Tracking Football has been following the high school athletic backgrounds of NFL draft picks since 2008. Year after year we find that multiple sport athletes are drafted at a much higher percentage than those that specialized in football as preps. 2016 has started just the same, as we found that 26 out of the 31 1st round picks have played another sport in high school.
We found that from 2013-2016 NFL 1st round picks are over two times more likely to have played 3 sports in high school than to have specialized in football only.
In addition we found that track and field is the most popular “other sport” for 1st round NFL Draft picks over the past 4 years.
Our research continues to prove that the path to the NFL doesn’t likely include focusing on football throughout high school.