Every NFL Draft there seems to be a new trendy way to grade a draft class. The grading process changes every year based on team needs and new play-calling trends.

There have been a few individual players over the years that solely changed the way NFL teams draft.

These players changed the ‘norms’ many NFL scouts thought about certain players and helped (or hurt) other players with similar skill-sets. Yes, not all of these changes were for the better.

Michael Vick

Vick helped open the door in two different ways: His success helped more African American quarterbacks get drafted in the following years, and more athletic quarterbacks were taken high soon after Vick was drafted in 2001.

There were successful African American quarterbacks before Vick as Warren Moon, Steve McNair and Randall Cunningham all had success before the Atlanta Falcons drafted Vick, but only one (Doug Williams) won a Super Bowl at that point. Vick never won a Super Bowl ring, but he helped turn the Falcons around in a hurry. The percentage of African American starting quarterbacks shot up after Vick’s success.

There were also some athletic quarterbacks that were helped by Vick’s NFL success. For example, the 2005 NFL Draft would have looked much different. Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers would have both been drafted that year, but their athleticism helped their draft stock. Smith was taken #1 overall by the Niners and Rodgers was selected #24 by the Packers. Both quarterbacks have had success with their legs (and arms). Teams would often try to reign in quarterback’s movement and didn’t allow them to make plays with their feet. Vick’s success allowed teams to view the skill-set as high risk/high reward. The threat of injury is there, but sometimes it is worth the gamble.

On the flipside, without Vick’s success, the Titans may not have taken Vince Young #3 overall in the 2006 NFL Draft. They may have taken more prototypical quarterbacks like Matt Leinart or Jay Cutler…wo may or may not have had the same amount of success at Young.

Wes Welker

How did a player who went undrafted affect the NFL Draft? Well, it was a wake-up call to front offices that there is a market inefficiency out there that can be exploited. Some NFL teams took advantage of it and some never bought into it (and lost out). The New England Patriots were able to take advantage the most as they’ve signed free agents and drafted guys late in Welker’s mold. The Patriots have used Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan and Danny Woodhead and didn’t need to spend an early draft pick.

A team could wait on a smaller slot receiver with good hands. There have been many over the years that went undrafted or were taken late in the NFL Draft. You can still find some to this day, but the odds of finding a Wes Welker or Danny Amendola are much longer.

Another way Welker helped change the NFL Draft was that teams didn’t need running backs as much. Some teams started to use the short-passing game as a substitute for a short-gain running game. Welker wasn’t the sole reason this happened, but more teams were having success with short passes than rush attempts. The overall scheme change hurt overall running back class draft stock.

Dwight Freeney

The Colts selected Dwight Freeney in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Many draft experts bashed the pick as he thought the 6’1 & 266 pound defensive end would be eaten up by large offensive tackles. Freeney changed the game with double-digit sacks in his first four seasons in the league. He finished his career with 125.5 sacks.

The Colts immediately took advantage of their firsthand knowledge that speedy, undersized defensive ends and outside linebackers can dominate bulky offensive tackles. They drafted Robert Mathis in 2003 and he finished his career with 123 sacks. Players like Terrell Suggs, DeMarcus Ware and Derrick Johnson were selected high in the following years. The success of those guys really helped pushed the trend to this day. 

Drew Brees

Quarterbacks under six-foot tall didn’t have a good track record in the NFL. There were some in the early days of the NFL, but now that offensive lineman are 320+ pounds and most stand over 6’4, a quarterback’s height was important as ever. Brees fell into the second round due to fears that he would be too short for the NFL.

Brees had marginal success in San Diego and it wasn’t until he signed with New Orleans that he started to change the way teams view shorter quarterbacks. He has become one of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history, and is expected to pass Peyton Manning for the career record for all-time passing yards this season. There have been some shorter quarterbacks to have success in later years that has helped the draft stock of future 6-foot and under quarterbacks…like the next man.

Russell Wilson

Brees already set the bar for short quarterbacks, so we knew it was possible they could succeed in the NFL. Wilson was still hurt by his height to some extent, but he was still taken in the third round by the Seahawks in the 2012 NFL Draft. There were still some concerns about his football ability as he transferred from NC State to Wisconsin after he lost a quarterback battle with Mike Glennon (and he flirted with playing baseball).

