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Zebrie Sanders gave it his level best, but in the end, not even Marcell Dareus could catch the immortal Shawn Nelson.
That sentence is absurd, right? If something reads that insane, we must be talking about pick-by-pick fan approval ratings for the Buffalo Bills in the 2012 NFL Draft! We've been keeping track of fan approval for each pick made by the Bills for the last four years, and to this date, nobody has beaten the 98 percent rating Nelson - who is out of the league - pulled in 2009.
Still, it's interesting that this year's draft class featured four of the six most popular draft choices in the history of Buffalo Rumblings (Sanders, Cordy Glenn, Tank Carder and Nigel Bradham) and the two highest-approved defensive backs in the history of the blog by a considerable margin (Stephon Gilmore and Ron Brooks). It also featured two of only seven picks that drew lower than a 50 percent approval rating (T.J. Graham and John Potter), but thankfully, neither of those two gentlemen were as instantaneously widely despised as poor Jairus Byrd, who is now one of the most underrated safeties in the NFL.
Head on in after the jump for the full list! And while we did cover the 2007 and 2008 drafts here, we didn't have the technical functionality to run by-pick polls in those years, so only the last four drafts are included. Enjoy!
Year | Rd | # | Player | Pos | College | Approval |
2009 | 4 | 121 | Shawn Nelson | TE | Southern Mississippi | 98 percent |
2011 | 1 | 3 | Marcell Dareus | DT | Alabama | 96 percent |
2012 | 5 | 144 | Zebrie Sanders | OT | Florida State | 94 percent |
2012 | 2 | 41 | Cordy Glenn | OT | Georgia | 92 percent |
2012 | 5 | 147 | Tank Carder | LB | TCU | 91 percent |
2012 | 4 | 105 | Nigel Bradham | LB | Florida State | 89 percent |
2010 | 7 | 216 | Kyle Calloway | OT | Iowa | 88 percent |
2009 | 1 | 28 | Eric Wood | OC | Louisville | 83 percent |
2010 | 5 | 140 | Ed Wang | OT | Virginia Tech | 83 percent |
2009 | 5 | 147 | Nic Harris | LB | Oklahoma | 82 percent |
2011 | 4 | 122 | Chris Hairston | OT | Clemson | 81 percent |
2012 | 1 | 10 | Stephon Gilmore | CB | South Carolina | 77 percent |
2010 | 6 | 178 | Arthur Moats | LB | James Madison | 77 percent |
2011 | 6 | 179 | Chris White | LB | Mississippi State | 77 percent |
2009 | 2 | 51 | Andy Levitre | OG | Oregon State | 76 percent |
2010 | 6 | 192 | Danny Batten | DE | South Dakota State | 76 percent |
2011 | 7 | 245 | Michael Jasper | OG | Bethel (TN) | 75 percent |
2012 | 4 | 124 | Ron Brooks | CB | LSU | 71 percent |
2010 | 7 | 209 | Levi Brown | QB | Troy | 71 percent |
2011 | 5 | 133 | Johnny White | RB | North Carolina | 68 percent |
2011 | 3 | 68 | Kelvin Sheppard | LB | LSU | 66 percent |
2010 | 3 | 72 | Alex Carrington | DT | Arkansas State | 65 percent |
2009 | 1 | 11 | Aaron Maybin | DE | Penn State | 64 percent |
2011 | 2 | 34 | Aaron Williams | CB | Texas | 63 percent |
2012 | 6 | 178 | Mark Asper | OG | Oregon | 62 percent |
2011 | 4 | 100 | Da'Norris Searcy | SS | North Carolina | 59 percent |
2011 | 7 | 206 | Justin Rogers | CB | Richmond | 59 percent |
2010 | 1 | 9 | C.J. Spiller | RB | Clemson | 56 percent |
2012 | 3 | 69 | T.J. Graham | WR | North Carolina State | 49 percent |
2009 | 6 | 183 | Cary Harris | CB | USC | 48 percent |
2010 | 2 | 41 | Torell Troup | DT | Central Florida | 46 percent |
2010 | 4 | 107 | Marcus Easley | WR | Connecticut | 44 percent |
2009 | 7 | 220 | Ellis Lankster | CB | West Virginia | 42 percent |
2012 | 7 | 251 | John Potter | PK | Western Michigan | 42 percent |
2009 | 2 | 42 | Jairus Byrd | FS | Oregon | 23 percent |