How Smart Is Your First Round Draft Pick?

Wonderlic .com ^ | 2004 | Staff

[shrinkermd]

First round quarterback draft pick Eli Manning (Peyton Manning's brother) from Mississippi scored a 39 on the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT) during the 2004 annual NFL combine. He scored nearly ten points higher than most players on the 50-question timed test, but many people may wonder why it matters. Who cares what a football player scores on an intelligence test? Football team owners do, because they understand that good players need brains as well as brawn to be winners.

"Selecting a new quarterback is like hiring a president for a company," says Michael Callans, President of Wonderlic Consulting. They need to lead, think on their feet, evaluate all of their options and understand the impact their actions will have on the outcome of the game. Wonderlic helps team owners make the best selections by identifying which players have the mental strength to lead their team to victory.

The WPT measures a player's cognitive and reasoning ability, helping teams determine if a possible draft pick has the skills to follow directions and react to what's going on around him - all skills that are critical on the field.

"Selecting a new quarterback is like hiring an executive for a company," Michael Callans, President of Wonderlic Consulting.

The first use of the WPT in the NFL was by Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys in the early 70s, who took a scientific approach to finding players. He believed that players who could use their minds where it counted had a strategic advantage over the other teams. The test has been used every year at the combine ever since.

Though it varies position to position, NFL draftees have received an average WPT score of 19 over the last 20 years with quarterbacks and defensive linemen generally scoring slightly higher. Higher scores mean higher intelligence, and intelligence has an impact on playing style and team leadership, especially for quarterbacks. Consider Kyle Wachholtz, The 1996 draft pick for the Greenbay Packers. He had great arms and was a good size but scouts didn't like him because he wasn't smart enough. "His deficiencies are mental, not physical," noted one NFL scout. Wachholtz scored a 12 on his Wonderlic test, according to the Packers Plus website. He was later transitioned from quarterback to tight-end, a position that requires less mental acuity.

Smarter Players Deliver More Wins

Every year sports writers chuckle about these oversized jocks taking intelligence tests at the combine, but it's a lesson to any business owners who are about to invest a sizable chunk of money into a new member of their own team. The NFL spends millions of dollars on first round draft picks. Given the investment, they want all the information they can get about players' physical, mental, and emotional skills.

"Corporations could learn a lot from the NFL's use of testing," Callans says. Intelligence and personality determine a candidate's success, on the field or off. Team owners recognize that the most successful choices are those players who not only have the strength to play the game but the mental acuity to win. And they don't rely on gut instinct to tell them who's right for the job. They get proof through testing.

"Corporations could learn a lot from the NFL's use of testing," Callans says.

The same could be said for any team. It's not enough that people have the skills to do a job, they need to be able to excel at it, and to interact well with the rest of the team. Company owners need to ask themselves how smart their team players are. Can your sales director call a huddle and make game-time decisions like Peyton Manning? Do your middle managers have the personality to motivate the team? Does your customer support staff fit the profile of a wide receiver or should they be sitting on the sideline? Are you in the game to win? Smarter people make better teammates and deliver more wins to the team. Smart managers know that the only way to be sure a candidate is a winner is to test them. Intelligence tests and personality profiles deliver the hard data that companies need to hire the best people.

Vince Lombardi once said that the achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual. The NFL is using Wonderlic to be sure every player they select has the strength, the intelligence and the character to be a champion. Can you say the same about your team

[shrinkermd]

The Wonderlic is also used by the US Military and many corporations. It is a simple, timed test taking no more than 20 minutes. It cannot be given to HS students by law in California.

I post this after a new poster was admonished for posting the LA Times editorial "Congragulations You're About to Fail." I could not read all the posts before it was killed but none were incongruent with WSJ editorial signed by 300 top flight academic psychologists substantiating the "Bell Curve's" findings. The book was published in 1994, the editorial in the same year.

You can't kill an idea whose time has come. Incidentally, at the end of the LA editorial it remarks that only 20% of those who start HS finish college: this is the exact figure for European Whites with IQ's above 110.

[Angry Republican]

Does anyone know Big Ben's score?

[SamAdams76]

It would be interesting to know Ben's score as well as that of Tom Brady - another QB that got off to a phenomenal start.

Eli is off to an awful start with his career so far.

[shrinkermd]

"Is there an online place where you can take this?

There used to be but I believe it was pulled. This is a for profit organization that competes with many other short IQ tests.

If you do find the test, remember it is a timed test. Unless the time is held constant the results are meaningless.

