Draft Strategy

thesaintsfan · 03-29-2008, 10:09 PM

I was reading an article about the different strategies that teams use to grade players in the draft. Some teams grade talent and stack their board based on a players overall talent and value based on where they are projected to be drafted. How a player fits their team specific schemes and concepts isn't a major factor in the evaluations. Other teams like the Pats grade talent strictly on how the player would fit their scheme. If a player is a poor fit for their defense they place that player very low or not at all on their draft board. Amobi Okoye is one example the article mentioned. Amobi was a smaller, pass rushing DT who would be a perfect fit for a 4-3 cover 2 type system. The Pats need their D-lineman to be big two gap players who will tie up a few blockers and stop the run. So the Pats didn't have Amobi on their first day board.

Of course everything I read I relate to the Saints so that got me wondering about which route our current FO takes with draft grading. It seems like they go with the overall talent method on offense and don't worry about how well a player fits. However on defense they only draft players who fit into a 4-3. The Saints' defense is a really basic 4-3 so of course we have alot more options as far as players fitting our scheme and that's a good thing. But because our defense is so vanilla we would never draft a D. Ware, S. Merriman, or V. Gholston. I read that we're bringing Gholston in for a private workout but even if we drafted him I don't see how we could use him properly. In today's game some of the best athletes in the draft are DE/OLB tweeners because of the matchup problems they present.

Here are some questions for you guys. Which draft strategy do you think is better for grading prospects and which strategy would you like to see us use? Also if the Saints do use the scheme specific method to draft defense, what would the top of your board look like. Keep in mind I'm not asking who you think the best players are, just the best fits for our defense. For example, I think V. Gholston is a better prospect that S. Ellis overall, but I have Ellis several spots higher on my board based on how well he would fit in our system. My team specific top 5 is Dorsey, Ellis, Long, McKelvin, and Rivers.

03-29-2008, 10:09 PM	#1
thesaintsfan The Real Deal Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 174	Draft Strategy I was reading an article about the different strategies that teams use to grade players in the draft. Some teams grade talent and stack their board based on a players overall talent and value based on where they are projected to be drafted. How a player fits their team specific schemes and concepts isn't a major factor in the evaluations. Other teams like the Pats grade talent strictly on how the player would fit their scheme. If a player is a poor fit for their defense they place that player very low or not at all on their draft board. Amobi Okoye is one example the article mentioned. Amobi was a smaller, pass rushing DT who would be a perfect fit for a 4-3 cover 2 type system. The Pats need their D-lineman to be big two gap players who will tie up a few blockers and stop the run. So the Pats didn't have Amobi on their first day board. Of course everything I read I relate to the Saints so that got me wondering about which route our current FO takes with draft grading. It seems like they go with the overall talent method on offense and don't worry about how well a player fits. However on defense they only draft players who fit into a 4-3. The Saints' defense is a really basic 4-3 so of course we have alot more options as far as players fitting our scheme and that's a good thing. But because our defense is so vanilla we would never draft a D. Ware, S. Merriman, or V. Gholston. I read that we're bringing Gholston in for a private workout but even if we drafted him I don't see how we could use him properly. In today's game some of the best athletes in the draft are DE/OLB tweeners because of the matchup problems they present. Here are some questions for you guys. Which draft strategy do you think is better for grading prospects and which strategy would you like to see us use? Also if the Saints do use the scheme specific method to draft defense, what would the top of your board look like. Keep in mind I'm not asking who you think the best players are, just the best fits for our defense. For example, I think V. Gholston is a better prospect that S. Ellis overall, but I have Ellis several spots higher on my board based on how well he would fit in our system. My team specific top 5 is Dorsey, Ellis, Long, McKelvin, and Rivers.
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