Cerrato Vaguely Explains Draft Strategy (with Questionable Evidence)

[bedlamVR]

I think GTripp said it better than me ... it is a combination of need and BPA .

If you draft soley on need then you run the real risk of reaching for players of not good value .

If you go solely off BPA then you have chance of being Matt Millen .

The trick comes how you grade the players . The grade should be based on the kinds of players and ages you have on your roster and the grades players have coming out of the draft .

If you have a pro bowl starter then the grade for any player has to start low... if you have an aging average injury plagued starter then the grade at that position should start higher .

Then you have to go about grading players from the draft and how each team does that is different . Remember Parcells for example graded Cooley as a 6/7th round pick but picked Frasno in the second round ..

Usiong this year as an example the highest rated players based on the roster probably included WR,DT, OG and LB .

Had Mayo or Branden Albert fallen in the fist to 21 or within reach I am pretty confident they would have been the guy, we had shown interest in both . I think it is interesting that of all the player Vinny singled out we Calais Campbell and Philip Merling which makes me think we were at least looking at them . The FO spent time with Merling when the scouted Kelly . It is possible that the Skins were looking at Campbell at 50 .

Another problem with the draft you can target a player think he would go around a specific part of the draft and then see him picked one place ahead of you whcih meens your assesment was right but is fustrating .

OL and DL are notoriously hard to draft because thier value varies from team to team depending on what they are asked to do and the system they ran in collage . Look around the league and you see a smattering of high round picks that turn to nothing ( Jacob Rodgers - taken in the 2nd round with Parcells out of the league in 2 years) and undrafted FAs who start for years (Saturday of the Colts for example) .

I don't think we were looking specifically for a RT, i think they thought they had a guy in Heyer who could come in and be solid ... he is a one dimesnional player however and his run blocking does not compare to his pass blocking skills . any OL prospects they were looking at were primarily guards with both Thomas and Kendell reaching the end of the line.

I also don't think draft picks would have helped the line right now . I think the problem lies in overcomplicated blocking schemes and injuries to key players on the line (Samuels) . If you loose a top 5 LT the rest of the line is going to look an awful lot worse no matter who comes in to replace him .

To answer your question though if a stud athletic WR is availble when we pick he must at least be considered . To dismiss the player out of hand is irresponsible, but you have to look at who is on the roster and if you think Thomas and Kelly are the guys for the future ..