News: ESPN: NFL draft: Which teams have gotten the best value since 2012?

[Reality]

 

[Reality]

Career Approximate Value Over Expected (CAVOE) of draft picks, 2012-2021: 125.2

Record from 2012-2021: 90-71, eighth (tie)

Best class from 2012-2021 drafts: 2016. When you get your franchise quarterback in the fourth round, like the Cowboys did with Dak Prescott, then there's no competition. But the Cowboys also landed Ezekiel Elliott, Jaylon Smith, Maliek Collins and Anthony Brown in the draft. The Cowboys believe a healthy Elliott, the fourth overall pick, will rebound in 2022. Smith's recovery from a knee injury was amazing and he signed a lucrative extension in 2019 but was cut last season. Collins is still a starter in the NFL. Brown has been one of the better sixth-round picks the Cowboys have had over the last two decades. It is possible the 2020 draft class, led by CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs, Neville Gallimore and Tyler Biadasz, could surpass this class but they need more time to produce at high levels. -- Todd Archer

 

[jazzcat22]

Oh boy...

Get prepared.

Still need to fix the OL for Dak and Zeke for success, or to help the team overall.

 

[thunderpimp91]

Interesting to see how there are good and bad teams sprinkled all throughout the list, even two of the bottom four teams were in the playoffs last year. More than one way to skin a cat I guess.

 

[Robbieac]

The Cowboys believe a healthy Elliott, the fourth overall pick, will rebound in 2022.

Yeah......right....... Elliott will "rebound" even though he has been getting worse every year for the past 6 years.


But keep drinking that Kool-aid. I here that Booger flavors it himself!

 

[john van brocklin]

Career Approximate Value Over Expected (CAVOE) of draft picks, 2012-2021: 125.2

Record from 2012-2021: 90-71, eighth (tie)

Best class from 2012-2021 drafts: 2016. When you get your franchise quarterback in the fourth round, like the Cowboys did with Dak Prescott, then there's no competition. But the Cowboys also landed Ezekiel Elliott, Jaylon Smith, Maliek Collins and Anthony Brown in the draft. The Cowboys believe a healthy Elliott, the fourth overall pick, will rebound in 2022. Smith's recovery from a knee injury was amazing and he signed a lucrative extension in 2019 but was cut last season. Collins is still a starter in the NFL. Brown has been one of the better sixth-round picks the Cowboys have had over the last two decades. It is possible the 2020 draft class, led by CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs, Neville Gallimore and Tyler Biadasz, could surpass this class but they need more time to produce at high levels. -- Todd Archer

We do draft well, no question.
Could you imagine if we did Free Agency well ???

 

[Bullflop]

The Cowboys get the most bang for the bucks! If you have doubts, just ask Stephen -- he'll tell you in no uncertain terms!

 

[john van brocklin]

The Cowboys get the most bang for the bucks! If you have doubts, just ask Stephen -- he'll tell you in no uncertain terms!

We should start up a : ********** account , for the next wave of Cowboy's free agency.

 

[Creeper]

I don't think there s any doubt the Cowboys have done an excellent job of drafting recently, and I suppose that is because Jerry has let go of the reigns to some degree. But then with all this excellent drafting, what do the Cowboys have to show for it? Not enough which kind of proves that building through the draft alone is not enough.

 

[BourbonBalz]

I don't think there s any doubt the Cowboys have done an excellent job of drafting recently, and I suppose that is because Jerry has let go of the reigns to some degree. But then with all this excellent drafting, what do the Cowboys have to show for it? Not enough which kind of proves that building through the draft alone is not enough.

Coaching. That and the entitlement environment are the problems. End of story.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

Eagles 6th…

Too bad we stopped at 2012. In 2011 we drafted a hall of fame center, and in 2010 we draft the only player still on any of the NFCE teams.

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

Paper champs.

 

[kskboys]

Interesting to see how there are good and bad teams sprinkled all throughout the list, even two of the bottom four teams were in the playoffs last year. More than one way to skin a cat I guess.

A lot of it comes down to how you grade the draft. If you have gaping holes that you could've filled in the draft and didn't, your drafting prowess should be downgraded. Most places that attempt to grade the draft don't take anywhere near enough factors into consideration.

 

[kskboys]

I don't think there s any doubt the Cowboys have done an excellent job of drafting recently, and I suppose that is because Jerry has let go of the reigns to some degree. But then with all this excellent drafting, what do the Cowboys have to show for it? Not enough which kind of proves that building through the draft alone is not enough.

Jaylon and Taco and Joseph sayin' hi.

 

[CowboyRoy]

We do draft well, no question.
Could you imagine if we did Free Agency well ???

The Cowboys have been without a doubt the worst team in FA by far. In not only improving their team through FA, but also in resigning and overpaying the wrong guys.

