Texas A&M graded as one of the best schools in developing five-star talent to the NFL, according to The Athletic

Is it time to call Texas A&M, ‘5-star U?’ In a deep-dive from The Athletic, the Aggies graded out as one of the top schools in developing NFL ready talent, in particular five-star recruits.

With the 2023 NFL Draft just around the corner, there will be just as much attention paid to the schools that send talent to the NFL as the prospects themselves. While not always a correlation, many of the top collegiate football programs boast the next generation of NFL stars.

To put that belief to the test, The Athletic compiled an in-depth look at 11 years’ worth of data, specifically focusing on which schools had the highest percentage of prospects drafted to the NFL. For their analysis, they solely looked at three-, four-, and five-star prospects.

By using the 247Sports Composite Rating, they tallied the total three-, four- and five-star prospects signed at each of the 65 Power 5 programs from 2009 through 2019, then cross-checked how many of each star rating were drafted from 2012 through 2022 in the seven-round NFL Draft, which features more than 250 picks each year.

After crunching the numbers, the writers tallied the percentages for each school and ranked the top and bottom 10 for each prospect category. Lo and behold, your Texas A&M Aggies made the list in two separate categories.

For the tier labeled, “From 5-star to NFL Draft – Top 10,” Texas A&M ranked No. 3 in the Top 10 by the following criteria: 5-stars signed (11), 5-stars drafted (8), and Percentage drafted (72.7%).

The Aggies also appeared in the tier labeled, “From 4-star to NFL Draft – Bottom 10,” after being assessed by the following criteria: 4-stars signed (100), 4-stars drafted (13), and percentage drafted (13.0%).

There’s plenty to unpack with A&M’s ranking, but the immediate takeaway is that after the analysis done by The Athletic, is time to nickname Texas A&M, “5-Star U?” The Aggies have particularly excelled in developing five-star players, even if they went on to find success elsewhere.

Kyler Murray was a five-star recruit in the Class of 2015, only to transfer from Texas A&M to Oklahoma after a tumultuous freshman season. He followed up his freshman campaign by winning the Heisman Trophy, and would subsequently go on to be drafted by the Arizona Cardinals first overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Head coach Jimbo Fisher is one of only two coaches with two different programs in the top 10 “Five-Star U” rankings, but credit must also be handed to former coach Kevin Sumlin after bringing in some top-tier recruiting classes after the Aggies joined the SEC.

Myles Garrett, most notably, was the No. 2 prospect in the Class of 2014 and went on to hear his name called by the Cleveland Browns as the No. 1 overall pick in 2017.

Interestingly enough, the Aggies aren’t as potent in developing four-star talent to the NFL, as their percentage drops significantly to just 13.0% in this category. That puts them at 60th in these rankings in developing four-stars.

There are obviously multiple factors that determine whether a talented recruit can develop to make the leap to the NFL, but A&M’s track record of getting five stars drafted is noteworthy nonetheless. With three Aggies preparing to hear their names called in this year’s draft, it only furthers A&M’s track record as a development pipeline for professional talent.

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