Interesting comment by Rick Mueller (1 Viewer)

bergeaux

Building my own team!
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I was listening to a WWL interview with Rick Meuller and he made in interesting comment. that makes me believe that building through the draft is better even more. He said that it's easier to find out the background details, work habits, team synergy of a player coming out of college because once they are in the league, it's all hush hush on those details. Unless you have a player on your team that played with them, or a coach in your staff that was on a team with them in the NFL, you rarely get good information besides game tape. He said that many times they bring in free agents to see if they feel comfortable with guys and when they come, they are not sold on him or they confirm a concern they had about him.

In college, you have the ability to talk to coaches and get more background on people. I never thought about that, but it makes sense. On top of that, you have a lot more time to do research on players. If you were to try to do that research too far before the FA period, it would be tampering, where in college you can have scouts working on figuring out players for years. Much less, you can spend 2 or 3 months researching certain players you might be targeting, bring them in for interviews and see them in multiple work outs and FA is a day or two evaluation.

Not even talking about all the other things most mention (lower cost, younger with more time to develop), those things alone make me want to collect more draft picks instead of pick up players in FA or a trade.

http://www.4shared.com/account/file/39486876/6c56f404/Rick_Meuller_3-1-08.html
 
It's a crap shoot either way. If your in the NFL and a team is trading you or releasing you there are probably some concerns. However most college guys just don't have "it". Yea in college they were great, they were the all time leading receiver @ Bloomsburg State, but you can measure NFL talent from a college level. I'm sure all the 90% of college coaches speak highly of their players, and while they have a more open stage to voice concerns you know overall the coaches want to help the kids succeed.

You can look at success stories either way, the Dallas dynasty bought a Super Bowl, the Patriots last year nearly went perfect due to great free agency....then you have teams like the Colts who have always built through the draft....it can work both ways.
 
FA is just as much if not more of a crapshoot then the first 3 rounds of the draft. Everything entails major risk. At least with the draft you don't go into cap hell, and you get guys that are young and ready to learn.
 
Building through the draft is the best way to build a team. Look at who we just signed, McCray (7th round) and Gay (UDFA) and look at what they got paid. Look at Asante Samuel (4th round). The Pats got a lot out of a 4th rounder. Michael Boley, ATL OLB, 5th round. What do you think we would pay for him now? Adalius Thomas, 6th round? We have to be smart and draft well on a consistent basis to be an elite team, just like the Colts, Patriots, and last year, the Giants. If we can draft better, we can use our money to resign our own players and we won't have to break the bank on other teams draft success (free agents).
 
It is a crapshoot either way, but it building through the draft is still the smarter way....you can sign a free agent or two for immediate impact, but with the draft every year you get 7-8 21-23 year olds who you can groom and help build a foundation to your ball club and the free agent pickup can help catipult you...but without that foundation, your just spending money on 27-30yr olds, who by this time are looking for there big payday and who's main objective is not to get YOUR team better but to get that gwop (money) because its that 2nd contract every player looks forward to....they may not be coming to your team for the right reason(s).
 
Its simple.... go to the local strip club ..... flash a bank roll and ask the ladies which players are gentlemen... and which are not..
 
Free Agency is punishment for poor drafting. Teams that go and spend the big bucks very rarely win it all. Washington as an example, Not to mention Nate Odoms in S.F. that did not improve their team to justify such an expense of one player. In fact they gave up more passing yards in 2007 than they did in 2006 before Nate left Buffalo. Not to mention when that player does get paid like that there is less money for other guys who could make an impact. The draft is soooo important. In the last 5 years 17 of the Saints 35 picks are still on the team that's 42.5%. Now lets look at the SP era. Out of 14 draft picks 12 are still with the team. that's 85.71% And one could argue that he drafted them and they have rookie contracts but out of those 12 50% are starters. I'm not counting R.Meachem,A.Young,A.Alleman, J.Bushrod, D.Jones, or M.Mitchell as starters. There are a few on that list that could step up and start, but at the least could be very usefull in depth. In the last 5 years 80% of our first round picks are still on the team, 80% of our 2nd round picks, 50% of our 3rd round picks, 40% of our fourth round picks, 30% of our 5th round picks, 0% of our 6th round picks, and 50% of our 7th round picks. This goes to show we could trade our 6th round pick for anyone due to the fact we never keep anyone from the sixth round. J/K

I want to build this team through the draft it will make us better for years to come. I do believe that we are very good at evaluating the draftee's. This team will be good for quite a while, and the people we signed will make us better. But then again we just have to see how good we will be. But I tell you this we would not have been better by overpaying for some CB because he can't make an impact if the rest of the defense is crappy and then we can't get better because he has all the money.
 
