Examining recent early-entry SEC players in the NFL draft

While the college football world is focused on the upcoming National Signing Day, a group of former SEC players are preparing for the NFL Combine, their respective pro days and the draft.

One of the trends in recent seasons is an increase in the number of early entrants, which rose year over year from 53 in 2010 to a recond 98 in 2014.

Alabama coach Nick Saban and others have talked about the need to better educate players on the decision, which could leave them without an NFL team and unused college eligibility (and in some cases the chance for a player to finish his education for free).

The NFL Draft Advisory Board, heeding the advice, changed its policy in 2015, offering only grades of first round, second round or stay in school The number of early entrants dropped from 98 to 74 overall and 27 to 21 in the SEC (if you include former Missouri receiver Dorial Green-Beckham).

With that in mind, we decided to take a detailed look at the early NFL draft entries from the SEC in the last five years. Here’s a breakdown of where NFL teams drafted them.

A combined seven early-entry SEC players went undrafted from 2010-12. The last two years produced 15 such undrafted players. If recent trends hold, four or five of the early-entry candidates from the conference will go undrafted this year.

The trend of players leaving for the NFL early will be tough to curtail, especially as information about the long-term health problems associated with football and head injuries becomes mainstream. It’s become such common knowledge that running backs can expect a limited NFL shelf life as well. (Seven of the SEC’s early entrants this year are running backs.) Players want to get paid for playing and make their money while they can.

But hopefully, with a smarter system for pre-draft evaluations, and some better-informed decisions, we’ll see fewer players forego the chance to finish their education and also fail to draw a check as a professional football player.

Also, a whopping 36 early-entry SEC players have gotten picked in the first round the last five years, half of which were selected in the Top 10. Most early entrants from the SEC have gotten drafted in the first three rounds or not at all, suggesting that for a number of players, poor decision-making, not necessarily bad information, led to entering early and going undrafted.

Alabama has placed a remarkable 10 early-entry players in the first round in the five most recent NFL drafts.

Here’s a year-by-year look at the SEC early entries from the last five years.

2010 Early Entries

Total Players: 15
Undrafted: 20 percent

2011 Early Entries

Total Players: 15
Undrafted: 20 percent

2012 Early Entries

Total Players: 12
Undrafted: 8 percent

2013 Early Entries

Total Players: 32
Undrafted: 22 percent

2014 Early Entries

Total Players: 27
Undrafted: 30 percent