It's a feel good piece to try and excuse away a problem that is very real: NFL placement sucks right now for BYU. Sucks. And it's hard to put the blame anywhere else than on Bronco's shoulders. He's the coach. The buck stops there.

Since 1980:
LaVell. 21 years as coach. 63 players drafted. 6 LB, 32 line (OL, DL, TE), 24 skill (RB, QB, WR, DB, etc.). Average of 3.0 drafted per year.
Crowton. 4 years as coach. 11 players drafted. 2 LB, 6 line, 3 skill. Average of 2.8 drafted per year.
Bronco. 10 years as coach. 9 players drafted. 2 LB, 2 line, 5 skill. Average of 0.9 drafted per year.

Changing from coach to recruited by (in other words Crowton doesn't get credit for Brandon Doman, Ryan Denney, etc. and Bronco doesn't get credit for John Beck, etc.)
LaVell. 26 years as recruiter. 74 players drafted. 8 LB, 39 line, 27 skill. Average of 2.8 drafted per yea.r
Crowton. 5 years as recruiter. 6 players drafted. 1 LB, 1 line, 4 skill. Average of 1.2 drafted per year.
Bronco. 5 years as recruiter. 3 players drafted. 1 LB, 1 line, 1 skill. Average of 0.6 drafted per year.

Something stinks here. Coach Edwards obviously knew how to get an average of 3 players into the NFL each year. And he coached at the same school as Bronco where it is claimed we just don't get elite athletes and that's why we don't have a lot of NFL players. It's not the coaching, development, mindset, etc. It's just the caliber of player. If this were true, why wouldn't Bronco have at least a little bit closer to LaVell's numbers? He's off by a factor of 3x!! He's gone three years without a single draft pick. LaVell did it once in 20+ years in 1994. And the next year he had 5 picks.

LaVell coached 33 and recruited 39 Line players in the NFL since 1980. Bronco has put out 2 and 1 wasn't his recruit (and honestly Ziggy should be counted as an anomaly). The trenches is where BYU should have the most success. It's the great equalizer. You don't need the crazy elite athlete guys that BYU doesn't really have a chance at. You just need reasonably good, strong, and fast players that can be coached up with the proper technique. LaVell did it. A lot.

I'll accept a lot of excuses for why BYU can't get players in the NFL. But if they count for Bronco they should count for LaVell. For whatever reason Bronco can't or won't or doesn't know how to get people into the NFL at anywhere a rate that he probably should. If you're okay with that, good on ya. For those of us who aren't, please stop trying to make up excuses that simply suck.