Draft Insiders' Digest Premier NFL Draft and Free Agency Publication
Senior Bowl Roster Produces 11 First Round Picks in NFL Draft 2009
Photo - TE Brandon Pettigrew - Oklahoma St.
The Senior Bowl 2009 roster produced 86 total draftees, including 11 first round selections this past weekend. The NFL Draft 2009 was held over two days with seven rounds and 256 picks and saw 86 Senior Bowl players selected in the draft process. Included in that total were 11 first round picks and a top ten selection.
The first Senior Bowl player to hear his name called Saturday was Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji. Raji was the 9th overall pick by the Green Bay Packers. This marks the 12th straight year a Senior Bowl player has been selected in the top 10 of the draft. Six picks after Raji was selected, Southern Cal linebacker Brian Cushing was picked by the Houston Texans at number 15th overall pick. Cushing was one of six Trojans to play in the 2009 Senior Bowl, all of whom were drafted.
With 11 more first round selections this year, the Senior Bowl has now had 122 first round picks since 1999. That’s an average of 11 first round picks a year. During that same time period a total of 963 Senior Bowl players have been selected in the NFL draft.
There were twenty Senior Bowl players selected in the second round, the most of any round, including seven of the first nine picks. With 12 more players going in the third round, a total of 43 picks of a possible 100 were Senior Bowl players in the first three rounds. This number is especially impressive when you consider that 27 underclassmen were also selected during the same period.
Frank Coyle has been a consultant for the Senior Bowl for 15 years.
The Senior Bowl’s firm relationship with the NFL was also evident in the fact that 29 of the 32 NFL teams drafted at least one Senior Bowl player. Leading the way were the Cleveland Browns with six Senior Bowl selections followed by Arizona, Buffalo, Dallas, New England and the New York Giants who each drafted five Senior Bowl players. A total of 12 teams selected four or more Senior Bowl players. The two coaching staffs of the 2009 Under Armour Senior Bowl selected a combined six Senior Bowl players with the Cincinnati Bengals (North squad) choosing four and the Jacksonville Jaguars (South squad) choosing two.
The future stars of the 2010 NFL Draft class will take the field for the 61st annual Under Armour Senior Bowl on Saturday January 30, 2010. For more information visit www.seniorbowl.com.
2009 Senior Bowl First Round Selections
Player - Position - School - Pick - NFL Team
B.J. Raji - DT - Boston College - 9 - Green Bay
Brian Cushing - LB - USC - 15 - Houston
Larry English - LB - Northern Illinois - 16 - San Diego
Robert Ayers - DE - Tennessee - 18 - Denver
Brandon Pettigrew - TE - Oklahoma St - 20 - Detroit
Alex Mack - OC - California - 21 - Cleveland
Michael Oher - OT - Ole Miss - 23 - Baltimore
Peria Jerry - DT - Ole Miss - 24 - Atlanta
Clay Matthews - LB - USC - 26 - Green Bay
Eric Wood - OC Louisville - 28 - Buffalo
Ziggy Hood - DT - Missouri - 32 - Pittsburgh