SloMotion

That's why a BPA strategy will work this draft ... when you got so many holes to fill in a draft with so many good defensive prospects, whomever the BPA is when it's your turn to pick will undoubtedly fill a need regardless of where he plays.

FinSaint

I'd like to vote BPA in a need position...

TheOak

That is exactly what Halo said.... However, do you think we would pick someone is not the BPA for a position of need? Think about it.... In a BPA first scenario... If a super star DE is available first round and we need one would we draft a different DE?

If your looking at it from a Need first basis would you pass up a Super Star receiver or to pick up a Safety because you need a safety? Please keep in mind that not all drafts have Safetys, Corners, Defensive Ends that can start and impact their rookie season.


We have at least what... 5 positions of need? Do you want a 6th rounder for one of those positions? Do you expect a 6th rounder to be an impact player his rookie year?

TheOak

Someone who gets it....

We have a lot of good receivers but if we draft the next Jerry Rice we will be a hell of a lot better off than if we draft a Defensive Tackle that is only 20% better than Smith.

FinSaint

I didn't really understand your point, but what I was saying is that you use the draft to fill the holes left by the free agency, and that is why you draft BPA but focus on those positions you need filling on the depth chart.

If a team desperately needs a starter caliber safety, and the draft doesn't have any player of that type available - then of course you don't just draft the best safety available, but use the free agency to get a starter safety.

Draft is for the most part about building the team for the future, and usually it's just the top round rookies who are able to contribute noticeably during their rookie seasons - if even them. Most draftees end up filling up the depth chart and learning the system and the game during their initial couple of years while maybe doing some special teams stints.

A smart franchise uses those lower round picks to draft BPA players for positions they assess they'll need some new blood in a season or two, and use the time between then and now to coach those players to be ready when their time comes to step up. And that is why you draft BPA but with a focus on the positions of need - but naturally if a one-in-a generation type of a player falls into your lap in the draft, you almost have to draft that player regardless of whether he is really needed by the franchise, because you can always trade him for more than the cost of the pick you use to get him if you decide the franchise doesn't have any use for him.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno

TheOak

That is exactly what draft "BPA for that position implies".

FinSaint

So?!

I never said that they should draft BPA for a specific need position, but that they should draft a BPA in a need position... see the difference there?

The key is to draft BPA with a focus on the need positions the team has left after the free agency, but not to be 100% tied down to that philosophy as per the example I gave earlier.

What a team does prior to the draft in free agency can't be separated from what their strategy will be for the draft. I think that no team would bypass all potential starting safeties in the free agency if they saw that there were no viable alternatives to be had to that position in the draft - and therefore, it would be ludicrous to think that they'd go to the draft with the sole intention of just spending their highest pick to get the best available player to that spot. They might use that pick to draft a player, who they know a team with a surplus of starter caliber safeties wants, and try to make a trade after the draft. But again, that probably isn't the strategy most if any team would go with prior to trying to fill that position in the free agency.

This doesn't affect the overall philosophy of having a priority in drafting BPA in a need position, because you can't be totally set in the way you want to carry out the draft, especially now under the new CBA which has caused there to be so many more opportunities to make trades during the draft.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno