While each NFL team is organically handed seven draft picks per season, trades involving draft choices and the compensatory pick process ensures that many clubs end up with more (or fewer) than their original seven selections. As always, you can view the complete 2019 draft order, but here we’ll look at how much draft capital each club has amassed.
Let’s take a look at how many draft picks each NFL club currently possesses:
Updated: 4-23-19 (12:57pm CT)
12 picks
- New England Patriots
- New York Giants
11 picks
- Cincinnati Bengals
10 picks
- Arizona Cardinals
- Buffalo Bills
- Green Bay Packers
- Pittsburgh Steelers
9 picks
- Atlanta Falcons
- Detroit Lions
- Indianapolis Colts
- Washington Redskins
8 picks
- Baltimore Ravens
- Cleveland Browns
- Denver Broncos
- Minnesota Vikings
- Oakland Raiders
7 picks
- Carolina Panthers
- Houston Texans
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Los Angeles Rams
- Miami Dolphins
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
6 picks
- Dallas Cowboys
- New Orleans Saints
- New York Jets
- San Francisco 49ers
- Tennessee Titans
5 picks
- Chicago Bears
- Seattle Seahawks
Of course, not all draft picks are created equally, as holding more early-round selections is eminently more valuable than collecting mid-to-late round picks. Using Chase Stuart of Football Perspective‘s draft value chart, we can calculate how many draft capital points each team owns heading into the 2019 NFL draft:
- New York Giants: 75.0
- Oakland Raiders: 74.1
- Arizona Cardinals: 66.5
- Green Bay Packers: 63.1
- San Francisco 49ers: 57.0
- Buffalo Bills: 53.8
- Jacksonville Jaguars: 52.9
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 51.8
- New England Patriots: 51.7
- Indianapolis Colts: 50.7
- Pittsburgh Steelers: 50.1
- Cincinnati Bengals: 49.0
- Denver Broncos: 49.0
- Atlanta Falcons: 48.3
- Detroit Lions: 47.8
- Carolina Panthers: 47.4
- New York Jets: 47.3
- Washington Redskins: 45.2
- Houston Texans: 42.6
- Philadelphia Eagles: 42.5
- Miami Dolphins: 41.9
- Seattle Seahawks: 40.8
- Tennessee Titans: 39.9
- Baltimore Ravens: 39.4
- Minnesota Vikings: 38.4
- Los Angeles Chargers: 34.3
- Los Angeles Rams: 29.9
- Cleveland Browns: 29.2
- Kansas City Chiefs: 26.6
- Dallas Cowboys: 23.7
- New Orleans Saints: 12.7
- Chicago Bears: 12.4
“early-round selections is eminently more valuable” ask the patriots about drafting early or trading back
If you bothered to do the research you would see that New England has 5 Hall of Famers drafted in the first 50 picks. That includes Fran Tarkenton who gained fame with the Vikings but does not include Gronk who will assuredly be enshrined in Canton.
Tarkenton never played for the Pats. He only played for the Vikings and the Giants.
I pointed out that his fame did not come with the Patriots but their drafting him demonstrates that they correctly evaluated the kind of QB he could become.
Ah, in the 5th round of the 1961 AFL draft, but he signed with the Vikings, who had taken him in the 3rd round of the 1961 NFL draft.
The Patriots run a very different kind of team, based on quality of coach, less than quality of player. Using the Patriots as a baseline is very dangerous. Until the last two years where everything blew up, one could use the Steelers as an example of good long term management: using draft picks well, developing stars, keeping a franchise quarterback in house.
Draft capital in general is a good thing but more important is the quality of the GM. Good GMs find ways of compensating for a shortage while bad GMs shoot themselves in the foot no matter how many picks they have.
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