The 2019 NFL Draft was the sixth time Tennessee football was shut out. Here is a ranking of the Volunteers’ following seasons the previous five times.
Having no players taken in the NFL Drat would signal that a Power Five program has fallen on hard times. But for Tennessee football, that may not always be the case. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true.
This year, the Vols are gearing up for their sixth season in school history without any players going in the draft. That nobody would be taken following Jeremy Pruitt’s first season on Rocky Top was not a surprise.
After all, Tennessee football has suffered through two straight losing seasons, and all of its players had to undergo schematic changes on both sides of the ball last year. That’ll do more than enough to hurt somebody’s draft stock.
Expectations are higher heading into 2019, though. After all, the Vols didn’t hire Jeremy Pruitt just to excuse future years of failure. And nobody being taken in the NFL Draft also means lots of Vols could be coming back.
That’s what it has meant in the past. And in this post, we’re going to look at those previous seasons following no players drafted for the Vols. The 2019 draft was the sixth time in history no UT player was taken since its inception in 1936.
In the seasons following the previous five times, results have ranged from .500 ball to going undefeated. Where this upcoming year’s team will fall in that category remains to be seen, but they will be somewhere when it’s all said and done.
So let’s look to the past now to see what things could look like this season based on the draft. As you’re about to find out, the results are as random as the draft itself. Four months out from learning anything, here is our ranking of the five Tennessee football seasons following an NFL Draft in which no Vols were taken.