Alabama Football: Comparing NFL Draft elite talent vs. deep talent

Who besides Alabama football and Ed Orgeron won the NFL Draft? Comparing elite talent and deep talent can provide an answer.

Reviewing the NFL Draft is about more than counting selections. Alabama football fans are well versed in understanding the difference in elite college football talent and, well, everybody else.

The NFL Draft is not a measurement of the 255 best college players trying to become professionals. NFL teams mostly draft to fill needs rather than taking the ‘best available’ player. Many undrafted college players have had long NFL careers.

A fair measurement of each cycle’s top college players is the Draft’s first two rounds. Those 64 selections generally define the elite players exiting college football. Given that assumption, the total number of seven-round picks for each school can be misleading. A more specific breakdown is to count the first two rounds, comprising ‘elite’ talent separately and label the other five rounds as ‘deep talent.’

Using the Michigan Wolverines as an example, the distinction between ‘elite’ and ‘deep’ is clear. Ten of Jim Harbaugh’s players were chosen in the 2020 NFL Draft. Only two were selected in the first two rounds. The other eight former Michigan players were drafted in rounds four, five and six. Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan program can be said to have ‘deep’ talent and not much ‘elite’ talent.

Not much better than Michigan are Georgia, Auburn, Clemson and Oklahoma. The four programs each had three players chosen in the Draft’s first two rounds. In the case of Oklahoma, the Sooners’ third player was Jalen Hurts. As in our previous 2020 NFL Draft posts, Jalen is credited to both Oklahoma and Alabama football.

It is fair to state the quartet of schools above did not have an abundance of ‘elite’ talent in their exiting players. Georgia is particularly glaring. Of the Bulldogs’ seven players drafted, four of them were in rounds four, five, six and seven.

Championship college football programs need both ‘elite’ and ‘deep’ talent. Making another assumption, teams having more ‘elite’ talent will more often beat teams with less ‘elite’ talent. Last season, LSU was blessed with talent. So did Ed Orgeron and the Bengal Tigers win the NFL Draft?

Many Alabama football fans will argue the Crimson Tide had as much or more talent than LSU. The NFL Draft indicates just that. LSU had seven players drafted in the first two rounds, while the Crimson Tide (counting Jalen again) had eight.

Does that make the Crimson Tide the clear winner of the NFL Draft? Adding one more comparison provides an answer. In the first 15 players selected Thursday night, LSU had one. The Alabama Crimson Tide had four.

Why, with an arguable edge in talent, did the Crimson Tide lose to LSU? Because the Bengal Tigers were the healthier team.