The NFL has figured out they need to play much more of a college style offense and defense (somewhat).
It's easy to see that NFL management and coaching staffs have pretty much given up running pro-style offenses. As soon as NCAA football became the financial powerhouse that it is, colleges and universities began to realize that winning games was far more profitable than being a school that got more guys drafted into the NFL than the other team. That said, you have your perennial 5-10 schools that tend to top the list in both categories.
But once college football changed from a "farm system" for the NFL to a version of looking out for the big bucks, the NFL had to adapt. Perfect example is the more elusive, scrambling, running QB who rarely looks to pass first unless it's 3rd and 7+.
Logically, the NFL had to adapt itself to deal with players that weren't trained to NFL standards, at that time. Thus, when the NFL decides to play more of a college-style game in order to keep the young guys happy, there are suddenly more NFL ready players.
This translates to both sides of the line of scrimmage. So, more NFL-ready players will always mean deeper drafts. Also, the coaching, strength and conditioning level in college has improved drastically. This also adds to deeper drafts.
Because of this, I think the Rams strategy of late, to trade high draft picks for established superstars makes even more sense because you can still load your team up with plenty of NFL ready talent in rounds 2-5.
