4.5 Stars on Defense v 2.0 Starts on Offense

[MikeCane18]

What All pro player was 2 star? I think they just made that up.

The premise does make sense though. You can scheme your way to a good offense with average players but a dominant defense, especially a defensive line, requires studs. There’s only so many superhuman 300 pound guys with cat quickness in the world.

Davante Adams was a 2 star
Justin Jefferson was a 3 star
Travis Kelce was a 2 star
Jacobs 3 star
Mahomes 3 star

Edit: NVM, saw someone already broke it down. Sorry for the repeat and not reading the full thread before responding to you.

 

[TRick72]

maybe we actually have a shot at recruiting 2 star receivers

Look at Mario playing Chess again by not getting rid of Gattis…

 

[canemachine]

Interesting follow up - 5 of 11 were Round 1 picks. 8 of 11 were Day 1 & 2 picks.

So while recruiting rankings may have missed, the NFL evaluations were pretty good

Quarterback — Patrick Mahomes (3* - 1st RD)
Running Back — Josh Jacobs (3* - 1st RD)
Tight End — Travis Kelce (2* - 3rd RD)
Wide Receivers — Justin Jefferson (3* - 1st RD), Tyreek Hill (4* JUCO - 5th RD), Davante Adams (2* - 2nd RD)
Left Tackle — Trent Williams (3* - 1st RD)
Right Tackle — Lane Johnson (Unranked JUCO - 4th RD)
Left Guard — Joel Bitonio (2* - 2nd RD)
Right Guard — Zack Martin (4* - 1st RD)
Center — Jason Kelce (Unranked - 6th RD)

Lane was drafted 4th overall which bolsters your point more. I think the NFL does a bit better because maturity is the hardest thing to project. Projecting how teens will handle business versus someone in their twenties is worlds different. Often it isn't the talent gap that seperates people. It's what people do in the dark when no one is watching does.

 

[Shogungts]

Whether or not any of the numbers - 2.0 and 4.5 - or the disparity itself are accurate, this makes sense on the surface.

Modern defense requires a certain level of athleticism. Stars are often heavily weighed by attributes.

Modern offense requires a certain level more of the non-physical traits that the HS star system or even the NFL draft do poor jobs of evaluating.

It's also easier for a good defender to stick out in the sea of high school players. If you are a defensive lineman on a team that sucks, but you are consistently beating whatever OL they put in front of you, you are going to get noticed. Whereas you could be a really good WR, but the QB can't get the ball to you or a RB with a terrible OL.

 

[Shogungts]

Lane was drafted 4th overall which bolsters your point more. I think the NFL does a bit better because maturity is the hardest thing to project. Projecting how teens will handle business versus someone in their twenties is worlds different. Often it isn't the talent gap that seperates people. It's what people do in the dark when no one is watching does.

That definitely plays a large part, but I think you are also seeing several other things at play...

- Players have had more time (and resources) to mature physically
- Players are going up against better competition
- Players have likely gotten better coaching (conversely some of the kids that had great coaching in high school may not look as good comparatively once other kids receive proper coaching)
- The pool of college players, while large is still significantly smaller than the pool of high school players