Tipster19 Posted March 27, 2005 Posted March 27, 2005 I'm just curious what the norm is for smaller school prospects with athletic ability. Players with size, speed and big statistics against lesser competition. Do they get drafted in the early rounds? If so, at roughly what percentage and how many? I know very little about college players and what they can truly contribute. It seems to be that Division I players dominate the first 3 rounds in the draft. Is it usually too big of a gamble to take a Division II player in the 2nd or 3rd round? Furthermore, is it unheard of to draft a Division III player in these rounds?
UConn James Posted March 27, 2005 Posted March 27, 2005 I'm just curious what the norm is for smaller school prospects with athletic ability. Players with size, speed and big statistics against lesser competition. Do they get drafted in the early rounds? If so, at roughly what percentage and how many? I know very little about college players and what they can truly contribute. It seems to be that Division I players dominate the first 3 rounds in the draft. Is it usually too big of a gamble to take a Division II player in the 2nd or 3rd round? Furthermore, is it unheard of to draft a Division III player in these rounds? 288517[/snapback] It usually is D-I players selected in the first few rounds, and they comprise a high percentage of all players taken in the seven rounds. Still, it's not unheard of for guys from smaller schools to be picked, tho the results aren't usually good to get even an adequate starter. I believe the last true "small" school player the Bills selected was Matt Stevens who was coming off a knee injury (and it wasn't even TD that drafted him! ) from Appalachian State in the third round in the mid-to-late 90s. About the only ones I can remember being superstars are Andre Reed and John Mobley, both out of Kutztown State. If a player from a D-II or -III school has eyes on the NFL, it's usually through UDFA pickup. UConn was D-IA (and this only sounds bigger than it actually was) up until about 5 years ago and had a grand total of four players ever selected in the NFL draft in team history. Most recently, Brian Kozlowski, a TE that pretty much was signed by every team Dan Reeves went to, basically b/c he "knew the system." We've now got three players that have a decent shot of getting drafted this year.
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