[Pylon]

Eli Manning, Mississippi - 39
Ben Roethlisberger, Miami (OH) - 25
Philip Rivers, North Carolina State - 30
J.P. Losman, Tulane - 31
Cody Pickett, Washington - 19
Matt Schaub, Virginia - 30
John Navarre, Michigan - 24
Josh Harris, Bowling Green - 25
Casey Clausen, Tennessee - 20
Jeff Smoker, Michigan State - 23
Jason Fife, Oregon - 26
Matt Mauck, LSU - 30
Eli Roberson, Kansas State - 11
B.J. Symons, Texas Tech - 22
Jared Lorenzen, Kentucky - 28
Bradlee Van Pelt, Colorado State - 25
Rod Rutherford, Pittsburgh - 17

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

How did Dexter Manley do? Did they have someone read him the questions?

[AppyPappy]

European Whites with IQ's above 110.

As opposed to which other kind of "whites"?

[anniegetyourgun]

I remember administering the Wonderlic years ago. As political correctness grew, it quickly fell from favor. That's because it draws too straight a line.

[Future Snake Eater]

I post this after a new poster was admonished for posting the LA Times editorial "Congragulations You're About to Fail."

Yeah, what's the deal with that? I thought it was an interesting thread.

[Pylon]

NFL past and present quarterback prospect Wonderlic scores

News: The NFL Combine is just two months away!

• please note these results represent research and generally come from reliable sources, i.e., Notes from NFL scouts.  It is important to understand that scores cannot be "verified" since they are not released by the NFL, but rather leaked by teams or scouts.  As such, the accuracy of all the scores could be considered questionable.
• averaged scores were changed to actual scores so everyone can see all scores.  Scores are not listed chronologically.
• last updated Dec 22, 2004 (added 3 new scores)
• link to Mac's NCAA College football Rankings and Predictions for 2004
• data compiled by Mac Mirabile

Papers & Research"The Drafting and Compensation of College Quarterbacks: Salary Determinants and Evidence of Discrimination in the NFL"

 a paper about a quarterback's transition from college to the NFL"The Peer Effect in the NFL Draft"

 a paper about peer effects on quarterback's salary"Intelligence and Football: Are smarter players better or better compensated?"

 a paper on the relationship between Wonderlic score and performance and compensation in the NFL

