what do you consider a high bust rate? chances of high round draft picks, like 1st and 2nd round failing in NFL is not that high. you get potentially a high caliber player for a low cost, which helps the cap. With that said, there is a high bust rate of FAs, as often really good ones are paid and kept by their teams, its rare that good players make it to FA and most often they are past their prime or have had injury history or aren't that good any more and often they want a lot of money and return on investment is low. I think if anything draft picks have higher value today than in the past. also, it would be interesting to see which franchises do well in draft. Cleveland has been notoriously bad, and teams like Pittsburgh, philly, NE and even dallas have been good in drafting and hitting on the 1st and 2nd rounders.