Draft Trends, by Potato

Courtesy, naturally, of Danny O'Neil. Ordinarily, I'd have a thoroughly good time mocking whatever a particular Times writer has to say. Who am I to buck tradition?

There wasn't a single wide receiver chosen in the first round of last year's draft. That was strange considering that since 2000 more first-round picks were used on wide receivers than any other position.

In fact, a first round hadn't finished without a wide receiver being chosen since 1990. It won't happen again. Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree is expected to be a top 10 choice. In fact, many people expect the Seahawks to choose Crabtree No. 4 overall.

It would be petty to point out that just because a wideout will certainly go in the first round this year, you can't rule out a repeat of last year's receiver-less first round.

Stands to reason that if wide receivers are such hot potatoes that they get drafted in the first round more often than any other type of potatoes, they'd be the most common type of potato found among the top-five choices, too.

Does that mean that last year's first round was the Potato Famine?

Quarterbacks have been chosen more often than any other position in the top five spots of the draft. Of the past 45 players picked among the top five since 2000, 10 were quarterbacks. Offensive tackles were the second most-common position in the top five.

We also learn some of the trends from the rest of the draft, a topic that has been touched on here occasionally. The article itself has the draft volumes by position in tabular form. These trends do exist for a reason: teams view certain positions as more valuable (clearly, ya eejit) and are only willing to spend their pick / money on those select few positions. Browse the article and see what you think about the trends. I leave you with this pot o' gold:

Cornerbacks and linebackers are among the most common positions picked from choices No. 11 through No. 32 and among the least common among the top five, which could point to the perception that there are more options at those positions. Or to take a sledgehammer to pound my food metaphor into the ground, if you miss out on one hot potato at those positions and you're going to get another potato that's almost as tasty.