Draft Strategy

One good reason that the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl is that a few years ago Dennis Green chose an interesting strategy for the draft. He and his staff make a list of the top 140 players in the draft and placed them in descending order. Any time a player was drafted they drew a line through him and moved on. When it was their turn, they took the player at the top of the list. No matter what strategy you espouse, this one worked out well for Arizona.

It begs a very tough, very personal question - who are those 140 players and in what order? Since that's too much, I'd like to start with the top 32 and ask the faithful who they would rank, and  where. I'd leave out the two positions where we don't have need - starting QB and starting O tackles - if this was an actual draft. Everything else I'd leave on the table, er, list.

I chose ESPN's, not for any love of the site but because it was the first site that I could get a decent cut and past on their list. I disagree with some of the players and many of the rankings, dropping Clint Sintim and adding Larry English, but it's a starting point.

Two questions - would you accept such a strategy, given that it worked so well for Arizona, and what players and order do you believe in? Here is a starting point:

I left the tackles and QBs on the list for argument's sake, Given the vast discussions of whether it is reasonable to take a running back at 12, this approach would solve that, since you are ranking players long before the draft. Would you use this approach (and if not, which approach do you recommend?), and what players would you rank?

Originally posted at MHR