 

[Miller]

This is even more disturbing because while we have drafted value talent we have stuck them with coaching staffs and FAs that don’t help elevate the team to a championship caliber group. We also have mixed drafting great with drafting horribly in rounds like 2. Imagine 10 years of a real coach and not one in training.

 

[conner01]

Interesting to see how there are good and bad teams sprinkled all throughout the list, even two of the bottom four teams were in the playoffs last year. More than one way to skin a cat I guess.

Good teams shouldn’t be drafting as well as bad teams. Think about the value of a top 10 pick over a bottom 10 pick. A team picking in bottom 10 and still having good drafts is a much bigger win than a team picking in the top 10 having good drafts
That said we have been in the middle a lot and had good drafts. We’ve done better at some positions than others but some of that is because it’s easier to get good players at some positions in the middle of rounds than others

 

[thunderpimp91]

Good teams shouldn’t be drafting as well as bad teams. Think about the value of a top 10 pick over a bottom 10 pick. A team picking in bottom 10 and still having good drafts is a much bigger win than a team picking in the top 10 having good drafts
That said we have been in the middle a lot and had good drafts. We’ve done better at some positions than others but some of that is because it’s easier to get good players at some positions in the middle of rounds than others

You're overall argument of top picks having more value than lower picks is sound, but I have to disagree partially with your post.

Quarterbacks have the biggest bust rate of any position, however most years they are the top picks, pushing value down the board. The Cowboys last two franchise QBs were 4th round and UDFA. Just because a pick has more trade value doesn't always mean its going to better pick.

Since 2009 the top picks have been
Matt Stafford, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Luke Fisher, Clowney, Winston, Goff, Garrett, Mayfield, Murray, Burrow, Lawrence....very mixed bag for #1 overall.

The #4 overall picks have been (Since 2013 for the sake of time)
Sammy Watkins, Amari Cooper, Zeke, Leonard Fournette, Denzel Ward, Collin Ferrell, Andrew Thomas, Kyle Pitts

#16
Zach Martin, Kevin Johnson, Taylor Decker, Marlon Humphrey, Tremaine Edmunds, Brian Burns, AJ Terrell, Zaven Collins

#30
Jimmie Ward, Damarious Randall, Vernon Butler, TJ Watt, Mike Hughes, Deandre Baker, Noah Igbinoghene, Greg Rousseau

This is limited data, but it's telling me that you probably want to stay away from the very back end of the first round, but if you are in the middle of the order you would be crazy to trade up unless you had one specific need. Very good argument that those #16 picks are better than the #4 picks overall. If we fill in the rest of the data between 4 and 16 maybe i'm proven way wrong, but I dont think the debate is that serious to list out a decade of draft classes lol.

 

[conner01]

You're overall argument of top picks having more value than lower picks is sound, but I have to disagree partially with your post.

Quarterbacks have the biggest bust rate of any position, however most years they are the top picks, pushing value down the board. The Cowboys last two franchise QBs were 4th round and UDFA. Just because a pick has more trade value doesn't always mean its going to better pick.

Since 2009 the top picks have been
Matt Stafford, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Luke Fisher, Clowney, Winston, Goff, Garrett, Mayfield, Murray, Burrow, Lawrence....very mixed bag for #1 overall.

The #4 overall picks have been (Since 2013 for the sake of time)
Sammy Watkins, Amari Cooper, Zeke, Leonard Fournette, Denzel Ward, Collin Ferrell, Andrew Thomas, Kyle Pitts

#16
Zach Martin, Kevin Johnson, Taylor Decker, Marlon Humphrey, Tremaine Edmunds, Brian Burns, AJ Terrell, Zaven Collins

#30
Jimmie Ward, Damarious Randall, Vernon Butler, TJ Watt, Mike Hughes, Deandre Baker, Noah Igbinoghene, Greg Rousseau

This is limited data, but it's telling me that you probably want to stay away from the very back end of the first round, but if you are in the middle of the order you would be crazy to trade up unless you had one specific need. Very good argument that those #16 picks are better than the #4 picks overall. If we fill in the rest of the data between 4 and 16 maybe i'm proven way wrong, but I dont think the debate is that serious to list out a decade of draft classes lol.

You are right on QB for sure and edge can be tricky
Mostly though it’s because those are desperation picks. QB’s are always over drafted because the need is so great. It’s not as bad financially as it once was but it’s really dumb to pick a QB high that’s not based on talent. But teams do it every year and they will this year too. But overall the most talented players go higher, and the odds of a good starting player go down round after round. There are a few exceptions, LB tend to be one of the biggest. You can find good starter quality LB into the 4th round many times but you don’t find many edge rushers that late
Some say we do better at oline but every team does. It’s one of the easier positions to judge talent
QB is probably the hardest but one reason is there are more QB’s taken each year than there are QB’s who can play in the nfl. Recent years have been better with some really good QB’s coming out still most of the QB’s drafted are over drafted and don’t ever make it. But there will never be 32 quality QB in the nfl
And todays game the QB is much more important than in the previous decades