How every Super Bowl 2015 starter was rated as a high school recruit

The Patriots and Seahawks don't have many former high school superstars, but most of their biggest contributors were considered solid prospects.

The recruiting profile of both teams is similar. Seattle's starting lineup had an average star rating of 2.4 as high school prospects, and New England's had 2.3. (Full ratings below, via the 247Sports Composite.)

Neither team boasts a former five-star recruit in its two-deep, and both have four former four-stars. Seattle has 11 former three-stars, while New England has nine. This isn't that surprising, as five-stars make up less than 1 percent of all FBS/FCS recruits, four-stars less than 10 percent, and three-stars roughly 37 percent. About 55 percent are rated two-stars or unrated.

Tom Brady was an unrated recruit at a time when few recruits were rated on a national level, but he was thought of well enough to earn a scholarship offer from Michigan, which was contending for Big Ten titles on an annual basis. If the star system was around in 1995 when Brady graduated from high school, he would have likely been rated as a four- or five-star recruit.

Patriots star Rob Gronkowski was highly rated. Out of Pittsburgh, Gronkowski was the No. 4 tight end nationally according to Rivals.com, two spots behind former New England teammate Aaron Hernandez. Gronkowski chose Arizona over Ohio State, Penn State, Clemson, Maryland, and other major offers.

When Marshawn Lynch signed with Cal in 2004 out of Oakland Tech, Bears fans were quite happy, as he was rated the No. 2 running back in the nation, behind only Adrian Peterson. Lynch chose Cal over Oregon, UCLA, USC, Arizona State, and Washington State, among others.

Russell Wilson was only a three-star recruit. Wilson was productive in football and baseball out of Richmond, Virginia, but he was 5'11, 180, a stature that hurt his rating. Size should impact a quarterback's rating, particularly because ratings have a major projection element, but Wilson overcame it to be a college and NFL star.

Seahawks

Patriots