Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

completely objective:
If you take all the draft board teams use and compare them, I am going to bet you that you would be lucky to find 10% of the players ranked in the spot.

there is no real formula that I know off. game tapes road trips, the workouts, interviews and then back to game tapes. A lot of it comes down to the gut feeling.

Most regraded drafts talk about starters 4 years down the road.

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

I see.

Do you think it is likely that if you took all the boards, players (especially near the top) would be graded roughly the same (in terms of BPA - since I'm guessing the individual boards figure in team need)? That is, say, player x is graded at spot 6 plus or minus say 3? This would go a long way to showing that the judgment is (somewhat) objective.

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

I don't believe you can limit team needs and talent available and then revisit a draft three years later to conclude the performance on a draft...

Other considerations should include...

Immediate impact on team...

The drafting of Deuce McAllister definitely lit a fire under Ricky Williams; even though Deuce did not "carry the load" as Williams did right away it had its effect; there may be other examples you can relate to of your favorite players but the point is draft impact on a team, whether on a veteran or a group of veterans...

Immediate impact on culture and fan base...

Probably best example I can point to is if you're a Saints Fan, the moment encapsulating the Friday that Houston announced it was taking Mario Williams until the Tuesday Morning following the MNF game against Atlanta; the team, the fans, the arrival of a National Superstar on the Team; it just seemed like everything had turned the corner and inspired play would be the difference; this manifestation is the blocked punt and score...

I think the performance of the Front Office during the draft process; not making gaffs such as the Vikings not turning in their pics in a timely fashion; being either agressive with trades (moving up or down) or being patient, poised allowing players to fall rather than giving up the farm to get the County Prized Cow...

Lastly...how fast a player develops, adjusts and contributes; You may have a guy who develops into a HOF playing level in three to four years, but I would argue in the interests of the team performance that a guy that comes in right away and performs at say a ProBowl Alternate level, though may never reach the HOF is as much a successful pick; Saints fans for years watched as Fink's picks were developed here and went to other clubs to have breakout seasons...

The Steelers drafts of the seventies, 49ers of the eighties, they just seem to move into the rights slots or remained poised to get the best player available that also significantly improved their clubs...

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

Jean, thanks for the interesting thoughts.

I hadn't really considered timeliness of impact as a factor before. That seems to be something that can be both projected and determined after the fact, so it goes into both kinds of grading I've been considering.

Further, impact on the fan base is an interesting proposal. I'm not sure what I think about this. Certainly if reflects some rationality of on the part of the front office in the "now-ish" grade; however, the decision isn't a purely football decision (since it is aimed at pleasing the fans, rather than improving the team - though it could also do that). This factor has an interesting impact on how we should think about the "now-ish" grade - this grade includes some level of "excitement" about the player relative to where he ends up.

Interesting!

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

You know this is one of the better insightful discussions I have seen here in awhile. Everyone is gaining something from each other. I have. Thanks excellent job

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

Agreed.

It would be interesting if we could find some stuff on what the "professional" draft graders consider when they give a grade (I assume their grades are the "now-ish" kind, since I haven't seen to many grades given "later-ish" to a team's draft). We could use that to see how we're doing in constructing the idea ourselves, and we could see if we thought they we considering the right kinds of factors (like the ones we've brought up so far).

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

Yea like if we graded drafts a year or two later
2006-A(so far)
2007-D(so far)
this could change each year for the next few years.

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

If you want have some fun do a search with this
nfl draft grades
Just plug in a year.

walters has started redoing hi draft grades from 2006 on.
Walters Football Site: 2006 NFL Draft Grades

Re: Saints Draft Grade
 

That's why they always say it's takes at least 3 years to truly evaluate a draft class.