Do tendencies tell us anything about what your NFL GM will do with their picks in the top three rounds? It might. At very least it could tell you what positions they value and don’t shy away from.
Former NFL analytics person Arjun Menon put together a spreadsheet of GM’s across the league to see where they spent most of their draft capital over the past 13 years. And it had some interesting results.
Looking specifically at top 100 picks going back to 2011, here's how much draft capital each GM has allocated to each position in their tenure. Color scheme should help to identify which GMs use the most resources at certain positions with their premium picks pic.twitter.com/2Sg7W4ZbnP
— Arjun Menon (@arjunmenon100) March 27, 2024
In terms of percentage, no team spent more draft picks on any single position than Ravens GM Eric DeCosta with 29.41% (5) of his picks in the top 100 on wide receivers.
If you’re looking at raw numbers, it was Rams GM Les Snead and his seven picks (20.50%) on wide receivers that leads the way.
Along with wide receiver, the positions that seem to be selected most with the top 100 picks are edge rusher and cornerback. Bill Belichick spent seven picks on each position which easily led any other position.
While the least picked position would be center, with many GM’s — including Belichick and Snead — having never selected one in the top 100.
The most drafted position for Raiders GM Tom Telesco in his ten years with the Chargers was linebacker which he selected 15.62% (5) of the time. Next up he had four pick each at wide receiver and guard (12.5%).
Overall, Telesco’s range of picks was spread out somewhat evenly. He used at least one pick at every position and had no positions even reach 16% of his picks.