Big Ten takes the top spot for 1st rounders, while SEC sets record for total players drafted

Seven players came from FBS independents with Notre Dame having six and UConn one.

There were four players who came from FCS-level schools and one who didn’t play college at all with Philadelphia taking Nigerian native Uar Bernard in the seventh round as part of the NFL’s International Pathway Program.

Record low draft for running backs

The first round of the draft provided some memorable milestones for running backs with Jeremiyah Love becoming the first top five back in eight years when Arizona took him third overall. His Notre Dame teammate Jadarian Price went with the final pick of the round to Seattle.

That marked the sixth time in the common draft era starting in 1967 when two running backs from the same college were taken in the first round of the same draft with it last happening in 2008 with Arkansas’ Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.

Running backs mostly were an afterthought after that.

The next back off the board came near the end of the third round when San Francisco took Indiana’s Kaelon Black 90th overall, marking the fewest running backs taken in the first three rounds of the common draft.

Only 10 more running backs went on the final day with the 13 total the fewest taken in any draft.

Tight ends had a banner weekend with 22 picked, the most since 2015, according to Sportradar, when there were also 22 selected as the league’s trend of more multi-tight end formations put a premium at the position.

The trenches as usual were dominant with teams drafting 51 defensive linemen and 50 offensive linemen. There also were 46 defensive backs, 36 wide receivers, 26 linebackers, 10 quarterbacks and three specialists.

Ohio State leads the way

Ohio State was the third fastest school ever to have four players picked in a draft with Carnell Tate, Arvell Reece, Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs all going in the top 11 of the draft.

The only schools ever to have four players picked that quickly were Michigan State with four of the top eight in 1967 and Notre Dame with four of the top 10 in 1946.

The Buckeyes didn’t slow down from there with seven more players drafted, giving them the most of any school this year with 11. Alabama and Texas A&M each had 10, followed by Clemson, Miami and Texas Tech with nine apiece.

This also marked the 88th straight draft that both Michigan and USC had a player picked for the longest streaks of any school. Notre Dame has missed only one year (1977) of having a player picked in the regular draft since 1938 but did have running back Al Hunter taken in the supplemental draft that year.

Wisconsin had its streak of at least one player picked each year since 1979 snapped.

Speeding up the draft

The NFL shortened the time between picks in the first round from 10 minutes to eight minutes, cutting the total duration of the round to under three hours.

The league said the first round took 2 hours, 53 minutes, down 36 minutes from last year and 40 minutes less than the average of the previous five drafts.

The duration of the first round has been cut in half since commissioner Roger Goodell’s first draft in 2007. Teams that year had 15 minutes to make their picks in the opening round, leading to a 6 hour, 8 minute round in 2007.