Many of the pre-draft commentaries focused on the quality and depth of the draft at each playing position. In this article, DRAFTMETRICS measures what actually happened in 2013 versus the average of the past five years. Looking at the top three rounds gives an indication of what NFL teams thought of the top end players and looking at the entire draft offers a glimpse atthe depth of the draft. The following table compares the averages from the 2008 through 2012 drafts to the just completed 2013 draft.

Some of the items of interest noted by DRAFTMETRICS were as follows:
• The pattern of drafting QBs was significantly different than over the past five years
o 2013 QBs drafted were “clumped” in the 4th and 7th round, with eight of the 11 QBs drafted in those rounds
o No QBs at all drafted in rounds five and six
o Only 3 QBs drafted in first three rounds versus average of 5.4
• Defense dominated in the first three rounds of the draft
o On average, there are slightly more than three more defensive players than offensive players selected in the first three rounds
o In the 2013 draft, there were 13 more defensive players than offensive players selected in the first three rounds
• The big difference in those first three rounds was the number of corners and safeties drafted
o 16 corners versus average of 11.4
? Over the entire draft, the number of corners drafted was lower than average
o 9 safeties versus average of 7
• Also contributing to the change in mix of offense versus defense was fewer QBs, RBs and WRs being drafted in the first three rounds than average
• Over the last four rounds of the draft 10 more DEs than average were drafted
o This was somewhat offset by the number of LBs, but not entirely
o There is always the classification issues with the “tweeners” at the two positions

Tony is the founder of DRAFTMETRICS.COM can be e-mailed at draftmetrics@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @draftmetrics