I think it is well proven by looking at the elite teams on the league that Superbowls are won by those who draft well. Look at the Giants last year, the only major contributor on that team that was a free agent (off the top of my head) was Plaxico Burress, everybody else I think was drafted.
 
Free Agency is punishment for poor drafting. Teams that go and spend the big bucks very rarely win it all. Washington as an example, Not to mention Nate Odoms in S.F. that did not improve their team to justify such an expense of one player. In fact they gave up more passing yards in 2007 than they did in 2006 before Nate left Buffalo. Not to mention when that player does get paid like that there is less money for other guys who could make an impact. The draft is soooo important. In the last 5 years 17 of the Saints 35 picks are still on the team that's 42.5%. Now lets look at the SP era. Out of 14 draft picks 12 are still with the team. that's 85.71% And one could argue that he drafted them and they have rookie contracts but out of those 12 50% are starters. I'm not counting R.Meachem,A.Young,A.Alleman, J.Bushrod, D.Jones, or M.Mitchell as starters. There are a few on that list that could step up and start, but at the least could be very usefull in depth. In the last 5 years 80% of our first round picks are still on the team, 80% of our 2nd round picks, 50% of our 3rd round picks, 40% of our fourth round picks, 30% of our 5th round picks, 0% of our 6th round picks, and 50% of our 7th round picks. This goes to show we could trade our 6th round pick for anyone due to the fact we never keep anyone from the sixth round. J/K

I want to build this team through the draft it will make us better for years to come. I do believe that we are very good at evaluating the draftee's. This team will be good for quite a while, and the people we signed will make us better. But then again we just have to see how good we will be. But I tell you this we would not have been better by overpaying for some CB because he can't make an impact if the rest of the defense is crappy and then we can't get better because he has all the money.

"Free Agency is punishment for poor drafting." So true. I will have to remember that.
 
Need Both Systems

I'll just puke this up....

Free Agency can help your team fill known holes in your teams... now. The Draft is in place to fill suspected holes in your teams... in the future.

I think it is more rare that a college level athlete can step in and complete at the NFL level with that same effectiveness. And yea, NFL teams are letting players walk for a reason and rarely are they forthcoming the real reason for the dismissal.

So there ya go; both systems have flaws, both are crap shoots, but both are absolutely necessary for the betterment of our team. These are the rambling of a Mad Scientist... w/o the science part.
 
I am a firm believer that you sign players for need in free agency but you draft the best player available. Teams reach for draft picks based on need and end up picking someone that doesn't deserve to be drafted where they are. This is why I am glad we got Randall Gay, Vilma, McCrary, and we re-signed Brian Young. This way we can draft the best player available on defense whether that be Rivers, Cromartie, Dorsey, Ellis...whoever because we put ourselves in a good position by at least plugging gaps in free agency while still not breaking the bank.
 
This team has an absolutely abysmal record when it comes to drafting defensive players since Rick Mueller has been in charge of scouting. History shows that unless a defensive player is drafted in the first 2 rounds, the probability that they will contribute in any meaningful way to the team is pretty much zero. This is why the vast majority of this team's defensive squad are free agent signings.
 
This team has an absolutely abysmal record when it comes to drafting defensive players since Rick Mueller has been in charge of scouting. History shows that unless a defensive player is drafted in the first 2 rounds, the probability that they will contribute in any meaningful way to the team is pretty much zero. This is why the vast majority of this team's defensive squad are free agent signings.

Usama Young was a 3rd......1 in 6 years isn't too bad:hihi:
 

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