Originally Posted by metalskins
You don't necessarily use the draft to address a need. By that, I'm saying, you don't reach for a guy and draft him higher, even though he would fill an area of need, you'd draft the best player available at the spot or the best player on your draft board at that time. Sometimes, the position you have a need for has a player, who's the best pick at that spot, and you draft him. Sometimes, it doesn't happen that way.
For example, there is a position you really need filled - let's say it's CB. You're picking 54th. There is a CB that is available and he's rated to go, no worse than 54th. Let's say there's an ILB, who's rated to go 34th, but for some reason or another, he fell in the draft and is available. Well, let's say you don't have a need at ILB, and your draft board says you draft that corner at 54th. This would be the case in which you draft for need. You're not reaching for the guy, he was rated to be drafted at, or earlier, than your pick and is available.
But on the flipside, say that CB was rated to go 72nd in the draft, you're picking 54th. You're not reaching for that corner, even though that would fill and area of need. You're either trading down the draft and picking up more picks and possibly trading down far enough to still draft the CB, or you're drafting best player available, which could be that ILB that was rated to go 34th. Do you understand how it works?
It appears that the front office ignores some areas of need, but you also have to understand that you can't go out and fill every single area of need in one or two drafts. Even then, sometimes free agency fills that need, or sometimes you find diamonds in the rough free agents out of college that go undrafted. Remember, this is where Bobby Beathard buttered his bread (wanted that to be a tongue twister lol!) It wasn't that he was going out and filling those teams with first round and second round picks. He was, often, filling those championship squads with diamonds in the rough guys; guys traded from other teams, undrafted guys, guys from the USFL, etc...
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