2017 NFL Draft: By the Numbers

The 2017 NFL Draft is in the books with 253 selections made! What do the numbers tell us about this year's rendition?

Which conference is king?

SEC: 53

ACC: 43

Pac-12: 36

Big Ten: 35

AAC (the former Big East): 15

Big 12: 14

MAC: 13

Which schools had the most picks?

Michigan: 11

Alabama: 10

Miami: 9

LSU: 8

Florida: 8

Analysis

Clearly, the SEC is the king of the hill once more. After several "down" years where the other conferences caught up to them, the SEC reasserted itself. The ACC has continued to be second place for a number of years now, putting up a respectable 43 prospects. So the odds are pretty good that prospect will get selected if they play for a school in these two conferences.

Michigan, who had the most prospects at the Combine, had the most picks with 11. Alabama is still Alabama with its usual high numbers. The most surprising high number is Miami, given their seemingly perpetual state of rebuilding the program.

Unsurprisingly, Florida's haul of 8 picks, only included ONE offensive prospect. The majority of the top schools had more defensive prospects taken than offensive ones. The ratio isn't particularly close to a true 50/50 split either.

The Big 12 had a horrid time of things. They need Texas and Oklahoma to be the two stalwart programs again. Texas had a whopping total of ONE prospect selected. Several Group of Five (non power conference) schools had more picks than both teams COMBINED.

Funny fact: The University of West Georgia (2) had more prospects selected than Georgia (1) and Georgia Tech (1). West Georgia owns the state of Georgia for one year at least.

Titans related numbers

Pac-12: 3

Conference USA: 2

MAC: 1

Colonial Athletic Association: 1

Southern Conference: 1

Big 12: 1

Offense: 6

Defense: 3

Total Distance from Nashville: 8,588 miles

Avg. number of HS recruiting stars: 2.2

5 stars (Adoree Jackson)

4 stars (Khalfani Muhammad)

3 stars (Jayon Brown)

2 stars (Corey Davis)

2 stars (Taywan Taylor)

2 stars (Josh Carraway)

2 stars (Jonnu Smith)

0 stars (Corey Levin)

0 stars (Brad Seaton)

Analysis

Titans GM Jon Robinson sure loves his not so heavily recruited and small school guys. Sure, he'll go after big game from time to time but he has a space in his heart for the lesser known prospects. The Pac-12 leads the way with three picks, with Cal, USC, and UCLA splitting them up. WR Taywan Taylor and TE Jonnu Smith are familiar foes as WKU and FIU are conference mates in C-USA.

I added the distance from the college campuses of the prospects to Nashville and came up with 8,588. Just an interesting thing to look at in terms of roster building. The farthest that anyone has to fly is Khalifani Muhammad (2,395) and the shortest is Corey Levin (135).

In terms of HS recruiting, Adoree Jackson leads the way with being a five star recruit. Four of the Titans' picks were two star recruits. Two weren't even given any stars. The narrative that the Titans look for the unheralded prospects is true in this instance. The top three in terms of stars all hail from sunny California.