Austin
Rookie
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2016
- Messages
- 208
- Name
- Douglas
It's always tantalizing to think about moving up in the draft, right? Nothing is more exciting than a 1st rounder.
However...
This team is at a point on both sides of the ball where what we need more than a great draft is a productive Free Agency period and a comprehensively tough and meticulous offseason. With some veterans to help lead the way in a new system, the talent on our roster should be able to make the pivot, both defensively and offensively, to learning and excelling in proven and coherent systems. Players have to show more than a desire to "play better next year," they have to get better.
1st rounders are great. But the Jared Goff trade doesn't bother me because this team will have to stop making wagers and wishes (I'll always think of Fisher as someone who hoped the players would play well), and start instead building success and forging a successful process. Part of what that means is shifting the focus away from rookie-potential, and more towards developing the potential of what's here. Rely less on the joy and prospect of digging up clay, and look instead to producing quality with the mounds of clay we've already got, and locating and acquiring players who are already molded that way.
The draft is a great shot in the arm, a transfusion of youth and hope and depth. But missing out on having an early pick is never going to make or break a team, or even an off-season. It's what's done by way of scheme-setting and scheme-evolution, nurturing and developing the roster talent, and finding formula- and character-fits for players on or coming to the team that will ultimately decide how good your March-August has been. That's my belief anyway.
So, anyway, no. Unless the target is specific and the cost low enough to justify it (I realize how vague that is, but the point is that no situation is black and white), don't give up assets, draft where you sit in the second round. Draft is always fluid. There are guys worth coveting. But don't move up for the sake of picking higher. Move up to pick the right guy.
However...
This team is at a point on both sides of the ball where what we need more than a great draft is a productive Free Agency period and a comprehensively tough and meticulous offseason. With some veterans to help lead the way in a new system, the talent on our roster should be able to make the pivot, both defensively and offensively, to learning and excelling in proven and coherent systems. Players have to show more than a desire to "play better next year," they have to get better.
1st rounders are great. But the Jared Goff trade doesn't bother me because this team will have to stop making wagers and wishes (I'll always think of Fisher as someone who hoped the players would play well), and start instead building success and forging a successful process. Part of what that means is shifting the focus away from rookie-potential, and more towards developing the potential of what's here. Rely less on the joy and prospect of digging up clay, and look instead to producing quality with the mounds of clay we've already got, and locating and acquiring players who are already molded that way.
The draft is a great shot in the arm, a transfusion of youth and hope and depth. But missing out on having an early pick is never going to make or break a team, or even an off-season. It's what's done by way of scheme-setting and scheme-evolution, nurturing and developing the roster talent, and finding formula- and character-fits for players on or coming to the team that will ultimately decide how good your March-August has been. That's my belief anyway.
So, anyway, no. Unless the target is specific and the cost low enough to justify it (I realize how vague that is, but the point is that no situation is black and white), don't give up assets, draft where you sit in the second round. Draft is always fluid. There are guys worth coveting. But don't move up for the sake of picking higher. Move up to pick the right guy.
