By Ty Schadt, Sports Editor
The first round of the NFL Draft was last night, April 26. Due to the Collegian’s publication cycle and deadline requirements, I am writing this a week before the event will commence. Sure, it’s a bit unconventional, but I enjoy the NFL Draft as much as any sporting event of the year; I simply had to write something about it.
Barring any trades last night, 32 former college players joined 29 different NFL teams (the Chiefs, Rams and Texans all previously traded their first round pick). I do not know who was drafted first overall. I cannot tell you where quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield, two former Heisman winners and likely the most polarizing players in the class, ended up. I do not know which team reached for a player or which team landed a steal.
However, I do know a few things: there are six total rounds taking place today and tomorrow, and the players yet to be drafted are often only as good as the team they land on.
Because of the nature of football, one player cannot make a subpar team drastically improve. Eleven players are on the field for a team at a time, and the physical game itself has three facets: offense, defense and special teams. Football teams are very akin to a large machine in that both only function effectively if one component complements another.
There are also coaching staffs and schemes to consider. Most competitive teams find success through a coaching staff’s recognition and utilization of strengths. If a team runs a 3-4 defensive scheme (three down linemen and four linebackers, two of which typically line up as pass rushers), they probably would think twice before drafting a linebacker who played at a college that used a 4-3 scheme (four down linemen and three linebackers, who typically play behind the line of scrimmage), even if that player was one of the top talents in the class.
If the team did end up drafting him, it would be on the coaches to find a way to make that player’s skills beneficial to the team, without changing his game too much. However, many times this is where outstanding college players, especially those drafted after the first round, flounder in the NFL: they are drafted into a foreign system with coaches who aren’t able to effectively utilize them because either the team is in dire need of said player to perform or because the staff is inept. Sometimes it’s a combination of both.
Take for example the Cleveland Browns and their twenty-years-in-the-making search for a franchise quarterback. In 2017 they drafted DeShone Kizer, a Notre Dame project with a big arm, in the second round. The 21-year-old was thrust into the starting role immediately and asked to lead a team that was coming off a 1-15 season to success.
Predictably, that went over about as well as asking a blind man to cross the street unassisted in New York City.
As a junior at Notre Dame he threw for 26 touchdowns and nine interceptions. In Cleveland, that ratio performed a near 180; by season’s end the rookie had tossed 11 touchdowns and 22 interceptions.
Sure, this is symbolic of the NFL’s higher level of competition. But it also signifies the ineptitude of the Browns’ coaching staff. Instead of signing a veteran quarterback for Kizer to sit behind and learn from, Hue Jackson and company threw him to the wolves. And after starting in 15 games, getting benched multiple times and suffering a winless season, Kizer was traded to the Green Bay Packers where he will back up Aaron Rodgers next season.
Kizer was drafted to a mediocre team that didn’t have the means to properly develop him nor the patience to commit to him.
The Kansas City Chiefs are an example of the exact opposite behavior. In the third round of last year’s draft, they selected running back Kareem Hunt from Toledo. This came as a bit of a surprise, seeing as they already had two solid tailbacks in Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West. However, injuries to Ware and West forced Hunt in the starting role by Week One, a game in which the Chiefs defeated the reigning champion New England Patriots and Hunt totaled 246 all purpose yards and scored three touchdowns. There was no looking back from there.
The rookie exploded for 1,782 total yards and eleven touchdowns, largely because head coach Andy Reid knew just how to incorporate Hunt into the offense. They didn’t rely too heavily on him because veteran quarterback Alex Smith was able to facilitate the offense when needed. The Chiefs went on to win the AFC West with a 10-6 record.
Hunt found himself on a well-rounded team with a system in place that created a tremendous opportunity for instant success. Initially, he was viewed as a luxury. It was only as time went on that he became a necessity. That’s a solid recipe for success.
Of course, there are outliers. Several of the players who will be drafted this weekend will be selected by championship-caliber teams but will either get cut, ride the pine all year or spend the season on the practice squad. Adversely, several players will land on subpar teams but become integral building blocks towards future success.
As we enter the remainder of this year’s draft, don’t use a player’s name, history or combine measurements as a predictor for potential success. Make the metric the team they are drafted to. Instead of putting your faith in the individual player to come in and change your team, I urge you to bank on your team’s coaches. For as talented as one player may be, his hands may be tied depending on the situation he gets drafted into.
