Draft Style And Charlie Ward

How do teams draft ?

That is a popular question about the NFL draft.

The main question is do teams draft based on team needs or the best available athlete when their turn comes ?

Ever since I followed American Football, the NFL draft has been one of the most intriguing events where there is not an exact science.

My answer to the question has always been this :

Before a draft, the team has to evaluate their needs and base their draft strategy accordingly. Always have plan B, if the player that you covet. Teams with excellent draft usually do this, but teams that don't do well, their NFL results demonstrate the aftermath.

One particular example, was the 1997 Draft. It was widely known that the Raiders needed an OT were angling for Orlando Pace, OT from Ohio State. When the Rams maneuvered ahead to pick Pace, they took USC DE Darrell Russell and insisted that he was their choice all along. Pace is now a premier left tackle in the game, while Russell bombed out due to off the field issues, after a good start to his career, and is now deceased. If only the Raiders did their evaluation thoroughly and saw that there was another excellent OT available which was Walter Jones, who is also now a premier player in the position.

Charlie Ward

I want to give my props to Charlie Ward, the best QB and Heisman Trophy winner never to play in the NFL. I believe that he had been playing, he would have been a good player, as he was comparable to Michael Vick in terms of the dual threat option.

He was setting the scene alight in college sports, as the starting QB for the Seminoles football and starting point guard for the Seminoles basketball team. However, upon graduation, it was made clear that NFL teams were not considering him as quarterback, despite his obvious success there at the college level, as written here. So, he decided to play in the NBA and went on to have an okay career with the Knicks and the Rockets. A classic case of what might have been.

Last year, he was inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame Class of 2006, for his achievements.