No More “Best Player Available” in NFL Draft
Peter King's article on the NFL Draft this week was a great read about spending time in the Raiders draft room during the draft, and he brought up an interesting point about how NFL teams are no longer using the strategy of "taking the best available player," which was a phase commonly thrown around in discussions within draft war rooms and post-draft press conferences.
I've always felt this is a flawed philosophy to begin with. There are times when it makes sense to add a widely talented player to your team and figure out how to make it work, but my belief is that the draft is about team building, not collecting players. The best teams understand this and use their draft picks to create a more complete team, not simply adding players to the mix just because they were productive in college or are talented prospects.
The purpose of the draft is to fill the holes on your team, which is highlighted by the discussion in the Dallas Cowboys' war room prior to making their first round selection . In the clip, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones asks VP of player personnel Will McClay which player he prefers to draft. McClay states that while an offensive linemen would add to a position they already have depth at, the defensive player will start right away and fill a vital team need.
We won't know if any of the players taken last weekend will develop into legitimate pro players for another two or three years, but by knowing their team identity is in alignment with their drafting strategies to build a team (and not just collecting talent), franchises can create small competitive advatages over the rest of the league that will show up down the line.