How did Wilson change the NFL Draft? It’s all about hand size, baby. You never heard anything about a quarterback’s hand size until Wilson started to have success in the National Football League. Despite his 5’11 stature, he had larger than normal hand size at 10.25 inches. Hand size is now a talking point and was in full display during the 2018 NFL Draft. Alabama QB Tua Tagavailoa is already getting Wilson comparisons as his hands also measure at 10.25.

(By the way, the average male hand size is 7.44 inches.)

Kam Chancellor

The Seattle Seahawks did some wonderful things during the NFL Draft while setting up their championship run. Not only did they draft guys like Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson, but they selected safety Kam Chancellor in the fifth round of the 2010 NFL Draft.

Why did the Seahawks get such a steal? At the time of the 2010 NFL Draft, teams tended not to draft such a large safety. There wasn’t much of a need for a safety that stood 6’3 and weighed 230 pounds. Some teams even saw Chancellor as a linebacker and not as a safety. There were fears that he couldn’t be able to cover speedy slot receivers and wouldn’t factor much in the run game. Well, everyone else was really, really wrong.

Chancellor was arguably the biggest threat in the ‘Legion of Boom’ defense. His versatility was key as he could cover just about everyone, even the pass-first tight ends that started to become en vouge at the time. His success led to safeties like Harrison Smith, Malik Hooker and Landon Collins being drafted early.

Tony Gonzalez

Gonzalez was selected #13 by the Chiefs in the 1997 NFL Draft. He had incredible hands and teams knew he could become a pass-catching threat. There were some teams that didn’t see the benefit of having such a one-dimensional tight end, as many teams relied on them to do more blocking than receiving. Gonzalez went on to have a Hall of Fame career and finished with 1,325 receptions and over 15,000 receiving yards.

What did Gonzalez change about the NFL Draft? Well, I believe teams tried to figure out what made Gonzalez such an outlier from some of the other tall tight ends who were drafted early in every NFL Draft. They started to look at his career on the California Golden Bears basketball team. He played basketball in college as well as basketball. There’s one thing basketball players must have just to make it on a college squad, good hands. One of the first NFL teams to figure this out were the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers. The Colts signed Marcus Pollard in 1995 (who played basketball at Bradley) and the Chargers signed Antonio Gates in 2003. Both had success with Gates arguably having a Hall of Fame career with the Chargers. There have been numerous other catch-first tight ends that have been drafted early thanks to guys like Gonzalez. Teams now carry package-specific tight ends and can be switched in and out if a team needs a blocking tight end in a formation.

Darrius Heyward-Bey

Darrius Heyward-Bey was selected #7 overall in the 2009 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders. He didn’t have ‘off-the-chart’ numbers when he played at Maryland and he didn’t look physically imposing, so why was he drafted so high?

The Oakland Raiders used to fall in love with really fast guys. They had a long history of taking the fastest guy in the draft, and usually earlier than they should have been taken. Despite Heyward-Bey’s lack of hands (he drops balls like it’s his damn job), the Raiders took him before Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin, just because he ran a 4.30 40-yard dash. 

Heyward-Bey has had very little success in the NFL, but is still employed as of this writing. He has only caught 201 balls over his nine-year career.

How did Heyward-Bey change the way NFL teams draft? He made teams more aware that just because a guy runs the fastest 40-year time at the NFL Combine, it doesn’t mean he’s an automatic difference-maker in the NFL. Also, it just appears that a team is reaching if they select a fringe prospect who happens to be the fastest guy in the Combine. There weren’t any notable cases for years after the Raiders blunder in 2009.

Unforuntately, it looks like the Bengals may have repeated the Raiders mistake during the 2017 NFL Draft. Cincinnati selected WR John Ross ninth overall after he ran a 4.22 40-yard dash time. This was after he only had one productive season in college. How did his rookie year go? It was described as ‘wasted’, ‘disappointing’ and ‘disastrous’. It shows that even though breakout players can help change the way most front office’s draft, not every team will learn.

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About the Author…

Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.