NFL Draft 2019: SEC completes dominant decade with nine first-round picks

The SEC completed a decade of draft dominance with nine first-round picks in the 2019 NFL Draft on Thursday. That edged out the Big Ten and ACC, which had seven first-round picks each. The Pac-12 and Big 12 each had three first-round picks.

The SEC dominated again. The conference finished with 95 first-round picks in the last 10 NFL drafts, dating back to 2010. That leads all Power 5 conferences in that decade-long stretch. There is a huge gap between the SEC and the rest of the Power 5 conferences.

The ACC (51), Big Ten (45), Pac-12 (43) and Big 12 (37) finished in that order in the last 10 drafts. The SEC had the most first-round picks in every NFL Draft this decade except 2010 and 2015.

MORE: 2019 NFL Draft: First-round analysis

That trend continued in 2019. Alabama’s Quinnen Williams (No. 3), LSU’s Devin White (No. 5) and Kentucky’s Josh Allen (No. 7) were top-10 picks.

The Crimson Tide led all FBS schools with 28 first-round picks since 2010, a remarkable stretch under coach Nick Saban. Jonah Williams (No. 11) and Joshua Jacobs (No. 24) added to that total.

Mississippi State also had three first-round selections in Jeffery Simmons (No. 19), Montez Sweat (No. 26) and Johnathan Abram (No. 27). Georgia’s Deandre Baker (No. 30) rounded out the first-round picks.

The SEC also had the No. 1 pick in three drafts in the decade, including Auburn’s Cam Newton (2011), South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney (2014) and Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett (2017).

Here’s a look at every first-round pick from the SEC since 2010: