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Lee Caz posted an article the other day that looked at our secondary and the round at which they were drafted.  It got me thinking, is there any correlation with the Bucs in terms of talent and draft position?  So I took the two deep roster of the Bucs, ignoring special teams and looked at their draft position, how we acquired them, and who acquired them (front office). The who acquired them was just for historical purposes, in case that argument ever gets brought up.

I also will look at two other nameless teams and chart their draft positions only to see if there is any rhyme or reason to the outcome of a season and player draft position.  For those teams I'll go two deep where available and use just the round they were drafted in.

Onwards we go.

First up, we'll look at the Bucs.  Remember, I'm only looking at the two-deep chart here, meaning I'm only looking at starters and backups.  I'm also looking at our expected starting line up, meaning Tanard Jackson and Phillips will be in the lineups.  Same for the two teams below. 

Here's the Buc's two deep roster

We have a TON of early round talent on offense with a few later round or undrafted players thrown in there.  We can sport about 7 first rounders on offense on any given play.  But first round status doesn't mean they are/were elite players.

On the defensive side, it's a hodge podge of players.  Seems we have guys from just about every round possible. 

Looking at the other two teams let's see where their players were drafted. (When reading this, the starter is listed first, then back up.  For positions like Tackle or End, it is listed as left/right)

 When I look at the first two teams, I don't see any drastic differences.  They are fairly similar in make up across the board.  Offensively, the 2nd team has higher picks and defensively, it's pretty close.  So no real difference right?

Looking at the Bucs, we seem to have more talent (based on draft status only) on the offensive side of the ball and are close to being in line on the defensive side of the ball.  No real variance between the three teams.  Of course, we are only looking at three teams, so there could be some variance with the rest of the league.

I look at this set up and don't see any difference, but yet I see three separate paths in terms of each team.  Looking at a team based on draft status of starters doesn't show us anything.  Three different teams, three different records, three different histories, but very similar roster make up when looking at only draft position. 

It leads me to the conclusion that draft status means virtually nothing outside of pay grade.  The real emphasis and what not only gives a roster character, but what defines it and ultimately decides which way it goes is coaching, system and scouting.  Proper scouting and making the right selection at your draft slot plays a much more integral role than what round your pick comes from.  In theory, every team has a pick in rounds 1-7, so there shouldn't be any differentiation.  Obviously each team picks at different slot, but it's what you do with that pick that matters.  Properly scout it, determine strengths and weaknesses in your system and make your pick.  Or blindly pick a player and expect success due to draft status.  I feel pretty good in saying that the above charts show draft status at position alone don't mean anything, it's the work done before and after the pick that makes the difference. 

By the way, Team 1 is the Pittsburgh Steelers and Team 2 is the St. Louis Rams.