NFC West: Poor history of drafting defensive ends ..

[MauiRam]

4/25/2011 11:06:05 AM


Mike Sando of espn.com wrote an interesting article which serves as a reminder of just how inept the NFC West has been in the draft-one of the primary reasons the division is universally considered the worst division in the NFL.

NFC West teams have drafted 22 defensive ends since 2002. Only two of these draft picks currently start for the teams that drafted them. Two! That's less than 10%. A third defensive end-Antonio Smith-starts for another team. In other words, 19 of the 22 draft picks have been either underachievers or outright busts.


Chris Long (Rams) and Calais Campbell (Cardinals) are the two starters from this group still in the NFC West. Long is the onlyplayer on this listed who was drafted before the 28th pick. Antonio Smith starts for the Texans. It should be noted that Darnell Dockett is not considered part of this group as he starts at DE for the Cardinals but was drafted to be a defensive tackle.

Six of the eight most highly drafted ends since 2002 came from teams most recently affiliated with the ACC. Nine of the 22 are no longer active in the league-and four of those nine were 4th round picks or higher.


So the next Sunday you watch your favorite NFC West squad get blown away by the likes of Tom Brady or Peyton Manning because they have no consistent pass rush, remember they likely have no homegrown defensive ends-only rejects from other teams.


Wonder how many of these underachievers/busts were 1st or 2nd rounders ..

[tomahawk247]

This article doesn't exactly tell the whole story. For example, the Rams drafted three DEs in rounds 5-7 last year, but you can't expect those guys to turn out to be starters

[Goldenfleece]

This article doesn't exactly tell the whole story. For example, the Rams drafted three DEs in rounds 5-7 last year, but you can't expect those guys to turn out to be starters

I thought the same thing. Aside from Long, we haven't drafted a defensive end in the first three rounds since Tony Hargrove in 2004 (unless you count Carriker whom we drafted to play DT). After that, you'd have to go all the way back to 1998 when we drafted Grant Wistrom and Leonard Little in the first and third rounds respectively. Our track record with DTs has been nothing short of abysmal, but I don't think we've done particularly poorly at defensive end.