Seven months later, Shaun Rogers remembers driving aimlessly through the side streets of LaPorte, Tex., dispirited by a draft status plummeting faster than a Silicon Valley stock, disenchanted by a process over which he had no control, and distraught that he might not be picked until the second day of the NFL draft ... if at all.

	Shaun Rogers is second on the Detroit Lions with 63 tackles and has recorded 2½ sacks.

Surrounded by dozens of relatives and friends, with even his priest and deacon on hand to help celebrate the official start of his professional career, Rogers had begun that April Saturday planted in front of a big-screen television. But after a parade of teams that had indicated an interest in him all passed in the first round, Rogers couldn't tolerate the ignominy and injustice any longer. He bolted to the sanctuary of his car.

On the radio, he listened to the second round progress, heard unfamiliar names being called and cursed his fate at having sustained a senior-year ankle injury that robbed him of what he considered a first-round birthright.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh, my God, no one is even going to pick me on the first day, let alone in the first round,' and that was scary and frustrating at the same time," he recalled. "It's like I had fallen off the face of the 'draft earth' or something. People felt like, because of my ankle injury, I was damaged goods."

Ten games into his rookie season, his draft free-fall mercifully ended by the Detroit Lions with the next-to-last choice in the second stanza, Rogers is doing the damage now. He's proving wrong the skeptics who felt he might not even play in 2001.

The former University of Texas standout, whose senior campaign clearly was impacted by postseason surgery on his right ankle that required two pins to help promote healing, has started all 10 games. His 63 tackles rank second on the team, and he has 2½ sacks as well.

Were it not for the immediate impact generated by Pittsburgh inside linebacker Kendrell Bell, the surprising Rogers would be the top candidate for defensive rookie of the year, and he is a certain all-rookie selection. Just as significant, Rogers is one of a large group of second-round choices who are making as big a dent in their debut campaigns as their first-round brethren.

"Without that ankle injury, Shaun would have been a top-15 pick, no doubt about it," said Lions president Matt Millen. "But we figured, even if he didn't play one snap as a rookie, spent the whole year on the physically-unable-to-perform list or maybe on (injured reserve), he was too good to pass on in the second round. He's a pretty good example of how the whole scouting deal is still a very inexact science."

Notable is that there are several other examples as well.

One could make a convincing argument that the second round of the 2001 draft has produced, at least to this point, as many standout rookies as the first round. A few personnel directors will tell you the second round was a veritable treasure trove of good, young talent this year.

The leading rookie receiver in the league is Miami second-round choice Chris Chambers, who is averaging a gaudy 20.3 yards per reception despite not starting. Bell has completed a Pittsburgh linebacker quartet that rates as one of the top units in the league, has seven sacks and is the favorite to earn defensive rookie of the year plaudits. Indianapolis strong safety Idrees Bashir has started all but one game.

St. Louis linebacker Tommy Polley has filled in admirably when starters Don Davis and Mark Fields were injured. Tailback Travis Henry is the leading rusher in Buffalo, as is Anthony Thomas in Chicago. Jacksonville right tackle Maurice Williams has started all 10 games and New England counterpart Matt Light has started seven. Washington corner Fred Smoot has been a solid complement to Champ Bailey and, at times, has played even better than the Redskins' star cover defender. Atlanta second-rounder Alge Crumpler is regarded as a future Pro Bowl tight end.

The leading interceptor among rookies, it should be noted, is Cleveland Browns fourth-round choice Anthony Henry.

As far as quantifying the quality of the second round, just in raw numbers, consider these totals: Second round choices have appeared in 226 games and started 118. That is just 27 fewer appearances and 36 less starts than their first-round counterparts. Seventeen first-round picks have started five or more games; 14 second-rounders have five or more starts.

	“	Watching the names go by, not hearing them call you, it's an (ordeal). Your attitude kind of becomes, 'OK, they'll see.' ”
		— Kendrell Bell on not getting selected in the first round

Six choices in the first round and three in the second have started all of their teams' games. Of the first-round choices, eight have yet to start even one game. Eleven second-round picks are still waiting for their first start.

Only time will tell, and the balloting will be close, but there could be more second-round choices than first-round selections on the all-rookie team.

"This really has been an impressive second-round group," said Buffalo general manager Tom Donahoe, who, in addition to Henry, got suddenly emerging defensive end Aaron Schobel in the second round. "That round is producing a lot of good players."

Both Henry and Schobel, in fact, have each started more games than Buffalo first-round pick Nate Clements, a former Ohio State cornerback.

Beyond the reality that scouting still tends to be a subjective exercise, and that there is a thin line between first- and second-round evaluations, some players who were chosen in the second round feel they have something to prove. Polley noted that when you expect to be a first-round pick and slip into the second round, the perceived snub can serve as impetus.

"You come into every game now with a chip on your shoulder," said Polley, a first-round talent but, like Rogers, a player whose draft grade slipped because of injury. "You take it a little more personally."

Added the electrifying Bell, who felt he was the best inside linebacker in the draft and should have been chosen in the first round: "Watching the names go by, not hearing them call you, it's an (ordeal). Your attitude kind of becomes, 'OK, they'll see.' "

Chambers, who has been compared by some scouts to former Dallas star Michael Irvin, subscribes to that theory. Scouts backed off Chambers in the month preceding the draft because they sensed he did not like contact and was reluctant to go into traffic after the football. He looked anything but shy, however, in salvaging the Dolphins' fortunes in last Sunday's fourth-quarter rally at Buffalo.

The characteristically taciturn Rogers doesn't camouflage his contempt for the teams that bypassed him in the draft, and he hints at revenge, especially against the clubs that snubbed him in each of the first two rounds. He dominated the Big 12 his junior year, and then the ankle injury slowed him dramatically as a senior.

Surgery kept him on crutches for the predraft combine workouts. Then he broke a surgical pin and had to undergo another operation, and many teams simply put an injury "red flag" next to his name on their draft boards. Now he draws a bull's eye around those teams.

Six defensive tackles were selected in the first round, and their aggregate numbers barely nudge out Rogers' statistics. Of that group, only Gerard Warren of Cleveland comes close to his production. The six have started a total of 12 games. Two more tackles went off the board in the second round before Rogers' agent called him to tell him he could quit driving around and head home for the celebration.

"You're relieved when it's finally over, but you also know there's some payback coming, and I think about that a lot," Rogers said. "I mean second round doesn't mean that you're second rate, and I'm going to prove that to people."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.