You build a winning franchise through the draft.
How many times have you heard that utterance over the course of your time as an NFL football fan? Probably more times than you could possibly hope to remember. While it may have become an overstated cliche, the reality is that this statement is quite true.
Each year, the NFL holds it’s annual Draft extravaganza, a three-day event that welcomes the league’s newest players to the grandest stage of professional sports. With the shock waves of this year’s free agency behind us, attention shifts to the 2015 NFL Draft less than three weeks away. The opening round is set for Thursday, April 30th. The next wave of NFL stars are about to discover where they will start their NFL journeys.
It’s one of the most important weekends of the NFL’s calendar year. The importance of the draft process is such that the NFL’s telecast of the events draws the biggest television ratings of any of the major sports. Much of this is due to the fact that NFL draftees are expected to become immediate contributors, whereas baseball and hockey draft picks are seen as long-term propositions, but even so the importance of the selection process cannot be understated.
Savvy drafting franchises like the Baltimore Ravens and Green Bay Packers always seem to be at the top of the heap. They are perennial playoff contenders that are regularly in the mix in terms of playing in the big game in February. On the other side of the coin, teams with less success in the draft tend to remain at the bottom of the barrel. In regards to the aforementioned Packers, a recent fact was revealed that staggers the imagination:
Julius Peppers and Letroy Guion are the only players on the Packers’ roster to have played a single snap with another NFL franchise.
That is an insane tidbit of information and speaks volumes of Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson’s approach to building his team. Thompson is known for drafting and developing a solid core of players, and knowing when to walk away from the negotiating table when it becomes too pricey to retain his own free agents. He also almost never spends money on free agents and as such, never finds himself in serious cap trouble.
The Packers seem to find a couple of gems in each year’s draft as well, thus producing quality players at an inexpensive price tag. The results have proven to be highly successful. The Packers won a Super Bowl in 2011, and have won four straight NFC North titles in the ensuing seasons.
This wasn’t intended to be a Ted Thompson appreciation column, and the same can be said of Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome and many others. However, these facts illustrate how teams that draft wisely tend to find the most success in the long run.
After the NFL lockout resulted in a new collective bargaining agreement, the draft became an even more desirable method of team-building. With the huge-money deals for first-round picks now off the table, teams no longer have to pay through the nose for unproven rookie players. There is now much value to be had in the opening round, and as such, teams are more open to the concept of trading up. There is much more activity at the onset of the draft which is great for television and great for the game itself.
While many people argue against free agent spending, favoring instead to use the draft exclusively as a means of building a franchise, there is likely a happy medium. The key is to avoid over-spending on big ticket free agents, but adding a player to help your club take the next step is never a poor idea. With that said, those players do not come at the same discount rate that draft picks do.
Take the Seattle Seahawks for example. They provide a perfect example of balancing the draft with paying for premium players. Even though the Seahawks have traded two of their last three first-round picks for expensive players, this franchise has been to two straight Super Bowls in large part because of excellent drafting. The ‘Hawks have found some real gems and have been able to be so competitive because those players have had such favorable cap hits. Now, as those players are starting to be paid accordingly on their second contracts, GM John Schneider and Pete Carroll will need to continue with their shrewd-drafting ways and keep finding scheme-fitting players at bargain draft rates. It’s a successful formula, and one that will likely keep the Seahawks toward the top of the NFC for years to come.
Simply put, the NFL draft sets the table for the future of football. There are superstars waiting to happen in every draft, and those players aren’t always acquired with high picks. There is value to be had in every round, and the teams that find that value will be equipped to succeed in the league’s competitive hierarchy.
Which franchise will have the best draft in 2015? We won’t likely be able to answer that question definitively for years, but the process starts on April 30th in Chicago. The future is almost here.
Thanks for reading, everyone.
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