Great news conference. Nothing specific but pretty fascinating info about how they do the draft. If a podcast pops up, worth listening to, hope I got the following right from memory:
- Stephen says he's looking forward to using ALL 11 picks, and they plan to. They don't have strategy to trade up, down or away. He would rather pick a guy than have to bargain for the guy as a UDFA after the draft. Basically said he/they are tired of offering million-dollar tenders to down-roster veterans and would rather that money go towards a higher-priced and higher valued free agent. Basically said younger and cheaper is way to go despite having to eat bonuses this year if they don't make the team, that's not a factor to them (.. could this be pre-draft posturing to tell other teams they're going to have to lay out a good deal to pry away any of the Boys picks?) This basically revisits the same argument/thread on this board in the last day or so, Stephen sides with AdamJT13, make the picks and cut the marginal veteran if you have to.
- They want "now" players, sounds like they are tired of projects and position conversions ...
- Position coaches, scouts, pro personnel guys I think too, all get to grade each particular player, with each person getting an equal vote which round-value he is. No "pet cats" in this system. Somehow the scout who has seen the player the most since last season (at combine etc.) gets an extra vote on the player or his vote gets extra weight, I think I heard. Then they add up all the votes and average. Then the top people like Ciskowski, Jerry, etc. take these grades and sit and talk and put together the board, mostly just breaking ties from all the votes ... but also, factoring in on the board: guys with extra-good motor get a "star" or something on their nametag, guys with injuries get a yellow or red stripe on their nametag, and a few other markings I forget depending on other factors ... I hope there is a podcast of this because Jerry said a LOT here about all the mechanics of how they draft and I've forgotten lots of it ...
- Said something that when they are at 51, there are likely to be something like 7 guys that they had as first round grades still available at that pick, if things go like in the past.
- They'll trade picks based on pick value (on general principle/the "value board" that is), not on who is available here or there or who they think will be on the board in any given round.
- They've done studies on whether trading down in such-and-such a round into such and such another round gives you mo better players, factoring in salaries paid, overall eventual value to team of multiple players vs. one higher-graded pick, etc. ... and other studies like this that Jerry halfway explained that I've forgotten ...
- You don't want to trade your current players around draft day, your current players are at lowest value then and picks at highest value then.
- They base pick-grades against how the player would eventually fare in the NFL, not just how he would fare with the Cowboys ...