Upcoming papers on the Heisman Trophy and Betting on College Football odds lines
    

Name	Year	College	Wonderlic	Actual Draft Order
Manning, Eli	2004	Mississippi	39	1 (1st overall)
Krenzel, Craig	2004	Ohio State	38	7 (148th overall)
Losman, J.P.	2004	Tulane	31, 14	4 (22nd overall)
Rivers, Philip	2004	NC State	30	2 (4th overall)
Schaub, Matt	2004	Virginia	30	5 (90th overall)
Mauck, Matt	2004	LSU	30	15 (225th overall)
Lorenzen, Jared	2004	Kentucky	26	(free agent)
Fife, Jason	2004	Oregon	26	(free agent)
Roethlisberger, Ben	2004	Miami-OH	25	3 (11th overall)
Harris, Josh	2004	Bowling Green	25	9 (187th overall)
Van Pelt, Bradlee	2004	Colorado State	25	17 (250th overall)
Navarre, John	2004	Michigan	24	12 (202nd overall)
McCown, Luke	2004	La Tech	24, 20	6 (106th overall)
Smoker, Jeff	2004	Michigan State	23	11 (201st overall)
Symons, BJ	2004	Texas Tech	22	16 (248th overall)
Hall, Andrew	2004	Delaware	20	8 (185th overall)
Clausen, Casey	2004	Tennessee	20	(free agent)
Pickett, Cody	2004	Washington	19	13 (217th overall)
Rutherford, Rod	2004	Pittsburgh	17	(free agent)
Sorgi, Jim	2004	Wisconsin	14	10 (193rd overall)
Roberson, Ell	2004	Kansas State	11	(free agent)
Henson, Drew	2003	Michigan	42
Adamson, Rob	2003	Mount Union	32
Paus, Cory	2003	UCLA	30
Cobb, Daniel	2003	Auburn	30
Ragone, Dave	2003	Louisville	31
Kingsbury, Kliff	2003	Texas Tech	31
Romo, Tony	2003	Eastern Illinois	30
Wood, Juston	2003	Portland State	28
Farmer, Kirk	2003	Missouri	27
Grossman, Rex	2003	Florida	29
Bollinger, Brooks	2003	Wisconsin	28
Boller, Kyle	2003	California	27
St. Pierre, Brian	2003	Boston College	27
Gesser, Jason	2003	Wash. State	27
Palmer , Carson	2003	USC	26
Leftwich, Byron	2003	Marshall	25
Dorsey, Ken	2003	Miami	25
Blankenship, Josh	2003	Eastern Wash.	24
Bryant, D.	2003	Duke	23
Thomas, Jason	2003	UNLV	19, 26
Simms, Chris	2003	Texas	22
Banks, Brad	2003	Iowa	13
Wallace, Seneca	2003	Iowa State	12
O'Sullivan, J.T.	2002	Calif.-Davis	35
Pate, Wes	2002	Stephen Austin	35
Kustok, Zak	2002	Northwestern	35
Harrington, Joey	2002	Oregon	32
Ramsey, Patrick	2002	Tulane	32
Kittner, Kurt	2002	Illinois	31
Nall, Craig	2002	Northwestern St.	31
McCown, Josh	2002	Sam Houston	30
Kennedy, Darnell	2002	Alabama State	30
Burford, Seth	2002	Cal Poly	28
Godsey, George	2002	Georgia Tech	28
Doman, Brandon	2002	BYU	27
Smith, Aaron	2002	Wagner	27
Smith, Jonathan	2002	Oregon State	27
Appelwhite, Major	2002	Texas	26
Fasani, Randy	2002	Stanford	25
Neill, David	2002	Nevada	25
Hill, Shaun	2002	Maryland	25
Carr, David	2002	Fresno State	24
Mitchell, Scott	2002	West. Wash.	24
Crouch, Eric  *	2002	Nebraska	24
Zolman, Greg	2002	Vanderbilt	23
Curry, Ronald *	2002	North Carolina	22
Welsh, John	2002	Idaho	20
Davey, Rohan	2002	LSU	17
Randle El, Antwaan  *	2002	Indiana	17
Dantzler, Woodrow *	2002	Clemson	17
Garrard, David	2002	East Carolina	14
Madkin, Wayne	2002	Miss. State	14
Rosenfels, Sage	2001	Iowa State	32
Palmer, Jesse	2001	Florida	32
Coleman, Justin	2001	Neb.-Kearney	31
Carter, Quincy	2001	Georgia	30
Heupel, Josh	2001	Oklahoma	30
Weinke, Chris	2001	Florida State	29
Griggs, Shane	2001	Idaho State	29
Brees, Drew	2001	Purdue	28
McMahon, Mike	2001	Rutgers	27
Booty, Josh	2001	LSU	27
Rivers, David	2001	West. Carolina	27
McKinley, Jason	2001	Houston	25
Tuiasosopo, Marques	2001	Washington	24
Hasselbeck, Tim	2001	Boston College	23
Hendricks, Bart	2001	Boise State	22
Leard, Ben	2001	Auburn	22
Vick, Michael	2001	Virginia Tech	20
Smith, Dylen	2001	Kansas	20
Beasley, Jonathan	2001	Kansas State	20
Casey, Rashard	2001	Penn State	20
Feeley, A.J.	2001	Oregon	19
Lemon, Cleo	2001	Ark. State	18
Kenner, Deontey	2001	Cincinnati	16
Jenkins, Oretege	2001	Arizona	14
Miller, Romaro	2001	Mississippi	11
Husak, Todd	2000	Stanford	39
Brady, Tom	2000	Michigan	33
Pennington, Chad	2000	Marshall	25
Redman, Chris	2000	Louisville	16
Martin, Tee	2000	Tennessee	11
Bulger, Marc	2000	West Virginia	29	Bulger's  score has been verified by Howard Balzer, editor of USA Sports Weekly
Maas, Jason	1999	Oregon	43
Daft, Kevin	1999	Calif.-Davis	32
McNown, Cade	1999	UCLA	28
Smith, Akili	1999	Oregon	37, 15	Many suspect Smith of cheating because he showed such improvement.
King, Shaun	1999	Tulane	25
Huard, Brock	1999	Washington	25
Germaine, Joe	1999	Ohio State	25
Couch, Tim	1999	Kentucky	22
Culpepper, Daunte	1999	Central Fla.	18, 21, 15	Culpepper, who was administered the test three times, had a high of 21 and a low of 15. Because of his academic struggles even to gain admittance to a four-year institution, some teams think the 15 is more realistic.
Brooks, Aaron	1999	Virginia	17
McNabb, Donovan	1999	Syracuse	16, 12
Bishop, Michael	1999	Kansas State	10
Griese, Brian	1998	Michigan	39
Hasselbeck, Matt	1998	Boston College	29
Banks, Tony	1996	Michigan State	26
Lucas, Ray	1996	Rutgers	18
Wachholtz, Kyle	1996	USC	12
Collins, Kerry	1995	Penn State	30
McNair, Steve	1995	Alcorn State	15
Stewart, Kordell	1995	Colorado	12
Dilfer, Trent	1994	Fresno State	22
Shuler, Heath	1994	Tennessee	16
Bledsoe, Drew	1993	Wash. State	37
Mirer, Rick	1993	Notre Dame	31
Brunell, Mark	1993	Washington	22
Grbac, Elvis	1993	Michigan	16
Klingler, David	1992	Houston	30
Blake, Jeff	1992	East Carolina	17
Favre, Brett	1991	Southern Miss.	22
O'Donnell, Neil	1990	Maryland	13
George, Jeff	1990	Illinois	10
Aikman, Troy	1989	UCLA	29
Tolliver, Billy Joe	1989	Texas Tech	24
Gannon, Rich	1987	Delaware	27
Testaverde, Vinny	1987	Miami	18
Cunningham, Randall	1985	UNLV	15
Marino, Dan	1983	Pittsburgh	14
Young, Steve	1982	BYU	33

