Of the 106 players making up the active rosters for the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots, 25.5 percent (27 players) came into the NFL as undrafted free agents.
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That should provide hope to the many NFL Draft prospects who are potential late-round or undrafted prospects — just because you don't get selected in the draft doesn't mean you can't ultimately make it to the biggest stage.
MORE: Draft Round of Every Player on Super Bowl LII Active Rosters
Here's what the breakdown of every active roster Super Bowl LII players' draft position looks like:
Super Bowl Roster Break Down by NFL Draft Round
As you can see, the 27 undrafted free agents is the largest group of players. Logically, that makes sense, as there are only 32 draft picks per round (with obvious exceptions for compensatory picks or picks lost for disciplinary reasons) but potentially unlimited undrafted free agents.
Beyond the UDFA's, second (17) and first (16) round picks are the most represented draft rounds, with 5th rounders (14 players) and 6th rounders (10 players) also in double digits.
Here's the percentage breakdown:
Percentage of each draft round on Super Bowl Rosters
As we noted before, 25.5 percent of the players in the Super Bowl were undrafted free agents. That's only 5.6 percent less than the 31.1 combined percentage of first- and second-round picks on the rosters. If you combine 6th round, 7th round and UDFA players (39.6 percent), it's more players than those who were drafted in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd rounds, combined (38.6 percent).
More than half of the players in the Super Bowl were 5th round picks or later (52.8 percent).
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Team Breakdowns
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Broken down by team we can look at this one step deeper:
Patriots Roster Breakdown by Draft Pick
That 25.5 percent number we saw earlier for undrafted free agents in the Super Bowl is largely thanks to the 18 UDFA's on the Patriots roster, who make up 34.0 percent of the squad. Nearly two-thirds (60.4 percent) of the Patriots Super Bowl active roster is either first rounders, second rounders or undrafted free agents.
The next closest draft grouping is first and second round picks — 7 each — with 5th rounders — 6 players — the next highest number.
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Eagles Roster Breakdown by Draft Pick
The Eagles roster is a little more balanced throughout, with four draft groups consisting of 9 or 10 players each. The Eagles have 9 former first round picks and 9 undrafted free agents, with 10 second round picks and 10 fifth round picks.
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NEXT: 7 Players on Active Rosters for Super Bowl LII were Unranked Recruits and Undrafted Free Agents
