The first real look at how a first-round draft class is doing comes prior to their fourth NFL seasons, when teams must decide whether or not to pick up the fifth-year option that comes with those rookie deals. The early returns on 2017 first-rounders are not encouraging.
Monday was the deadline for those decisions, and in the end, 13 of the 32 first-round picks had their options declined. A 14th, Taco Charlton, was released by the Dallas Cowboys two weeks into the 2019 season.
Final tally for the 2017 first-round draft picks fifth-year options:
▪️Picked up: 17
▪️Declined: 13
▪️Extended: 1 (Christian McCaffrey)
▪️Released: 1 (Taco Charlton)— Field Yates (@FieldYates) May 4, 2020
That’s not a pretty total. We already went over how the top five picks in that draft really didn’t work out, but there weren’t many gems in the bottom of the round either. From the 13th pick onward, just three first-rounders have ever been selected to a Pro Bowl — Baltimore’s Marlon Humphrey, Buffalo’s Tre’Davious White, and Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt.
This doesn’t mean these are all busts. There are still players with some promise who have, for various reasons, not quite lived up to their potential. The first round also produced two of the NFL’s best quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, a superstar running back in Christian McCaffrey, and a star safety in Jamal Adams. In the end, though, this group overall just didn’t seem to fulfill its potential, at least to date.
