10 key Florida Gators NFL Draft stats
At long last, the 2023 NFL Draft is here and it could be a big night for the Gators.
How many Florida players will go in the first round? Overall? How high will quarterback Anthony Richardson, one of the most intriguing prospects in 2023, go? And to whom? How long will offensive guard O’Cyrus Torrence have to wait until his name is called?
The answers to these questions and many more will come soon enough.
The draft begins Thursday night at 8 ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
****We’re discussing the draft right HERE in Swamp Talk, so jump in and share your thoughts.***
Meanwhile, here are some key links:
–Anthony Richardson’s Journey from ‘Hometown Hero’ to the NFL
–Final mock drafts: Where will Anthony Richardson go on draft night?
–Final mock drafts: Where will O’Cyrus Torrence go on draft night?
-Three teams who could take Gervon Dexter Sr. on Day One
10 Gators draft facts ….
-Only three programs have had a player picked in every draft of the common draft era — Florida, Michigan and Southern California.
-Notre Dame, with 522 selections, leads all colleges for the most players drafted all time. Florida is ninth with 367.
-Florida’s 57 first-round picks ranks as the sixth-best total for college programs.
–Paul Duhart, who went No. 2 overall in the 1945 draft to the Steelers, was Florida’s first first-round draft pick.
-The Gators have had four quarterbacks selected in the first round — Steve Spurrier (1967), John Reaves (1972), Rex Grossman (2003) and Tim Tebow (2010). Spurrier went the highest in the draft among them, at No. 3 overall.
-Florida enters this draft having had a player chosen in the first round each of the past three drafts.
-Florida’s only two former players to make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame were both first-round picks — running back Emmitt Smith (1990) and defensive end Jack Youngblood (1971).
-Seven Gators have gone in the top five of the first round, the last being tight end Kyle Pitts, at No. 4, in 2021. Duhart remains the Florida player chosen the highest.
–D. J. Humphries, in 2015 (24th overall), was the last Gator offensive linemen taken in the first round.
-These are the years Florida had more than one player picked in the first round: 1985 (2), 1986 (2), 1989 (3), 1995 (2), 1997 (2), 1998 (2), 1999 (2), 2001 (2), 2007 (2), 2010 (3), 2013 (2), 2015 (2), 2021 (2).