 

NOTES: If anyone has any scores to contribute, please email me.  So, I have been reading a lot of threads about the relationship between a player's Wonderlic score and his SAT.  Here is what I found comparing scores of quarterbacks in my data: Take your base 820 points (which you essentially get for bubbling in your name) and then add 11 points for each question correctly answered on your Wonderlic test.     ~Mac

This site had more than 1,000 visits for the first time in a single day on Monday, Dec. 20.  Special thanks to the Eli Manning fans in New York!

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2004 NFL draft
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[shrinkermd]

As opposed to which other kind of "whites"?

Answer: Indoeuropeans as is described by this excperpt: "One of these families came to be known as the Indo-European family, which includes almost all the languages spoken in modern Europe as well as several major languages spoken in the Middle East and in South Asia.

[southernnorthcarolina]

If it becomes clear that certain ethnic groups score higher on the WPT than others, look for the NFL to ban teams from using the test.

Any test which shows yellows or whites scoring higher than browns or blacks is obviously biased. Just ask any public school system. What matters is improvement, not the actual score.

Fortunately, the real world doesn't work that way. Yet.

[Strategerist]

Indo-European is a language family, not a race.

Problem with "White" is that people treat it like it corresponds with being of Caucasian race, but it isn't; to most people white is much narrower than Caucasian. There are many Caucasians that a lot of people would describe as "non-white."

[Max Combined]

I think it was more like 50 signers.

Wall Street Journal, Dec. 13, 1994, p A18

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/intell/mainstream.html

I was given a copy of the article by one of the signers, Lyle F. Schoenfeldt, of Texas A&M University. It surprised me, because he was always very PC in class, while I was always going against the PC in the class, for example by bringing up the example of Japan, which was doing very well economically at the time, whenever diversity was brought up as being necessary for success.

[Strategerist]

If those are valid it's interesting how low Marino is.

Never really seemed like a rocket scientist off the field in any interviews I saw.

[truth_seeker]

For me personally, the Wonderlic in 20 minutes got the same result as hour upon hour of military test batteries.

Later, as an Army Personnel Specialist, I learned how closely army tests match IQ tests. I also learned that high intelligence is a major factor, giving a high infantry aptitude.

So if somebody talks about infantry as if they are the dumb ones, expendable to become cannon fodder, that is wrong.

They are the smart ones.

[Drango]

As political correctness grew, it quickly fell from favor. That's because it draws too straight a line.

PC, or that it isn't all that accurate in predicting success? Given the cost of the Wonderlic, it's correlation coefficient isn't high enough to bothering using IMHO.

[Pylon]

Must be accurate, look at Jeff George

[GOP_Raider]

Wonder how Robert Gallery did then?

[shrinkermd]

Yes, you are right-fifty signers and the article is titled "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" and is dated 12/13/94.

Anyone who wants to read more can Google Alan Murray who also has a fine editorial in the WSJ dated 12/2/94.

If you are really serious Chris Brand has an e-book on intelligence that was canceled by his publisher when he quoted findings not in dispute for 100 years. The emotions surrounding IQ are just short of incredible.

Some leading research has documented that using evoked potentials and brain scans one can estimate IQ within on SD. Actually, much closer; however, the company trying to make a buck off of this died when no one was really interested and, of course, especially educational institutions.

Quite tragically Herrnstein died shortly after the Bell Curve was published. He held the same chair as had BF Skinner. NOt a light weight by any means.

[Ellesu]

Can you say the same about your team?
The New Orleans Saints? No way.

[demlosers]

FReepers would score fairly high on the Wonderlic since the example questions (I've seen) are not too difficult.

