Almost a week after the Cowboys selected Ezekiel Elliott in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, some Cowboys fans are still in theoretical discussions about such abstract concepts as draft value, the devaluation of the RB position, or need over BPA.
Other fans have long since moved on. With their wallets and their clicks, they have declared Ezekiel Elliott a great draft pick.
In a recent article from The Dallas Morning News, Jon Machota points out that Ezekiel Elliott jerseys are selling faster than those of any other rookie:
According to sports apparel company Fanatics.com, Elliott has been the top-selling 2016 NFL draft pick since Thursday. Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, the second overall pick, is second and first overall pick, Rams QB Jared Goff, is third.
The excitement Elliott has brought to large parts of the Cowboys is perhaps best reflected in a video by Shango of the dallascowboysshow. Shango has been quite vocal (!) and critical about the Cowboys over the last few years, but the Elliott pick may have changed all that:
And that excitement could be seen in social media as well, where Zeke and the Cowboys "won" social media. Hookit.com, a company that measures social media impact, tracked the social media reaction to the NFL draft, and they shared some of their findings with us.
Elliott was easily the biggest social media entity of the draft class, generating 341,560 total interactions, which is about as many as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ranking athlete social presences combined (Carson Wentz, Vernon Hargreaves, and Jaylon Smith).
Zeke gained 146,000 new followers, which is over 3.5 times as many as the first overall draft pick gained (Jared Goff).
You can find the full data in the table below.
Social Media Impact Of Top 35 draft picks (click blue column headers to sort) |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Pick | Player |
Total Followers |
New Followers | Total Interactions |
1 | Jared Goff | 81,344 | 43,177 | 46,860 |
2 | Carson Wentz | 146,112 | 94,049 | 145,245 |
3 | Joey Bosa | 407,384 | 28,912 | 60,685 |
4 | Ezekiel Elliott | 802,605 | 146,086 | 341,560 |
5 | Jalen Ramsey | 127,794 | 35,367 | 55,875 |
6 | Ronnie Stanley | 19,608 | 8,668 | 13,952 |
7 | DeForest Buckner | 53,946 | 20,290 | 15,615 |
8 | Jack Conklin | 15,072 | 5,328 | 5,736 |
9 | Leonard Floyd | 24,132 | 7,824 | 9,912 |
10 | Eli Apple | 103,156 | 24,507 | 42,528 |
11 | Vernon Hargreaves | 116,078 | 34,239 | 142,854 |
12 | Sheldon Rankins | 6,322 | 432 | 0 |
13 | Laremy Tunsil | 42,501 | 9,087 | 5,874 |
14 | Karl Joseph | 52,707 | 10,942 | 34,500 |
15 | Corey Coleman | 55,956 | 16,850 | 32,046 |
16 | Taylor Decker | 57,164 | 6,334 | 14,492 |
17 | Keanu Neal | 28,462 | 5,000 | 11,903 |
18 | Ryan Kelly | 17,124 | 5,024 | 4,123 |
19 | Shaq Lawson | 68,805 | 18,025 | 35,958 |
20 | Darron Lee | 64,524 | 9,184 | 32,711 |
21 | William Fuller | 82,666 | 24,280 | 40,695 |
22 | Josh Doctson | 51,792 | 17,044 | 13,392 |
23 | Laquon Treadwell | 200,696 | 42,986 | 24,572 |
24 | William Jackson | 4,475 | 3,158 | 3,216 |
25 | Artie Burns | 43,820 | 4,939 | 11,241 |
26 | Paxton Lynch | 72,215 | 9,823 | 34,945 |
27 | Kenny Clark | 24,922 | 18,194 | 19,903 |
28 | Joshua Garnett | 12,957 | 8,726 | 7,334 |
29 | Robert Nkemdiche | 52,983 | 9,262 | 14,897 |
30 | Vernon Butler | 12,274 | 5,180 | 5,787 |
31 | Germain Ifedi | 24,722 | 14,607 | 11,172 |
32 | Emmanuel Ogbah | 20,872 | 7,689 | 14,599 |
33 | Kevin Dodd | 13,303 | 4,857 | 5,294 |
34 | Jaylon Smith | 111,969 | 28,073 | 71,411 |
35 | Derrick Henry | 415,177 | 11,888 | 65,225 |
If you sort the table, you'll see that even the Cowboys' second-round pick, Godbacker Jaylon Smith generated a lot of excitement on social media and ranks near the top in both new followers and total interactions.
No surprise then that the best performing team overall was the Cowboys. They led the field in all social categories, showing 11.6 million social followers, gaining 46k followers (More twice as much as the next best team), and accrued 1.5 million interactions.
There are still a lot of questions this draft class needs to answer, but the excitement over this draft class is palpable, and the Elliott pick alone has generated more excitement than any other pick in a long time.