7%

- Still in NFL: 7 out of 9 selections = 77.7%

2006

- Still on Bears: 6 out of 7 = 85.7%

- Still in NFL: 7 out of 7 = 100%

2005

Still on Bears: 0 out of 6 = 0%

Still in NFL: 5 out of 6 = 83.3%

2004

Still on Bears: 2 out of 8 = 25%

Still in NFL: 4 out of 8 = 50%

2003

Still on Bears: 2 out of 12 = 16.7%

Still in NFL: 6 out of 12 = 50%

2002

Still on Bears: 2 out of 9 = 22%

Still in NFL: 3 out of 9 = 33%

Total

Still on Bears: 27 out of 63 = 42.8% of draft selections are still on the Bears

Still in NFL: 42 out of 63 prospects = 66.7% of draft selections are still in the NFL

By School

Five selected: Florida

Four selected: Oklahoma

Three selected: Miami, Pittsburgh

Two selected: Arizona, Arkansas, Boston College, Louisiana-Monroe, Michigan State, Mississippi, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Texas, Vanderbilt

One selected: Abilene Christian, Alabama, Arizona State, Boise State, Central Michigan, Clemson, Delaware, Fresno State, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Northern Illinois, Oregon State, South Carolina, Stanford, Tulane, Tuskegee, UCLA, Washington

By Conference

SEC: 15

Big 12: 9

Big 10: 8

ACC: 7

Pac 10: 7

Big East: 3

Sun Belt: 3

WAC: 3

CAA: 2

MAC: 2

Lone Star Conference (D-II): 1

Conference USA: 1

Southern: 1

Southern Intercollegiate (D-II): 1

Analysis

What does this tell me? Not a lot, but it does give some interesting insight as to how Jerry operates. Here's what I got out of it:

1. Maybe I was just oblivious, but I was surprised to see that we drafted a total of fourteen DB's and nine WR's during Jerry's tenure. I knew that we had drafted a lot at those two positions; I never thought it was that high.

2. Regardless of the first point, the two WR's that are still on the Bears are Devin Hester and Earl Bennett. Who knows how Earl will be. Mark Bradley, Justin Gage, Bobby Wade, and Bernard Berrian are enjoying careers elsewhere.

3. Yes, Jerry has picked up some good talent from small schools. But Jerry has drafted 49 players from major conferences (SEC to Big East), and only 14 players have been selected from the others. I had this impression that Jerry was a small-school draft raider, which is proven not to be the case.

4. It is disappointing (and somewhat indicative of the coaching staff IMO) to see that many of our selections aren't on the Bears, but are succeeding elsewhere in the league.

Enough of what I think. Anything surprise, worry, or excite you when you see these numbers?