Dominique Jones Makes History

USF has its first ever NBA 1st round pick:

TAMPA - Dominique Jones made history in his final season at the University of South Florida, prompting him to skip his senior season and enter the NBA draft. Jones made more history in Thursday night's draft, becoming the first USF player ever selected in the first round.

"It feels good," he said. "I worked my way up. This is just a turning point for me. I've got a long ways to go."

Memphis selected Jones with the 25th overall pick and immediately traded him to Dallas for cash, reportedly around the league's $3 million maximum.

"We tried to trade into the top 20 to get (Jones), got lucky to get him (at) 25," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted.

With a deal with Dallas in place for Jones, Memphis drafted Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez three picks later.

A 6-foot-5 combo guard, Jones supplanted former Bulls center Solomon Jones as USF's highest-drafted player. Solomon Jones was taken by the Hawks in the second round, the 33rd overall pick, in the 2006 draft.

Safeties In The First Round

So I was bored just checking my twitter feed and I noticed this tweet from Sports Illustrated's Peter King.

@SI_PeterKing RT @twilson22: You're way off on safeties in 1st round. They have lowest bust factor of any position on D ... Way too dangerous in top 10

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For the uninitiated, whomever twilson22 is said to King "You're way off on safeties in first round. They have lowest bust factor o any position on D"

To which King replied "Way too dangerous in top 10"

This kind of dovetailed with another tweet I saw earlier in the day from former NFL personnel guy Daniel Jeremiah:

Currently, there are 10 starting safeties that went undrafted while there are 9 starters that went in the 1st Rd

So I figured since I had some time to burn I would go through and do a little research on safeties taken in the first round. Here we go year by year.

2009

0

2008

Kenny Phillips

2007

Michael Griffin

Reggie Nelson

2006

Michael Huff

Donte Whitner

2005

Antrell Rolle

2004

Sean Taylor

2003

Troy Palomalu

2002

Roy Williams

Ed Reed

2001

Adam Archuleta

Derek Gibson

2000

Rashard Anderson

1999

0

Now I fully admit that 2000 and 2001 were not exactly banner years for safeties taken in the first round. But setting aside those to years do you see any busts anywhere else in the list?

It turns out that those 9 first rounders that Mr Jeremiah referred to as starting just so happen to be all 9 first round safeties in the last 7 years. 9 for 9 ain't bad if you ask me. Especially when you look at the wealth of guys drafted at other positions in the first round that didn't last very long in the NFL.

So maybe, just MAYBE, folks should be looking more at drafting safeties in the first round.

Just sayin