Wentz in a while you have to take a chance.
Quick. What’s the single hardest thing for an NFL player to do in the Super Bowl era? Apparently it’s to get drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and then earn a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Since 1967, the beginning of the combined draft and the Super Bowl era, the Eagles drafted exactly zero players who are now in Canton. Reggie White made it, but he was a refugee from the USFL, not a player the Eagles selected on draft day. Donovan McNabb has a case for going in, but was he any better than Phil Simms? Simms, like McNabb, still has his nose pressed against the window, standing outside looking in, despite leading the Giants to two Super Bowl victories. I know Simms didn’t start the second Super Bowl due to injury, but he was still the quarterback who led the team in 1990.
Since 1967 the Eagles drafted 543 players, one of the lowest totals among the 27 teams drafting in that time, or, in the case of the Bengals, since 1968. The NFL acted more kindly toward expansion franchises in those days, and granted the Bengals 41picks in 1968. Cincinnati still ranks first in total draft picks in the Super Bowl, with 627, just ahead of Pittsburgh’s 619. That means the Bengals chose 84 more players than the Eagles, almost two extra picks a year.
The Eagles’ picks averaged 27.81 games in a Philadelphia uniform. Only the Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns, and San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers got less return from their draft picks. The draft Eagles won a combined total of 18 Super Bowl rings. Only Buffalo and Atlanta with 17 and Cincinnati with 14 saw fewer players go on to win a ring with other teams, although the Cardinals have yet to be accounted for. Washington isn’t done yet either, but they won 3 Super Bowls as a franchise, so their draft picks undoubtedly have more than 18 Super Bowl rings.
The only good news is that since 1995 and the arrival of the Panthers and Jaguars, the Eagles rank with the better drafting teams. It’s quite possible before 1995 the Eagles were the absolutely worst drafting team in the league since the common draft started in 1967, but they’ve gotten better. Before 1967 the Steelers competed with the Chicago/St. Louis Cardinals to be the worst franchise in the NFL. After 1967 the Steelers have been the best franchise in the NFL. Among the many things the Steelers began doing right were better scouting and a proper respect for the value of draft picks. Today almost all teams are loathe to surrender draft picks. Veterans schmeterans. The NFL continually needs new bodies. Unless a team believes it is a player away from a championship it should be reluctant to trade away its draft choices. Of course, all teams are always an injury away from being one more player away from a championship.
Another thing the Steelers realized that other franchises were shockingly slow to pick up on was the value of quarterbacks. In the last fifty-one years, the Eagles drafted eighteen quarterbacks, and apparently only three good ones, McNabb, Randall Cunningham, and Carson Wentz. Simply stated, Philadelphia wasn’t trying hard enough to find quarterbacks. It’s still early on Wentz, but he has been impressive. From a distance it looked like Philadelphia spent too many draft picks to acquire the second pick in the draft last year. I thought that because it wasn’t certain (as far as I knew) whether the Rams would select Jared Goff or Carson Wentz. It seemed like the Eagles gave up all those picks for the chance to select either one, but hadn’t zeroed in on one or the other. Maybe they were certain the Rams had Goff ranked higher all along, or maybe the Eagles had both guys ranked equally high, but in either case, Wentz appears to be a good choice.
This year the Chicago Bears gave up a ton to select Mitch Trubisky with the second pick. In this case, the trade was specifically and only for Mitch Trubisky. No Trubisky, no trade. Even though I believe teams should virtually never trade draft picks, especially high ones, quarterbacks warp the system a bit. If you think the next Peyton Manning is available, almost no price is too high. Quarterbacks are that important. Of course, if a team surrenders the draft picks and then chooses the wrong guy, the damage could last for years. The success of a team depends more on draft choices than any other single factor.
The Bears, like the Eagles, are now on the clock. History shows that if a team doesn’t win a Super Bowl within the first seven years of a "franchise" quarterback’s career, they probably never will. Peyton Manning and John Elway are the only two who won their first championships later than seven years into their careers. It also shows that the only time two same-year, first round quarterbacks went on to both win championships as starters was 2004 with Roethlisberger and Eli Manning. 1983 may have been the year of the quarterback, but Elway was the only one of six (Blackledge, Kelly, Marino, Eason, and O’Brien), first round quarterbacks to retire with a ring.
Eagle fans need to not just root for Wentz, they need to root against Goff and Paxton Lynch.
