Which states produced the most picks in the 2021 NFL draft?
The 2021 NFL draft was filled to the brim with exciting new talent and prospects, but most of that talent happened to be from the same group of states.
The 259 players selected in the 2021 NFL draft hailed from 37 states in America and Washington D.C., and Canada. A few states stood out and confirmed to be unquestionable factories of NFL talent this year.
Let's look at which states produced the most picks.
Which states produced the most picks in the 2021 NFL draft?
Nine states accounted for a whopping 160 players. Six states created double-digit picks in this year's draft. Florida led the group with 37, South Florida alone had 17, and Broward County had a dozen.
Texas came in next as a close second with 33. The Lone Star State ranked first with 33 in last year's draft. Georgia had 21 to their ranks, not bad for the eighth-biggest state in the country.
California came in fourth-place with 19 and Louisiana fifth-place with 13.
Not surprisingly, missing from the list are New York and Illinois. They are two of the largest states in the country and broad portions of their population are stationed in New York City and Chicago. They didn't get as many picks because college football isn't precisely the primary sport of those two ports.
However, in the south, the southern, and midwest states, college football is practically a ritual. It's no surprise that college programs in states like Louisiana and Michigan have produced various NFL-caliber players.
The college-specific teams with the most picks were Alabama and Ohio State. The two programs who played in the national championship game dominated the draft, with both having ten players selected.
Coming behind Alabama and Ohio was Georgia and Notre Dame, who had nine former players picked in this 2021 NFL draft.
Florida and Michigan followed with eight draftees each.
Alabama's 10 was the program's second-highest mark since 1967, tied with their 2019 class and trailing only their 2019 class. Since coach Nick Saban landed at Alabama, starting with the 2008 NFL draft, the Crimson Tide has had the most draft selections with 106.
LSU is second with 96, meanwhile Ohio State tracks in third with 91. Florida and Georgia fill out the top five with 79 and 78, respectively.