It hardly science, but how
many players from a particular draft actually make their respective
team's opening day roster gives some indication of just how strong that
draft may have been. And if this is in any way a reasonably accurate
measure, then the early returns from the 2012 draft suggest that this
year was a relatively strong for selecting players. Overall, 33 players
selected at
last April's
draft were released prior to Friday's deadline for teams to be down
to the opening-day 53-man roster limit. In fact, that's the third
lowest number of players who draftees who have been released since the
NFL went
to a 53-man roster behind only 2011 and 2008 when the figures were 30
and 32 respectively. The current figure is also in line in line woth
2010 when 35 players selected that year were released prior to the
season, whereas the number was 41 in in
2009. The current figure is also well below those in both 2006 (40) and 2007 (45). At the same time, another 18 rookie
draftees this year were placed on either injured reserve or the
physically unable to erform list. That
figure, though, is slightly higher than recent years.
Not surprisingly, most of the players taken at the this year's draft
who were released
this weekend were
late- round selections. In fact, 30 of the 33 draftees who did not make
their team's opening day
53-man roster were taken in either the 6th or 7th rounds, with 18
coming from the final round. At the same time, 3 players selected in
the 5th round were cut this weekend including Dallas WR Danny Coale,
Seattle LB Korey Toomer and Buffalo LB Tank Carder. Carder, though, was
claimed off waivers by Cleveland. In contrast, no one selected in this
year's first four rounds was released prior to the start of the season.
In fact, only every player selected in the first two rounds was
included in their respective team's 53-man roster, while two third
rounders - Pittsburgh LB Sean Spence and Chicago DB Brandon Hardin -
went on injured reserve.
For the most part, this year's the cuts were spread pretty much
across the league as only 4 teams - Arizona, Carolina, Denver, and
Jacksonville - neither
released nor IRed any of their players taken at the 2012 draft.
Another, Baltimore, and Tennessee didn't release any of
their draft picks this year, but did place at least one on a reserve
list. In contrast, the New York Jets released 3 of its 8 picks as it
cut down to the roster deadline and then waived a 4th after after the
original 53-man roster had been established. Meanwhile, Dallas, Green
Bay, and Philadelphia each released a couple
of players take at the 2011 draft, while Buffalo, Chicago, Kansas City,
Pittsburgh and San Francisco also each cut two draft picks and placed a
third on
injured reserve.
The 2012 draft also ofered more hope to players overlooked at the draft
as a total of 45 undrafted
rookie
free agents survived last week's cuts and made a 53-man roster. In
addition, several of those were cut prior to the 53-man roster deadline
have since been either claimed off waivers or signed by other teams.
However, this year's figure is actually slightly below those for the
past couple of years as 57 rookie
free agents made an NFL roster in 2010, while there were 54 last year.
In contrast, less than
30 rookie free agents were still on an NFL roster at the start of the
2009 season.
In fact, 26 of the 32 NFL teams had at least one undrafted
rookie free agent on the roster after the 53-man opening day roster
deadline had passed on Friday. St. Louis led the way
with 6 undrafted
rookie free agents making the Rams' roster, while Jacksonville had 5.
Cleveland also currently has 5 undrafted rookie free agents on its
roster having kept three and claimed two others off waivers. Meanwhile,
Green Bay has 4 undrafted rookies, while Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
Miami, New England and Baltimore have three each.
*******
If you have comments or
suggestions, e-mail
the Editor, Great Blue North
Draft
Report. The GBN can also be reached by phone at (613) 692-1088 or
regular mail at 320 Shadehill Crescent, Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada, K2J 0L6.