re: Jags would be 17.5 pt favorites over Alabama

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I would love a list of those top picks that never played a down in the NFL

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Yeah maybe I should have worded that differently. Should have said a meaningful career. There are several top draft picks that are struggling right now. Every year there are guys that are cut from rosters that were high draft picks that only play one or two years. My point is that even if you had the top players in college today there may only be a handful that will ever make it in the NFL.

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The thread has been silly from the start but it really went to the Twilight Zone when the old NFL vs college all stars was brought up. Back when the all stars had a chance (and even occasionally won), the NFL players had off season jobs! Now all they do is train with the best equipment, learn from the best coaches and use the best performing enhancing drugs year round.

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That game was played up until 1976. The Super Bowl Champion Steelers won by only 7 in 1975 with Terry Bradshaw at QB. If people think it would be that lopsided, then they probably need to rethink how good some of the legends like Bradshaw, Swann, Harris, Green, Ham, etc are.

Link to Bradshaw having a terrible game against college kids

NFL players have gotten better but so have college players. If the gap in 1975 wasn't that big between the Super Bowl champs and an all star team, then why do people think an all-American team that could have underclassmen as well wouldn't be able to compete with the worst NFL teams now?

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If the gap in 1975 wasn't that big between the Super Bowl champs and an all star team, then why do people think an all-American team that could have underclassmen as well wouldn't be able to compete with the worst NFL teams now?

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Your 50 year old example is bad because of a few things. It completely falls to mention the growth in talent pool and talent evaluation since that time.

A good (albeit extreme) modern analogy is women's college basketball and the WNBA. Every year in college and in the pros, a freshman or rookie comes in and does very well. This is because the talent available for that sport is very narrow and not very deep. This allows skilled players to play against less skilled players that are just filling out rosters who aren't even in the same stratosphere as some of their peers.

This has been exacerbated in the well developed football machine, which now taps talent in every portion of the country. If the NFL is still missing players today, how many do you think they missed in 1976?

This well oiled machine goes down all the way to the high school level. I can guarantee my high school in south Mississippi didn't have the type of weight training equipment it does now. You may think, this helps the college team argument, as a rising tide raises all ships, but it just isn't how it works. Instead, that rising tide raises potentially one ship who had the talent to make it in the first place.

I'm surprised this debate is still going on. Obviously Jacksonville would destroy any individual college team, without a doubt.

The ONLY debate is about a college all-star team, but once again I'd take the Jags by at least 21. It be one thing if you let me cherry pick a team after I had seen them pan out in the NFL, you know, like every NFL team does. It is quite another to take talent that is unproven at the NFL level and make a competitive team. It simply wouldn't happen.

Like someone said, if you went down the draft board from 2013 and filled your team with the first players drafted at each position, you still wouldn't stand a chance against the Jaguars.

I only take odds from Danny Sheridan.

I would be all for this game, then MJD wouldn't average 1.3 YPC

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It also cuts both ways. College players are a lot better and more deep too.

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Except for the fact that a rising tide doesn't raise all ships, it just makes it more likely that the few who have NFL talent actually get to develop it. Those who don't have NFL talent, will remain out of the league. Before the advancement, they (non-NFL caliber talent) had a shot to get into the league because the NFL caliber talent wasn't getting developed in some places. This "non-NFL" talent took up roster spots from better talented players who never had an opportunity. Every day, this becomes less and less likely than 50 years ago. Its confusing, but I hope you can follow my train of thought.

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I mean, where do you guys think NFL players came from? They all played in college.

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Well, ya, which has thousands upon thousands of players, while the NFL has 32 teams X 53 man rosters = 1,664 players.

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An all-star college team is made up of NFL players who just haven't played in the NFL yet.

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How many rookies each year in the NFL make a significant impact? How many make some impact but frick up a whole lot? Now how many are basically out there getting killed every game until they learn how to play if ever? Imagine a team made of 53 guys like that, and what you have is a team that makes a ton of mistakes, is out of position, makes bad throws, and maybe one of them doesn't totally screw the pooch that game. And that team is definitely worse than the Jacksonville Jaguars.

LINK

According to the link above, the average NFL draft of 224 picks produces 71 eventual NFL starters.

The first round produces an average of 24 starters that break into the line up within the first year.

The second round produces 16 starters that are ready to play within 2 years.

The third round produces 9.6 starters that are ready to play by their third season.

So, you can see how hard it is to fill 22 starting spots with college guys. NFL GMs are the best in the business and they hit on less than 1/3rd of their draft picks and only 62.5% in the first two rounds.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars has a team with 22 NFL starters.

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The first round produces an average of 24 starters that break into the line up within the first year. The second round produces 16 starters that are ready to play within 2 years. The third round produces 9.6 starters that are ready to play by their third season. So, you can see how hard it is to fill 22 starting spots with college guys. NFL GMs are the best in the business and they hit on less than 1/3rd of their draft picks and only 62.5% in the first two rounds. Meanwhile, the Jaguars has a team with 22 NFL starters.

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So out of the first round picks, 24 of them will be starters in the NFL in their rookie seasons.

Second round has 16 within 2 years. That means some will be starting in their rookie seasons.

So that means there are 24+ players coming out of college that are starters in the NFL right out of college. Not just starters on the Jaguars. But starters on all kinds of teams... Packers, Texans, 49ers, Patriots, Seahawks, etc.

Many of the Jaguars players who start aren't even starting-caliber players. They are starters by default because their team is so bad.

Because the college all-star team would be young, they would make "rookie mistakes". But they would be just as talented and athletic (if not more) than most of the Jaguars starters.

To say they couldn't compete with the Jaguars is ridiculous.