The Blue Zone

Last week, we began an analysis of each position group to determine which school has done the best in recent years of producing top NFL draft picks.

We began that series with this look at the schools who have excelled in producing quarterbacks.

For our analysis, we used the last 15 years of the NFL draft. In each draft, we looked for defensive linemen who were drafted in the first three rounds. For the purpose of this analysis, we included all players listed as defensive ends, defensive tackles and nose tackles in the NFL.com draft history web site.

To be clear, there are some players listed in draft rolls as linebackers who went on to play defensive end at the NFL and vice versa. We looked solely at players considered as linemen at the time of the draft.

Below the school rankings we also have more data on schools and conferences that have produced defensive linemen at football’s highest level. Plus, we have more interesting information on the defensive line position group.

http://northcarolina.247sports.com/Article/Florida-State-UNC-LSU-are-tops-on-the-defensive-line-121109