How the teams rank in drafting since 1967:
Key:
# of Picks: All picks chosen by the franchise since 1967
AY: All years played the picks played in the NFL
DY: All years played for the drafting team.
HY%: Percent of years played for the drafting team.
AG: All games played in the NFL.
DG: All games played for the drafting team.
HG: Percentage of games played for the drafting team.
AAG/P: Average number of NFL games per draft pick.
ADG/P: Average number of drafting team games per draft pick.
HOF: Number of Hall of Fame players drafted.
SB Rings: Number of Super Bowl rings won.
100G: Number of picks who played 100+ NFL games
100 %: Percentage of picks who played 100+ NFL games
ADCS: The number of points the team amassed in my scoring system.
AVG. ADCS: The average number of points the team earned per draft pick.
Team | # of Picks | AY | DY | HY% | AG | DG | HG% | AVCGP | AVHGP | HOF | SB rings | 100G | %of Picks | ADCS | AVG ADCS |
Tennessee | 572 | 2327 | 1505 | 65% | 29,106 | 19,032 | 65% | 50.9 | 33.27 | 7 | 24 | 124 | 22% | 55,724 | 97.42 |
Pittsburgh | 619 | 2440 | 1599 | 66% | 29,865 | 20,215 | 68% | 48.24 | 32.66 | 11 | 212 | 129 | 21% | 59,867 | 96.72 |
San Francisco | 547 | 2053 | 1369 | 67% | 25,386 | 17,381 | 68% | 46.41 | 31.78 | 4 | 159 | 102 | 22% | 50,603 | 92.51 |
Oak/LA Raiders | 521 | 1948 | 1305 | 67% | 24,026 | 16,737 | 70% | 46.11 | 32.12 | 8 | 109 | 89 | 17% | 48,065 | 92.26 |
New England | 570 | 2163 | 1405 | 65% | 26,253 | 17,531 | 67% | 46.06 | 30.76 | 2 | 170 | 106 | 19% | 51,448 | 90.26 |
Cincinnati | 627 | 2290 | 1581 | 69% | 28,623 | 20,202 | 71% | 45.67 | 32.22 | 1 | 14 | 109 | 17% | 56,010 | 89.33 |
Dallas | 598 | 2118 | 1338 | 63% | 26,921 | 17,167 | 64% | 45.02 | 28.71 | 5 | 144 | 111 | 19% | 52,574 | 87.92 |
New York G | 549 | 1820 | 1306 | 72% | 24,443 | 16,428 | 67% | 44.52 | 29.92 | 3 | 127 | 97 | 23% | 48,262 | 87.91 |
Green Bay | 593 | 2150 | 1444 | 67% | 26,055 | 17,872 | 69% | 43.94 | 30.14 | 1 | 83 | 94 | 16% | 51,295 | 86.50 |
Miami | 591 | 2107 | 1317 | 63% | 26,689 | 17,226 | 65% | 45.16 | 29.15 | 5 | 58 | 122 | 21% | 51,111 | 86.48 |
Chicago | 553 | 1663 | 1349 | 81% | 23,948 | 16,994 | 71% | 43.31 | 30.7 | 4 | 47 | 89 | 16% | 47,556 | 86.00 |
Denver | 518 | 1804 | 1151 | 64% | 22,405 | 14,925 | 67% | 43.25 | 28.81 | 5 | 70 | 86 | 17% | 44,432 | 85.78 |
Detroit | 542 | 1915 | 1313 | 69% | 23,170 | 17,127 | 74% | 42.75 | 31.6 | 2 | 19 | 46,326 | 85.47 | ||
LA Rams | 578 | 2154 | 1284 | 60% | 26,274 | 16,233 | 62% | 45.46 | 28.08 | 5 | 49 | 103 | 18% | 49,320 | 85.33 |
New York J | 574 | 2039 | 1325 | 65% | 25,269 | 16,876 | 67% | 44.02 | 29.4 | 1 | 32 | 97 | 17% | 48,664 | 84.78 |
Indianapolis | 580 | 2013 | 1274 | 63% | 25,607 | 16,172 | 63% | 46.05 | 29.09 | 4 | 68 | 48,664 | 83.90 | ||
