How much do recruiting rankings matter? NFL All-Pro team includes just one 5-star recruit

By David Just

It’s national signing day, so college football fans are on the edge of their seats to watch high school seniors put on hats and sign pieces of paper.

But whether you’re celebrating the newest 5-star enrollee or despairing his decision to go elsewhere, keep this in mind: Only one player on the NFL’s All-Pro first team was a five-star recruit out of high school.

That player was Cowboys offensive tackle Tyron Smith, who was one of two five-star recruits in USC’s 2008 class.

Here’s the star rating breakdown of the All-Pro first team: 1 five star, 10 four stars, 7 three stars, 6 two stars and three players who went unrated.

MaxPreps performed a similar exercise using the Pro Football Writer’s All-NFL team and 247sports.com’s recruiting rankings. Again, there was only one five-star recruit — Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray.

Obviously, quite a bit changes from the time a guy gets his Rivals star rating and his NFL debut. But it’s always fun to see what “scouts” thought of the NFL’s best players when they were just high school standouts.

Here’s a look at the NFL All-Pro first team and the star ratings those players got out of high school.

OFFENSE

Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers, 3 stars

DeMarco Murray, Dallas Cowboys, 4 stars

Le’Veon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers, 2 stars

John Kuhn, Green Bay Packers, unrated

Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots, 4 stars

Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers, unrated

Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys, 4 stars

Tyron Smith, Dallas Cowboys, 5 stars

Joe Thomas, Cleveland Browns, 4 stars

Marshal Yanda, Baltimore Ravens, 3 stars