Miami Dolphins Draft History Since 2008 - Part 2 (AFC East Comparison)

A few days ago, we looked at the Miami Dolphins draft picks since 2008, going name by name through all 32 picks of theTony Sparano and Jeff Ireland (and Bill Parcells) era.  As it worked out, the Dolphins still hold 65% of their draft picks, and 31% of their picks are starters for the team.

[Update - If you remember from the last post, Miami was at 62% - I went back and included Frank Kearse, as I counted all the Practice Squad personnel from the other AFC East teams - so Miami moved to 21 kept draft picks out of 32 picks.]

Which brought up the question.  How does that compare to the AFC East?  How have the drafts of the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, and New York Jets been, when compared to the Dolphins?

Well, today, we are going to look at just that.

I will list every draft pick from each of the other three teams in the AFC East.  Every player still on the team will be placed in bold font.  Every player's contributions to the team that drafted them will be listed (i.e., the Jets drafted Nate Garner in the seventh round of 2008 - he has no appearances with the Jets, so he gets no appearances on the chart, even though he as 16 appearances and 8 starts in Miami).  Then, I will add up every player a team has that they originally drafted between 2008 and now, and the number of those players who are starters.  Then, I will calculate the percentage of each of those totals against the total number of picks the team had.

During the 2008-2011 timefame, the Buffalo Bills have made 36 selections.   Every one of those picks is listed below:

That gives the Bills 36 selections, of which 22 are still with the team (although 9 of those are this year's draft class) - or 61% of their picks remain with the team.  They also seem to be very big on adding depth, but not starters, through the draft, with only 7 draft picks being starters (19%).  Six of those seven starters are from the 2008 or 2009 draft (Marcell Dareus from this draft being the only starter from the last two years).

The New England Patriots, who always seem to have a million draft choices every year are listed next:

Over the past four years, the Patriots have had 40 draft picks.  Of those, 23 are still with the team, and 8 are first string guys.  That comes out to 57.5% still on the roster, and just 20% starters.

And, now, the New York Jets:

The Jets have made just 19 picks since 2008, with 12 of those picks still with the team (6 of those picks were from this year, and 5 of the players still on the team come from this draft class).  New York has kept 63% of their picks (53% if you discount the disproportionate 2011 draft), and have gained 5 starters out of this group (27.5%).

Overall, the AFC East breaks down like this for the percentage of draft picks kept:

And, when ranked by percentage of draft picks starting for their team:

As much as we despise what the "Trifecta" and the Ireland/Sparano dup have done with the draft picks of the Dolphins, when you step back and look at it compared to the other teams in the AFC East, Miami actually drafts really well.  Surprisingly, the Patriots do not keep their draft picks at a rate much lower than even the Bills.  When it comes to starters, no one is even close to the Dolphins.

It really appears the Miami front office actually knows what they are doing when they draft, and they do a great job of keeping talent.  Do some get away, sure, and A.J. Edds, whose release started this whole post, may be one of those.  But, overall, the Dolphins top the AFC East both in draft picks retained, and draft picks starting with their team in 2011.