This past weekend, the National Football had its annual draft, where each team selects players coming out of college. This event occurred in Detroit, Michigan, home to the Detroit Lions. It spanned from Thursday, April 25 to April 27, with a total of 224 picks being selected.
Some teams were successful with their drafts while others were not, but this usually occurs during most drafts. Some factors that contribute to how a team is considered to be successful during the draft process such as, having an excellent place to be pick based on how the team finished the previous season, such as the Washington Commanders and the Chicago Bears, to name a few who, even though struggled in the season prior still wound up with great draft picks and made good decisions for who they drafted. Other factors that also lead to a successful draft for most teams include team fit and need. Depth and balance for a team, how valuable a player was and what the particular draft strategy was for a specific team, such as a team going with an option of drafting mostly offensive players compared to a team that only drafted defensive players or a combination of both, which would lead to different ways of how a team will be successful in the long run and always will stem back to the decisions that were made on draft night. One crucial factor to look at when debating whether or not a team had a successful draft is trades that happen during the draft to acquire certain players or trades that occur days leading up to the draft can cause major impact for how team drafts successfully.
One prime example of how a team was successful in a draft because of a trade that they made occurred during the 2017 National Football League draft when the Kansas City Chiefs had traded picks with the Buffalo Bills to ultimately draft their franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes II who would go onto being the best quarterback the Chiefs have ever had by leading the Chiefs to six consecutive American Football Conference Championship games and four Super Bowl appearances. The Chiefs are basking in the success of that pick they made back in 2017.
Overall, many factors come into play when a team is king. Their decisions to draft certain players to help make their teams better in the long run.
Now, looking back at this past year’s draft for each of the 32 teams in the National Football League, it is time to decide which teams were successful with their draft picks and which teams well… struggled with theirs.
First, one of the teams that was successful during the draft was the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks had two great days of drafting, with day one and day two. Unlike day three, which was lower than the other two, which would be completely normal, since by that time teams are drafting players that will get cut later on in training camp. But in hindsight, the Seahawks had a good draft by drafting Defensive Tackle Byron Murphy from Texas in the first round, which would help Seattle’s defense tremendously. Other notable picks that the Seahawks used to help benefit their team were in the third round by drafting Christian Haynes from Connecticut. The only thing I would say about their draft picks are that the third day wasn’t as great as the other two since they had done a lot on both sides of the ball, which could help them this upcoming season and possibly be a contender in the National Football Conference West division since they have to compete with the current reigning National Football Conference champions the San Francisco 49ers.
Overall, the Seahawks did a successful job of improving their team on both sides of the ball, especially coming off of a previous season where they had finished the season 9-8 and maybe could have a chance of competing for not only a playoff spot but also winning their division possibly, but only time will tell if that will happen or not. Moving on to the team that struggled the most during the draft due to some questionable decision-making, such as the team’s front office deciding it would be a genius idea to draft a quarterback when, in fact, they had just signed a veteran quarterback to a four-year 180 million dollar contract, yes I’m talking about you Atlanta. This was one of the biggest mistakes that Atlanta could have made since they had just signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year contract worth 180 million dollars. When then Atlanta thinking with a first-round pick, it would be a bold move to get a 24-year old quarterback who, if had gone to any other team, would be a day-one starter but now will be most likely will be the backup quarterback and will not see any playing time until he is most likely 28 years old. Nice move, Atlanta not. It still is a giant head-scratcher why they decided on it. Still, no one will ever honestly know what they were thinking, which is why they are the team that struggled in the draft, but that’s not only from not thinking clearly on the first day of the draft. Sure, they had improved on both sides of the ball on all three days, but their best day was the last day of the draft. Even though they had made some improvements to help them after coming off of going 7-10, it still will most likely not help them in their favor to compete for a playoff spot in a conference that is heavily stacked with teams such as the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles just name a few but the Falcons will still need to rebuild in other to become a playoff caliber team. All in all, some teams made good decisions during this past year’s draft, while others made questionable ones. Still, we will have to see how these picks shake out on the field to see if they were a true success or a total fluke. But that’s all we have to discuss this topic. If you enjoyed hearing what I had to say about the successes and struggles of the draft, stick around for more as we take a deeper dive into the world of football. See you next week, football fans.
Little Miss Football 