It has shown that Value has always outshown need. The need has never sent us to the superbowl, the Value players are all going to eventually. Imagine if we had not taken Adrian Peterson how different we would be. This year we have to take the most valuable player with maybe some minor need off the board before he goes and becomes a big guy for another franchise. Imagine AP in a different colored Jersey. The thought is sickening!

draft for value and then address the needs through free agency. This is the number one reason the draft should be before the free agency season.

Never reach for a perceived need in the 1st round. Choose the BPA. Use need only as a tiebreaker. And if your scouting dept. is any good, there are no ties of talent evaluation in the 1st round.

Iowa_cyclone is correct: address needs in free agency. Sage advice. (Did I really say that?)

No question about it. The only reason AD fell to 7 were questions surrounding his durability after that broken collarbone. Thank god we didn’t fall for that stiff Brady Quinn who I still don’t think will ever be a top drawer NFL qb. Sidney Rice needs to work a lot harder at his game. His route running last year was absolutely pathetic and he needs to work on his upper body strength so as to be able to shed the jam. In fact, that’s the problem with the Viking WR corps as a whole — they’re just not physical enough to turn the 10 yd. slant into a 20 yd. gain with YAC. And I’m here to tell you also that as tough as he is, AD’s gonna wear down being asked to carry the ball 20-25 times a game week in and week out. Rumor has it that he wants to add 10lbs of muscle in the offseason which the brain trust supposedly isn’t sold on.

I was at my high school in the Commons (big area for hanging out and such). I ditched the pickup football game I had been in outside to watch it on the big screen. It was definitely worth it.

I can’t remember where I saw it, but someone used the term most valuable player available (as opposed to best available player), and I rather like that. You pick the player that will be the most valuable to your team, and majority of the time, yes, that evaluation will include some estimation of your team’s needs.

Everyone throws out AP as a prime example of the benefits of drafting BPA. But even there, they really only had one good RB in the age where conventional wisdom mandates you have two, and AP and Chester bring different strengths to the table, to boot.

You must also factor in that it’s not smart cap use to draft a player who A) might not play because he plays a position where you’re loaded and B) maybe plays the same position where you already have invested a lot of salary. Personally, I’d say, outside of a situation where you maybe have a franchise QB who’s maybe in the late prime of his career and you’re drafting a young QB to apprentice, that you need to find a guy who’s going to contribute rather heavily as a rookie, simply from a cap efficiency perspective.

Finally, one big negative to prospect rankings is they rarely factor schemes (and schemes are a huge part of football, more than any other team sport by far), so BPA is going to be different depending on what team is judging. Going back to Brady Quinn, the guy didn’t exactly bring Donovan McNabb to mind when he was at Notre Dame, and that’s what Childress wants. So even though Quinn was the best QB on most conventional prospect lists, the Vikings poohbahs I’m sure considered him an imperfect fit.

Also, I’m excited for Sidney Rice this year. Eventually you need to sink or swim with the young guys.

I do not envy NFL front-office types in the draft, especially those that have to pick very early. They have to give a lot of money to the guy they pick, and they’re almost always coming off a sub-par year. Therefore, their picks are dissected like crazy, most of the time long before it’s fair to judge whether or not their pick has contributed enough. That’s why I think teams have to tirelessly scout all of their options as much as possible so they don’t miss the next Adrian Peterson just because they were already OK at a certain position.

One proofreading note: in the second paragraph, I believe it’s supposed to be “cheeses”, not “chesses”. Don’t think GM’s are referred to as rooks or bishops very often :)

…that you should always go for value, but you have to make choices every year, and no matter how good your scouting is, sometimes its a crapshoot. We MUST come away with a solid starting ORT this year. What’s the chance we get one outside of round 1? I’m sure there is a statistic out there about starting percentages about different rounds that I’m too lazy to look up, but if we don’t get a guy in round 1 we are taking a serious gamble about having a huge hole on our line. Sometimes gambles pay off, sometimes they don’t. I’d rather make sure we get a round 1 OT versus hoping someone falls to us in the 2nd. Sometimes safety makes more sense.

Looking at the draft, yes A.P. was a win however, as an team you need to look 2-5 season down the line. Sometime taking the chance (hire Denny Green as a Scout!) works. Look at the turnaround RB’s had because of AP’s talent & determination (remember the N.A.Saints game… Mr. Gimmie the damn ball!) You need to look at our need and the talent within range. If you have the #22 pick and you need a QB but the QB that comes down the line is predicted 2nd or 3rd rd. choice – you pass… You have to take someone that has the best talent that fits your scheme & team.

In the 1st round – you have a chance of the best of the best. Don’t just get the best player unless you have 90% of the players you want, don’t reach for a player that “Might” revive or take you somewhere, unless you see the upside…

IMHO, stick with someone that you have faith in, NOT someone that you are going,,,,“what if he…?”

Wouldn’t it be nice to enter the draft line up the players accordant to there value and pick. Then there wouldn’t be a need for a draft.
Do you go into the draft looking only for need? Then you get who ever is the best value for your needs.
I think you’ll have to ask me when its my turn to pick. I bleave that you can not say who you would take untill its your turn. There’s always that player that should not be there when its your turn.