Buffalo | 588 | 2098 | 1348 | 64% | 25,563 | 16,628 | 65% | 43.47 | 28.27 | 5 | 17 | 49,036 | 83.39 | ||
Minnesota | 551 | 1898 | 1279 | 67% | 23,458 | 16,197 | 69% | 42.57 | 29.4 | 4 | 22 | 92 | 17% | 45,950 | 83.39 |
Atlanta | 553 | 2185 | 1254 | 57% | 23,632 | 15,794 | 66% | 42.73 | 28.56 | 2 | 17 | 45,912 | 83.02 | ||
Philadelphia | 543 | 1911 | 1209 | 63% | 23,286 | 15,100 | 65% | 42.88 | 27.81 | 0 | 18 | 86 | 16% | 44,587 | 82.11 |
New Orleans | 551 | 1901 | 1189 | 63% | 23,607 | 14,856 | 63% | 42.84 | 26.96 | 3 | 34 | 89 | 16% | 44,739 | 81.20 |
Cleveland | 493 | 1420 | 1081 | 76% | 20,831 | 13,796 | 66% | 42.25 | 27.98 | 1 | 18 | 39,122 | 79.35 | ||
LA Chargers | 548 | 1860 | 1155 | 62% | 22,658 | 14,173 | 63% | 41.35 | 25.86 | 5 | 28 | 88 | 16% | 43,119 | 78.68 |
Kansas City | 552 | 1750 | 1202 | 69% | 21,342 | 15,053 | 71% | 38.66 | 27.27 | 1 | 21 | 71 | 13% | 42,342 | 76.71 |
1,164,728 | 2066.42 | ||||||||||||||
48,530 | 86 | ||||||||||||||
Since 1995 | |||||||||||||||
Pittsburgh | 192 | 853 | 593 | 70% | 10,387 | 7,424 | 71% | 54.1 | 38.67 | 0 | 62 | 44 | 23% | 21,014 | 109.44 |
New York G | 188 | 799 | 550 | 69% | 9,619 | 6,732 | 70% | 51.16 | 35.81 | 0 | 51 | 34 | 18% | 19,165 | 101.94 |
New York J | 189 | 798 | 493 | 62% | 10,058 | 6,540 | 65% | 53.21 | 34.6 | 0 | 10 | 39 | 21% | 18,991 | 100.41 |
San Francisco | 190 | 787 | 538 | 68% | 9,708 | 6,662 | 69% | 51.09 | 35.06 | 0 | 10 | 43 | 23% | 18,902 | 99.48 |
Philadelphia | 196 | 832 | 519 | 62% | 10,147 | 6,592 | 65% | 51.77 | 33.63 | 0 | 10 | 38 | 19% | 19,299 | 98.46 |
Oak/LA Raiders | 178 | 728 | 480 | 66% | 8,941 | 5,964 | 67% | 50.23 | 33.51 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 16% | 17,139 | 96.28 |
Jacksonville | 190 | 781 | 534 | 68% | 9,309 | 6,456 | 69% | 48.99 | 33.98 | 0 | 6 | 39 | 21% | 18,209 | 95.84 |
LA Rams | 194 | 798 | 495 | 62% | 9,670 | 6,144 | 64% | 49.85 | 31.67 | 1 | 26 | 30 | 15% | 18,510 | 95.41 |
New Orleans | 152 | 614 | 393 | 64% | 7,530 | 4,980 | 66% | 49.54 | 32.76 | 0 | 22 | 28 | 18% | 14,498 | 95.38 |
Kansas City | 178 | 702 | 478 | 68% | 8,574 | 6,000 | 70% | 48.17 | 33.71 | 0 | 5 | 30 | 17% | 16,827 | 94.53 |
Minnesota | 189 | 728 | 501 | 69% | 8,863 | 6,190 | 70% | 46.89 | 32.75 | 2 | 9 | 31 | 16% | 17,389 | 92 |
Denver | 183 | 726 | 440 | 61% | 8,810 | 5,449 | 62% | 48.14 | 29.78 | 1 | 49 | 32 | 17% | 16,770 | 91.64 |
Miami | 187 | 721 | 431 | 60% | 9,087 | 5,673 | 62% | 48.59 | 30.33 | 1 | 5 | 39 | 21% | 17,077 | 91.32 |
LA Chargers | 170 | 668 | 459 | 69% | 8,100 | 5,603 | 69% | 47.65 | 32.96 | 1 | 9 | 26 | 15% | 15,865 | 93.32 |
249,655 | 1355.45 | ||||||||||||||
19204.23 | 96.69 |
Posted in Draft day, Philadelphia Eagles
Connect with Bleeding Green Nation