It's no surprise that Florida, California and Texas produce the most NFL talent year after year. It's useful, if not redundant, information. For it to be truly useful information, it needs to be more targeted. One person can not recruit those massive talent factories alone.
Luckily, Scout's Jamie Newberg has crunched the numbers.
Newberg analyzed the 763 players selected over the 2012, 2013 and 2014 NFL Drafts and categorized each player not only by state, but also by metro area or county. Nearly half (47.3 percent) of all draftees hailed from either California, Florida, Texas, Georgia or Ohio, and nine of the top 11 recruiting hotbeds were claimed by those five states.
Draftees by Metro Area/Region
1. South Florida (57)
2. Los Angeles (42)
3. Dallas-Fort Worth (27)
4. Houston (26)
5. Atlanta (22)
6. Northern California (19)
7. New Orleans/Baton Rouge (18)
8. Chicago (17)
South Georgia (17)
10. Central Florida (16)
Central Texas (16)
If you really want to shoot fish in a barrel, Newberg's per capita list shows that Mobile, Ala., is actually the most target-rich recruiting grounds in America.
Draftees Per One Million Residents
1. Mobile (12.4)
2. South Georgia (11.3)
3. Miami-Dade County (10.42)
4. Palm Beach County (10.22)
5. Broward County (9.18)
6. New Orleans (8.57)
7. Birmingham (8.14)
8. Florida Panhandle (8.13)
9. Columbus (6.67)
10. Cleveland (6.6)
And we wonder why the SEC gobbles up all the good players.