Texas-sized Draft

Inside the numbers of Texas' impact on the NFL Draft.The NFL Draft is over for another year, and once again, it was a big weekend for the Lone Star State. Here are a few tidbits about Texas ties in the NFL Draft:-A grand total of 27 Texas high school players were taken in the 2015 NFL Draft. That may sound like a lot — it is! A little better than one in every ten players taken played their high school football in Texas — but it’s actually down from where Texas normally lands. In 2012, 32 Texans were taken, and back in 2009, the state had a whopping 36 picks.-Those 27 Texas high school products played at 26 different schools. The only high school in Texas with two draft picks this year? Denton Ryan.-15 draftees played their college football in Texas, which is an increase from last year’s total of 14. They spanned seven schools — Baylor, Rice, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Southern and Texas State — with the Longhorns leading the way with five draftees.-In total, 32 players taken in the 2015 NFL Draft played either their high school or college football in Texas. That’s one in every eight picks.-The first round wasn’t particularly kind to the state of Texas, with just two players — Texas A&M OT and Allen alum Cedric Ogbuehi, and Texas DT and Brenham product Malcom Brown — getting selected. That’s down from four picks last year, and actually is the fewest Texas high school football products in the first round since 2010.-Speaking of Ogbuehi, can we give former Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman some credit? Four members of his recruiting class of 2010 have now been drafted — Ogbuehi and Jarvis Harrison join Jake Matthews and Luke Joeckel, who went in previous seasons. Simply remarkable.-How about Texas State? Before this weekend, the Bobcats hadn’t had a player drafted since 2006…then, Craig Mager and David Mayo got drafted on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Pretty impressive.-And congratulations to Texas Southern as well; Tray Walker became the Tigers’ first draft pick since 2000.Here’s a complete list of draftees with Texas ties.