New, Notes, Facts & Trends. Get to know the NFL Draft inside out with tidbits from John Murphy of Yahoo Sports. "QB'S AND THE SUPER BOWL": *The NFL Draft started in 1936, and since then there have been a total of 72 #1 overall selections... however, only 12 of them have currently been selected into the Hall of Fame, the most recent being former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman... the breakdown of those 12 HOF is as follows, five running backs, three quarterbacks, two defensive linemen and two offensive linemen, although one of the offensive linemen, Chuck Bednarik, who was #1 overall in 1949 by Philadelphia, also played linebacker. *A total of 27 quarterbacks have been drafted #1 overall since the NFL instituted the draft in 1936... eight of those have gone on to be named Super Bowl MVP, including Eli Manning who won that award this past January. *A total of 46 QB's have been drafted in the first round of the past 22 drafts... of that group only four out of 46 have won at least one Super Bowl... those four being Troy Aikman (Dallas), Trent Dilfer (Baltimore), Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh) and Eli Manning (NY Giants). *Only five players who were drafted #1 overall have gone on to be named MVP of the Super Bowl... all five have been quarterbacks... Terry Bradshaw (Pittsburgh), Troy Aikman (Dallas), John Elway (Denver), Peyton Manning (Indianapolis) and Eli Manning (NY Giants). *The last two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks have come from SEC programs Eli Manning (Mississippi) and Peyton Manning (Tennessee). However, the last time before those two won rings it goes all the way back to Joe Namath (Alabama) in Super Bowl III and Bart Starr (Alabama) who was named MVP of Super I & II, so that is something for fans of Andre’ Woodson (Kentucky) to follow. *The last Big East quarterback to win a Super Bowl was Jeff Hostetler (West Virginia) who won the Super Bowl with the NY Giants in 1990, so that is something Matt Ryan (Boston College) has to shoot for once joining the NFL. *The last time a Boston College quarterback was taken in the #1 overall was back in 1964 when the Boston Patriots (AFL) selected Jack Concannon; when there were still two drafts one for the AFL and one for the NFL. Prior to that pick the Washington Redskins selected Don Allard in the first-round of the 1959 NFL Draft, so it has been nearly 45 years since BC produced the top overall selection. "INTERESTING DRAFT SIDE DISHES": *The NFL has instituted several new rules in recent years to help the draft process along, including the fact that teams can only interview so many players at the Combine. They can also only have so many players in-town for private visits (30) after the draft and cannot have any visits past a certain date (Friday, April 18th, this year). So, how do you get all your work done with these new rules in effect? Easy, if they can't come to you than you go to see them as several top prospects will have their "Private" visits in the comfort of their own home town or college campus, while others can be persuaded to change dates or schedule their visits based on reasons team share with them or their agents. "Well, our team makes it a rule that we cannot put you on our draft board without having you take a physical with our own team doctors", said one team executive; that seems to work on a 20-22 year old kid that wants to see his name called at the end of April. However, you can also make an agent decide to send his player on a seven team in nine day trip across the country, but that is also how teams find out what's going on during the "Private Visit" circuit. You can see what city the player came from, what city he is going to next and who he saw or ran into at that last team's complex. So, while many things have changed or been altered to help smooth out the draft process there will always be some things that will always stay the same. Therefore if you see a "Goodyear" blimp overhead in the weeks leading up to the draft it's likely not a re-make of "Black Sunday" rather just someone doing some "Advanced" scouting on who's visiting your team's facility. LINK http://www.nfldraftbible.com/Newsflash/a_look_at_the_nfl_draft_by_the_numbers.html
