By: Robert Craft

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

There were 259 players drafted in the 2021 NFL Draft, with 14.3% hailing from The Sunshine State. The state of Florida accounted for 37 players selected. South Florida alone had 17 and Broward County accounted for 12 players.

Texas was a close second, with 33 players, the same number as in 2020, which led the draft for most picks.

Georgia (21), California (19), Louisiana (13) and North Carolina (10) were the other states with double digit players selected.

American Heritage High School in Plantation set an NFL record with six players picked in this year’s draft. The Patriots are considered to be one of the best high school programs in the country.

Heritage draftees in 2021: Patrick Surtain II the ninth player selected in the draft by the Denver Broncos, Tyson Campell the 33rd to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Anthony Schwartz the 91st to the Cleveland Browns, Marco Wilson the 136th to the Arizona Cardinals, Tadarrell Slaton the 173rd to the Green Bay Packers and Khalil Herbert the 217th to the Chicago Bears.

Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas had three players selected, giving the Raiders 26 alumni being drafted since 2001, the most by any high school during that time period. Elijah Moore, Josh Palmer and Asante Samuel Jr are the newest Raiders in the NFL.

It’s no surprise that Florida leads for Power 5 signees the past 10 years, and that South Florida has roughly provided 45%-50% of the talent pool.

Elite football players come from all over the country, but the largest concentration of them originated from the SEC. The SEC set a record with 65 players selected and this continued the conference’s distinct dominance over the three-day event.

This year’s SEC haul included 6 of the first 10 picks and 12 of the 31 players in the first round.

They included Florida tight end Kyle Pitts 4th to Atlanta, LSU wide receiver JaMarr Chase 5th to Cincinnati, Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle 6th to Miami, South Carolina corner Jaycee Horn 8th to Carolina, Alabama corner Pat Surtain II 9th to Denver and Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith 10th to Philly.

For the 15th year in a row, the SEC asserted its dominance over every other Power 5 conferences. All 14 SEC football programs helped break its own conference’s record of players drafted.

It was a record setting day for Alabama too, the Tide led the way among SEC schools with a total of 10 players selected. Georgia was in second with nine sections, followed by Florida with eight, LSU with seven, Kentucky with six, Missouri with five, Auburn, South Carolina and Texas A&M with 4, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Ole Miss with 2 and Arkansas and Vanderbilt with 1.

The 2021 NFL Draft featured record setting and record tying draft results for the SEC and Alabama. The University of Alabama had six players drafted in the first round, which tied the record set by the 2004 Miami Hurricanes.

You’ve heard the saying before: “The SEC, it just means more.” College football’s juggernaut conference has done it again, and look out for the 2022 class: a class that looks to break the 65-player mark.