With six players selected in the 2017 NFL draft, the Tennessee Volunteers had a historically great showing for itself. Here is a look at how.
Tennessee football became the laughingstock of the SEC after two straight years with nobody taken in the NFL draft. So it’s ironic that the Vols numbers in this year’s draft were so great.
And they were great.
Vol fans everywhere expressed pride in the fact that they had six guys go in the NFL draft. Tennessee football historically makes a name for itself in the draft.
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But this year wasn’t just impressive by the numbers. It was impressive even beyond what the Vols usually do when they have players taken in the draft.
Let’s just start with the raw numbers.
The last time Tennessee had six players taken in the NFL draft was the 2010 season. That was a collection from Phillip Fulmer’s last great recruiting classes and coming off Lane Kiffin’s one year as head coach of the Vols.
Since 1993, when the NFL draft shortened to under 300 players selected each year, the Vols had six or more players go nine times. That includes 2010, along with 1995, 1999, and 2007 when they also had six guys.
In 1996, 1998, and 2003 they had eight guys go, while they had nine guys go in 2000 and had a school record 10 guys taken in 2002.
So the 2017 NFL draft class is tied for fourth when it comes to number of players taken.
But there’s more to the story. Six guys taken in the first four rounds of the NFL draft is tied for second all time in school history, and that goes back before 1993. It’s second all time.
And this is one of three classes in school history to actually have six or more guys go in the first four rounds.
The other time they had six go was 2002, when they had the historically great draft class. And the record was 2000, when they had eight of their nine guys drafted go in the first four rounds. But that was a year where Fulmer lost a plethora of early exits to the NFL.
So taking all that into account, the Vols’ outing in the 2017 NFL draft was incredibly remarkable. And it was historic.
To a degree, it does show one area where Butch Jones has the program improving.
If he can translate that to more wins, he can also start recruiting even better. This should all help.