Jaguars best at drafting running backs since 2000

The Jacksonville Jaguars haven't been very good at the NFL Draft in recent years. Nothing new under the sun here.

But if you go back past the Gene Smith era and compare draft picks from 2000 on, the Jaguars have been consistently good at evaluating one position regardless of front office: running backs.

According to Joe Redemann of numberFire.com, while the Jaguars have generally busted at most offensive skill positions, the Jaguars are the best at drafting running backs.

The top of our efficiency chart goes to the somewhat-surprising Jacksonville Jaguars. Though recency bias pegs Maurice Jones-Drew (233.5 career Total NEP) as a slowed-down plodder who busted in Oakland, his career with the Jaguars was fairly prolific, especially considering his status as just the 60th overall pick (300.0 points). Rashad Jennings (38.5 career Total NEP) –- though he’s had a modest career -– was also a large boon, based on his cost at 250th overall (0.0 points).

So, how did Redemann come up with his formula? You can read more about it here, but in short they contextualized their career statistics for things like situation and down-and-distance and assigned point values. Then they cross-references those values with their respective draft positions. A player who was selected in the seventh round had less expected of him, so his production means more than a player selected in the first round.

Highlighting the 10 picks on running back for the Jaguars are obvious candidates like Maurice Jones-Drew, but with seventh-round pick Rashad Jennings and fifth-round pick Denard Robinson still producing, it's easy to see why the Jaguars are at the top of the list.

While it's not an exact science, it does give hope for Jaguars rookie T.J. Yeldon and his success in the NFL this year.

Read the full article at numberFire.