Inside the numbers: DB is SEC’s best position group of last 10 years

The SEC has been the nation’s most talent-rich conference throughout the last 10 years, and while the conference has boasted talent at every position during that time, it’s had more talent at defensive back than any other position.

For starters, defensive backs are one of the SEC’s most accomplished position groups at the college level. Of the 132 SEC players to earn All-America honors from one of the nation’s major media outlets during the last 10 years, 31 of them played defensive back.

(Those major outlets include the Associated Press, Sporting News, Football Writers Association of America, American Football Coaches Association, the Walter Camp Foundation, etc.)

That number is only topped by the SEC’s offensive linemen, which boasted 33 All-Americans over the course of the last decade.

For context’s sake, that’s an average of more than three All-American defensive backs from the SEC per season, and no other SEC position group managed to produce more than 24 All-Americans during that 10-year span.

The SEC’s defensive backs have also been one of the conference’s most productive position groups at the NFL level. Of the more than 300 SEC alums drafted into the NFL since the 2005 draft, 77 of them played defensive back. That number is only topped by the SEC’s defensive linemen, which sent 83 players to the league in the last 10 years.

Only one other position group saw more than 51 players drafted during that same time frame.

And no SEC position group has had more combined All-Americans and NFL draftees in the last 10 years than the defensive backs, which boast a combined number of 108, slightly ahead of the 107 posted by the defensive linemen. The offensive linemen posted a combined total of 96, but no other position group had a combined number larger than 71.

So while the conference’s defensive backs are not alone at the top as far as All-Americans or NFL Draft picks are concerned, they do have more to brag about than any other group.

Do the defensive backs form the SEC’s best position group of the last 10 years? That’s a matter of opinion. But the numbers speak for themselves, and they say the SEC’s defensive backs are a cut above the rest.

Ethan Levine

A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.