April 19, 2015 - Tony Villiotti
Rankings of NFL Teams by Draft Class
For all the talk about the draft and teams that do well, there is one point that must be stressed. No team does well in the draft every year. Taking that statement to the next logical step, a team does not have to do well in the draft every year to be successful.
To study this premise and associated issues, we reviewed drafts from 2005 through 2012. The drafts from 2013 and 2014 were omitted because it is too soon to make even a preliminary judgment on those. Before discussing the results we should discuss the key elements of the study.
First, contrary to most of the other studies we have done, only a player’s career with the team that drafted him is considered. For example, the Jets do not receive credit for the years Darrelle Revis spent with the Bucs and the Patriots.
Second, despite considerable thought on the matter, we could not come up with a formula or measure that would yield a meaningful comparative rating for the teams, so the ratings are subjective based on several factors. These factors include:
Several things stand out in the analysis:
A few notes about the teams finishing at or near the bottom:
Follow Tony on Twitter @draftmetrics
- The number of two-year starters in a draft class
- The cut-off of two years was used so that we could include as many current drafts as possible
- The number of games started by a player over the course of their career with the team that drafted him
- The number of Pro Bowl selections
- The number of All Pro selections

- The Packers were actually ranked in the top 10 in five of the first six years of the study before earning lower rankings in 2011 and 2012
- The Packers have been in either the top or bottom 10 in each of the eight drafts
- The Seahawks have finished in the top three in the 2010-2012 drafts
- They are the only team with three top three grades
- The 49ers were ranked in the top 10 in each draft from 2005-2007 but only once since then
- Neither the Chargers nor the Raiders had even one top 10 grade
- The Raiders had only one bottom ten grade as well
- The Patriots, with the top won-lost record for 2005-2014 by a comfortable margin, were in the middle of the pack as far as draft grades with three top 10 rankings and three rankings in the bottom 10

- The Saints have finished in the bottom 10 for each of the last four drafts
- The Jaguars and Giants have finished in the bottom 10 for each of the last three drafts
- In addition to its four bottom 10 grades, the Bears have ranked 11th from the bottom on two other occasions
- Every team but the Titans have finished in the bottom ten at least once
