2015 draft passes test … Back in the spring, the consensus around the NFL was that the 2015 draft, and especially the later rounds, just wasn’t all that strong in comparison to other recent draft years. However, while its hardly a perfect measure, at least based on the number of players selected this past spring who are still on an NFL roster, the 2015 draft class did just fine thank you very much. Indeed, as of yesterday’s roster deadline, only 33 of the 255 players selected at this year’s draft had been released, while a 34th (LB Matthew Wells, a 6th round pick who New England traded to Chicago earlier this summer) was with another team. In fact, that figure is slightly lower than last year when 36 draft picks were released prior to the start of the season. It is also one of the lowest figures ever since the league went to a 7-round draft. At the same time, another 17 of this year’s draft picks were placed on a reserve list, either IR, PUP or the non-football injury list, which is around the average figure for recent drafts. Not surprisingly, most of the draft picks who were released were later round picks. Indeed, 31 of the 33 drafted players who were cut were either 6th or 7th round picks. In particular, 10 players taken in the 6th round and 21 7th round selections were released prior to the deadline. What is kind of surprising, though, is that only player taken in the 5th round – OG Robert Myers by Baltimore – was released prior to the deadline despite the fact that the buzz around the league was that the final three rounds in this year’s draft would produce more misses than hits. Meanwhile, the earliest player picked this year who was released prior to the deadline was WR Vince Mayle, a late 4th round pick by Cleveland. It also seems somewhat appropriate that Washington, which has an off-season which can only be described as dysfuntional, was the only team to release three picks from this year’s draft as the DCthings axed 6th rounders CB Tevin Mitchell and WR Evan Spence and 7th round C Austin Reiter prior to this weekend’s deadline. At the same time, Atlanta, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Oakland, Denver, Minnesota, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Seattle, and Tampa Bay all released two drafted players, while New England released one after trading TE Wells to Chicago. At the same time, 5 teams – Indianapolis, Detroit, NY Jets, San Diego, and Carolina – did not cut or list any of this year’s picks, although it should be noted that the latter three teams were also among the teams with the fewest picks of any team this year. (ed note: these numbers are all unofficial and based on our own research and calculations; as such, we’d appreciate hearing if we missed anything. Thnx)