[Pylon]

McNabb, Donovan 1999 Syracuse 16, 12

He took it twice and did worse the second time!

[eternity]

In the NFL which is shear brutality, I would think the guy with the high score would realize "Hey I could get hurt real bad out here."

[demlosers]

The Wonderlic Personnel Test ™
WPT ™ Sample Questions

1. Look at the row of numbers below. What number should come next?

8

4

2

1

½

¼

?

2. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one:

1. true,

2. false,

3. not certain?

The boy plays baseball. All baseball players wear hats. The boy wears a hat.

3. Paper sells for 21 cents per pad. What will four pads cost?

4. How many of the five pairs of items listed below are exact duplicates?

Nieman, K.M.	Neiman, K.M.
Thomas, G.K.	Thomas, C.K.
Hoff, J.P.	Hoff, J.P.
Pino, L.R.	Pina, L.R.
Warner, T.S.	Wanner, T.S.

5. RESENT RESERVE • Do these words
1. have similar meanings, 2. have contradictory meanings, 3. mean neither the same nor opposite?

6. One of the numbered figures in the following drawing is most different from the others. What is the number in that figure?

7. A train travels 20 feet in 1/5 second. At this same speed, how many feet will it travel in three seconds?

8. When rope is selling at $.10 a foot, how many feet can you buy for sixty cents?

9. The ninth month of the year is

1. October,

2. January,

3. June,

4. September,

5 May.

10. Which number in the following group of numbers represents the smallest amount?

7

.8

31

.33

2

11. In printing an article of 48,000 words, a printer decides to use two sizes of type. Using the larger type, a printed page contains 1,800 words. Using smaller type, a page contains 2,400 words. The article is allotted 21 full pages in a magazine. How many pages must be in smaller type?

12. The hours of daylight and darkness in SEPTEMBER are nearest equal to the hours of daylight and darkness in:

1. June,

2. March,

3. May,

4. November.

13. Three individuals form a partnership and agree to divide the profits equally. X invests $9,000, Y invests $7,000, Z invests $4,000. If the profits are $4,800, how much less does X receive than if the profits were divided in proportion to the amount invested?

14. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one:

1. true,

2. false,

3. not certain?

Tom greeted Beth. Beth greeted Dawn. Tom did not greet Dawn.

15. A boy is 17 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 23 years old, what will be the age of his sister?

These are sample test questions and are intended for demonstration purposes only. The Wonderlic Personnel Test is published by Wonderlic, Inc.

[DameAutour]

My QB is stupid.

Wonder why he throws so few INTs then.

I love you Donovan, s'okay.

[DameAutour]

umm, those are very easy, even if they are timed, they're still easy

as long as you're not the sort of person who panics when taking a test, you should do fine

makes me wonder

[demlosers]

Uum, yes. We're talking about football players here... ;^)

[digitalbrownshirt]

I don't think any of the tests really matter that much. I've taken the Wonderlic test (mid 30's), the ASVAB (99 across the 4 areas) and IQ tests (130+). Despite the intelligence implied by the scores, my lack of common sense led me down a predictably self-destructive path. I've turned my life around, but intelligence is wasted without the balance of common sense which too often only comes with experience.

In other words, if being smart were enough, Manning would be playing football next weekend instead of watching it on TV.

[Mad Dawgg]

I would love to know Kosar's score !

[DameAutour]

Despite the intelligence implied by the scores, my lack of common sense led me down a predictably self-destructive path. I've turned my life around, but intelligence is wasted without the balance of common sense which too often only comes with experience.

THIS is the story of my life.

[LisaMalia]

Smarter Players Deliver More Wins

Very true. It doesn't just apply to QBs though.

Whatever team gets my Buckeye's star kicker Nugent will be very fortunate.....I would love to see him go to the Bengals. We already have the smartest QB in the NFL.

[anniegetyourgun]

It was cheap back then....and a fairly good predictor of native intelligence....for jobs that required same.

[JohnBovenmyer]

IIRC ISU's Troy Davis, who rushed for 2k twice a few years back set the then all time low score, with I believe, 4. Last I heard he was playing in Canada.

[El Gran Salseron]

I don't see Peyton Manning on your list but otherwise it is a terrific list which, with a few exceptions, does define who is doing well and why while showing who is not doing so good and why.

[El Gran Salseron]

Marino is from the Northeast, hence the MSM fawning over him.

One Super Bowl appearance, zero Super Bowl wins.....yet he is "the best quarterback to ever play the game."

Ha! Paper tiger.

[El Gran Salseron]

Wow! I was just wondering earlier today what Kosar is doing now! Amazing!