Would it make sense for NFL teams to draft on one side of the ball? (1 Viewer)

[gianmarco]

Would there be any benefit or downside to a team focusing solely on one side of the ball during the draft? Either drafting all offensive players or drafting all defensive players. Allows you to eliminate having to study a large number of players and spend even more time on guys you want. It also allows you to get several players for one side of the ball and develop them together. And, a couple players could miss but you could still improve either the offense or defense.

 

[Sammy Traveller]

how would the draft order be determined?

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

Would there be any benefit or downside to a team focusing solely on one side of the ball during the draft? Either drafting all offensive players or drafting all defensive players. Allows you to eliminate having to study a large number of players and spend even more time on guys you want. It also allows you to get several players for one side of the ball and develop them together. And, a couple players could miss but you could still improve either the offense or defense.

You could say the same about drafting only Pac 10 players.In either case, you're artificially limiting your options. I think the answer is no, it doesn't make sense.

 

[gianmarco]

how would the draft order be determined?

I don't mean for every team. I mean a team making the decision to focus solely on offense or solely on defense.

 

[gianmarco]

Would there be any benefit or downside to a team focusing solely on one side of the ball during the draft? Either drafting all offensive players or drafting all defensive players. Allows you to eliminate having to study a large number of players and spend even more time on guys you want. It also allows you to get several players for one side of the ball and develop them together. And, a couple players could miss but you could still improve either the offense or defense.

You could say the same about drafting only Pac 10 players.In either case, you're artificially limiting your options. I think the answer is no, it doesn't make sense.

No it's not the same thing. There would be no purpose to just draft Pac-10 players. There would be a purpose to drafting all offense or all defense. It would be to concentrate and focus on that aspect of the team to build it all at once instead of with just a couple pieces on each side. I agree you're artificially limiting your options but, I wonder, if it would allow you to do a better job and actually improve your team overall much better.For example, let's look at a draft in 2 years. Let's assume 7 picks.

Year 1 -- Draft 4 offensive players and 3 defensive players

Year 2 -- Draft 4 defensive players and 4 offensive players

It's balanced, but at the end of 2 years you have the same product. What if instead you did:

Year 1 -- Draft 7 offensive players

Year 2 -- Draft 7 defensive players

Same number of players over the 2 year, but you've allowed all 7 guys to work and learn together and improve the defense "faster" and giving them a chance to improve exponentially instead of "bit by bit".

It's just a matter of if you're truly giving up something by passing a potentially better player as a result and/or setting the side of the ball you didn't draft for backward.

 

[Mister CIA]

Would there be any benefit or downside to a team focusing solely on one side of the ball during the draft? Either drafting all offensive players or drafting all defensive players. Allows you to eliminate having to study a large number of players and spend even more time on guys you want. It also allows you to get several players for one side of the ball and develop them together. And, a couple players could miss but you could still improve either the offense or defense.

Was wondering the same thing earlier today, but more from the aspect that there's benefit from 5-7 players developing as a unit. Wasn't this the Bears modus operandi a few years ago? I assume special teams would take care of themselves under such an approach.ETA: I see you noted the same benefit I did - developing players as a unit. I concur. Not a big deal when it comes to simplifying scouting efforts.