http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/draft-finder.cgi?reques...
Here is a list of the 273 players that were drafted between 2000 and 2013 that have never played in an actual NFL game. Shows that even getting drafted makes it extremely difficult to make the field on an NFL team.
There are nine Virginia Tech players on this list.
By Year
2000- 35
2001- 26
2002- 33
2003- 25
2004- 27
2005- 34
2006- 28
2007- 29
2008- 2
2009- 7
2010- 13
2011- 4
2012- 3
2013- 7
Not sure if a Labor Agreement or something changed but take note of the significant decline in the number of players that never played in recent years. It likely has to do with player control on the rookie contracts for those drafted versus undrafted players. 2008-2013 combined have 36 players that have never played compared to the 35 from the Class of 2000.
Comments
I'm surprised it's only 273.
I'm not that surprised. If you think about it, this is the list of players who were drafted and didn't play. That excludes the players who didn't get drafted but might try out for a team working out with the scout team or something to try and make it into the league. I'm sure there are a ton of those types!
I'm still surprised. Looked at the opposite way, that means 90+% of the players drafted played in at least one NFL game. When you consider all of things that can go wrong -- injuries, criminal behavior, drugs, lack of talent, lack of desire, lack of intelligence, free agents who are better -- I would have thought that just by attrition more than 10% would never make through an NFL camp and are never given another shot.
I'm clearly wrong.
well I think with everything the players go through between combine and open/closed meetings with teams before the draft, the NFL organizations are pretty good at getting a picture of what they're getting from the players. I would argue that football players have to go through far more rigorous interviews than average Joes...The NFL has also been doing this for a long time and has a lot of experience. That alone would really cut down on the % of players who never make it to a game due to "criminal behavior, drugs, lack of intelligence"....to me, the only real factor that you mention which I could see pushing the # of players who don't make it is injury...but even then, the players who get injured usually come back and heal. I would think the number of career ending injuries in the league in general is fairly low..especially for the younger guys.
I would think that smaller injuries are a much more likely way for a drafted player to not even get on the field for special teams. Career ending injuries are pretty rare now, but the repeated or nagging injuries have a much more significant impact. They prevent a guy from competing for a roster spot. A drafted player might be given more chances than an undrafted free agent, but eventually teams will let that player go for someone younger and less stigmatized by the injury-prone label.
I do agree 100% with what you said about the interviewig/scouting process. It has become a pretty cutthroat business and no one in a front office wants to be known as the guy who ignored the red flags and picked the next Jamarcus Russell.
Also, despite modern technology and doctors' best efforts, sometimes a player just loses a step and never fully recovers from an injury enough to keep a roster spot.
It seems like most of the players are late rounds draft picks. In the later rounds it's more difficult to make the roster.
Well its about 20 per draft class essentially or two thirds of a round. I would be interested to see how many players didn't make it past one season. I would bet that number is significantly higher, as you would then lose all the players that coaches gave the shot but never developed.
Well considering that 32 players for 7 rounds comes out to 224 players drafted. Then a 53-man active roster would be 1696 active players every week. So the draft increases the "active" players by 13% every year. I'm really surprised that the numbers aren't higher, but it's played in a game. I wonder what the number is for significant time in the NFL like maybe half the games in a season.
With 14 drafts (2000 - 2013) and 224 players drafted each year, that comes to a total of 3,136 players drafted since '00. If 273 of them never played in a game, that means 8.7% of players drafted end up never making the team.
Assuming most teams draft 7 players (1 per round), every 2 years a team will have 1 draftee not ever play a game. (~.6 player/year). Statistically, that's not a bad draft class(es).
Obviously, these percentages were much larger 10 years ago, but teams seem to be doing a better job evaluating and drafting needs now.
For those curious, the 9 from VT:
2000-5th round-134rd overall
DB Anthony Midget, ATL
2002-6th round-211st overall
TE Bob Slowikowski, DAL
2002-7th round-251st overall
RB Jarrett Ferguson, BUF
2002-7th round-224th overall
DE Derrius Monroe, NO
2004-5th round-145th overall
DE Nathaniel Adibi, PIT
2005-7th round-217th overall
T Jon Dunn, CLE
2006-7th round-240th overall
RB Cedric Humes, PIT
2006-7th round-227th overall
C Jimmy Martin, SD
2010-6th round-172nd overall
P Brent Bowden, TB
3 out of 4 second rounders who didn't make it were defensive line.
I'm curious if they count people who got injured before they had a chance on this list. I mean I know that Humes got injured preseason, then broke his neck in the offseason, so I guess they do, but how many of these people were physically unable to play, rather than unable to make the grade?