The 75th annual NFL Draft has come and gone and it was yet another productive year for the Under Armour Senior Bowl. After seven rounds and 255 picks, 84 former Senior Bowlers were selected in this year's draft. That's a number that we are very proud of and when you factor in undrafted free agents, all but three players off of the 2010 rosters landed with an NFL team.
Under the NFL's new format, the draft spanned three days this year and took place in prime time for the first time ever. By all accounts it was a major success and was well received by the fans. Thursday night's first round featured 10 Senior Bowlers being selected, marking the ninth straight year we've had 10 or more players chosen in the first round. The Senior Bowl also extended their streak of having a top-ten pick to 14 straight years. California defensive tackle Tyson Alualu kept that streak alive when he was chosen tenth overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The ten first round selections is even more impressive when you consider that half of the first round (16) consisited of underclassmen. Furthermore, the Senior Bowl also had the first senior player chosen at seven different positions (DE,OG, QB, S, CB, LB, C).
Interestingly, the Philadelphia Eagles chose the most players off of our rosters this year. The Eagles selected eight Senior Bowlers, including 2010 MVP Brandon Graham. The Miami Dolphins, who coached the South squad in Mobile this year, used their first four picks of the draft on Senior Bowlers.
Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland had this to say about his time in Mobile: "Just being able to be around as much as we were you really get to be able to find out a lot more about the kids and we really felt it was a competitive advantage for us over other teams to get to know these kids the way we did."
Ireland's statements provide further proof of the strong relationship that exists between the National Football League and the Senior Bowl. It's a relationship that makes us unique and one that we deeply value.
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