Good post. You bring a couple questions to the table--allocation of free agent dollars, and availability of free agents by position.
The reason I advocate drafting many players of a position is due to: 1. the positional value(contribution to winning); 2. the likelihood I hit on a player(player becomes min good or better); 3. if I hit I get that player cheap(rookie deal) for 5 years.
The draft is the best opportunity to take big swings--if you hit you win big by getting a player at far less than market value for years. Think Saints with Kamara and Lattimore. Players like a Noteboom (who I like) and a Kiser are readily replaceable any year in free agency(Ty Nseke and KJ Wright this year). But if you want to replace a number one corner what does that cost in free agency? If it is even possible. Trumaine got how many dollars? and is not worth what he got. But if you hit on a number one cb in the draft, the reward is huge.
My philosophy is driven by the availibility to fill holes in free agency, and acquire star talent in the draft. Any star talent acquired in free agency is likely overpaid as most stars are resigned a year or two before they ever hit the market. Read a good article on this but fail to remember where at the moment.
All this depends on your system for allocating your total salary cap dollars though. I know I will pay Cbs a large percentage of my cap dollars so I am willing to draft alot of them.
