Now is the time when teams are finalizing 2017 NFL Draft boards, making trade calls

Greg Gabriel: Now is the time when teams are finalizing 2017 NFL Draft boards, making trade calls

[www.stltoday.com]

You will never hear me refer to the Draft Room as the “War Room”. To me, it is the Draft Room, and I will always use that phrase. Since I have told the story before, I won’t bore you with the whole thing again.

Thirteen years ago, former Arizona Cardinal safety Pat Tillman lost his life fighting the war against terrorism. I was with the Chicago Bears at the time, and we were in the middle of our draft meetings when word came that Tillman had been killed. One of our scouts was a close friend of Tillman’s, and when word came of his death, it affected everyone in the room.

Tillman was fighting a war; we were preparing for a player draft in a game. In my opinion and the opinion of our scouts, it was wrong and disrespectful to refer to our Draft Room as a "War Room". In honor of Pat Tillman, we stopped calling our Draft Room a "War Room". To this day, that tradition holds true in the offices of the Chicago Bears.

Trade Charts and how they fit into Draft Day Deals

Talking to fans, I almost always get the perception that they feel that the players who are selected, and decisions to trade up or down, are done at the last minute. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Who a club drafts, or if they trade up or down early in the Draft, is determined in the meetings leading up to the big day.

Just like a club prepares a game plan for each game, they prepare a plan for the draft. All scenarios are talked about at length, and come Draft Weekend, that plan is put into place. Very rarely is a decision made adlib.

If a club thinks there is no way they can select a certain player where they stand in the draft order, then the option of trading up is discussed. Not only is it discussed, but how far they have to move up to get that player is also determined. There is always a price to pay in order to move up, and that price is determined by the trade chart that has been in place for over 25 years.

The trade chart is not an absolute, but more of a guide, as the strength of each draft creates its own market, so to speak. In a situation like last year, where two different clubs traded up into the first two spots in the draft to take the top quarterbacks, they had to pay a slight premium for those picks. Once you get past those top few picks, then a market is created each year, but for the most part it is fairly close to what the chart says.

When a club makes the decision to want to trade down, they obviously have to have a partner. Again, the strength of the draft can determine if there will be players worth trading up for. They have to be the type of player that more than a couple clubs feel are difference-makers.

In a draft like this year's, trading down can be a very useful tool, as this draft is deep through the first two days, and adding extra picks can be beneficial to teams with several needs. Still, there is a risk in trading down, as a club doesn’t want to go so far as to not be able to select a player below a certain value point. That is why when a club makes a determination to trade down, that decision usually means they will only trade down so far. That might mean going down three or four slots or maybe as much as seven or eight. No matter how far they go, it was predetermined in the clubs draft meetings leading up to the Draft.

A club has to have a plan, if it doesn’t decisions are made at the last minute, then they can usually backfire. Right now, with just over two weeks before the beginning of the Draft, clubs will start making calls about trading up or down. In most cases, no deals are made this early, but rather letting other clubs know what your Draft Day intentions are. Usually, beginning a couple days before the draft and then right up to when a club in “on the clock”, trades are discussed. By letting other clubs know your intentions early, a club can be in a very good situation of having several options available to them when it comes time to pull the trigger on a trade.

Who Makes the Decision on which player to Draft?

Most clubs have a plan in place by the time they get to the Draft. They know what players they want to target —especially in the first four rounds. If the club has done a good job setting their board, those targeted players are usually available.

It’s fact that no two boards are alike. Needs and each club's player profile play a role in how the final board is set.

On each player, there are several different scouting reports. The area scout and the cross check scout will always have a report. Then there will be a report by the scouting director, the position coach, the coordinator and possibly the head coach or general manager. Reality is, there will be in most cases at least five or six reports on every player a club is interested in.

Given that there are so many reports, they are not all going to be in agreement as to the player’s value. The final grade on a player is more of a consensus of all the different grades. There will be significant discussion on the player and how he fits the clubs scheme. Plan is also put into place as to what the club can expect from the player as a rookie and second-year player. Generally these expectations are conservative in nature, as a club doesn’t want to overvalue what a player can do

When the board is set and the plan is in place for Draft day, some person has to have the final decision in what players are actually drafted. Leading up to when a club is on the clock, there will be discussion on the group of players the club is interested in drafting, and a priority is set on which player to select if there is more than just one targeted player.

When it comes to making the selection, one person in the room has final say. In most cases it’s the general manager, but it could be the head coach. It really depends on who has final say on the 53-man roster, as that can only be one person.

Regardless of who has the final say, you can be sure that there has been much research and discussion done on every player that is drafted.