Someone at ESPN needs to be fired today.
With the free time without sports, a group of analysts, statisticians and writers decided it would be a good idea to have some fun and hypothetically re-draft the entire NFL and assume that all current players are available and on the board.
Only problem? The list is awful, and you don’t have to look any further than the analysts putting Drew Lock at #15.
Here’s the first round:
Here’s the posting from ESPN –
What if every NFL team had a complete do-over in building its roster? What if every single player were a free agent? What if the worst team in the league had a chance to add a Super Bowl MVP at quarterback? Or one of the worst defensive teams out there was able to plop a two-time Defensive Player of the Year in the middle of its front?
Well, let’s find out. We hit reset on NFL contracts and released every player to the open market. Then we gave our NFL Nation reporters the GM job, allowing them to re-draft the foundations for their teams. Here are the rules:ADVERTISEMENT
- Every current NFL player is available, and salary caps don’t matter here. But we only drafted four rounds.
- In those four picks, each pretend GM had to select a quarterback, a non-QB offensive player and a defensive player. The fourth pick was a wild card, open to anything.
- We used the 2020 NFL draft order, with traded picks reversed, and a snaking format.
- What about the other 20 starters for each team? The rest of the roster is made up of average-level NFL talent. Our analytics team identifies that as someone such as OT Donovan Smith, edge rusher Harold Landry III or CB Malcolm Butler.
- Each GM was asked to draft with intentions of winning a Super Bowl within five years. Some took a harder line, while others built a base that might still need a year or two.
So how did the players come off the board? What kinds of strategies were used? Which team came out looking like a championship favorite? Our NFL Nation reporters explain their process. Plus, ESPN Stats & Information provides a nugget for each roster, and Mike Clay evaluates each foursome with a tiered draft grade (1-4).
The full draft can be found HERE.
