As often stated: luck is the residue of design. If you rarely trade up for players and always take the best player available you eventually build a deep, talented roster. A deep, talented roster is what wins in the NFL. The teams who have been winning recently have all been draft-oriented teams. Steelers, Colts, Giants, Steelers, Saints, Packers, Giants. That list says draft well and ye shall prosper.
I know this argument goes back and forth non-stop but I will throw it in one more time as its my one personal obsession. Every one of those teams you mentioned has (or had until a year ago) an elite QB. Getting lucky with drafting an elite QB (Saints being the exception - but seriously how often does an elite QB become frely available?) allows you to look like a draft genius for all the reasons I cant be bothered to regurgitate. Get lucky with your QB choice and ye shall prosper.
no doubt - it also helps to lay an egg at the right time to be in position for ur franchise QB. or in the saints case - sign the right guy at the right time.
Well, yeah but did the Packers trade up for Aaron Rodgers because he was such a talent that they had to have him with Brett at 36 years old and headed for the end? The Packers are where the Packers are because they have honored the draft and the process and Aaron Rodgers fell to their pick, allowing them to also pick up Nick Collins in the 2nd round instead of trading the pick to move up. They not only had all their picks the next year despite getting their franchise QB, they also had extra picks, allowing them to get A.J. Hawk, Darren Colledge and Greg Jennings. Now look at the Jets. They had no #1 WR when they drafted Sanchez. They had no RT last year and their LG played with injuries that would have gotten him IR'd on any other team but on the Jets there was nobody to take his spot so he played on and his play badly deteriorated in the second half of the year. They had a street free agent with no Regular season NFL experience playing C for them against one of the toughest front 7's in the NFL. All of that was due to the fact that the Jets disrespect the draft and as a result they have trouble maintaining coherence in the face of injury, retirements and free agent defections.
The Packers got Aaron Rodgers on 24. If this was the Jets they'd have traded that 24 plus a 2nd and a 1st next year to move up for him and they wouldn't have Nick Harper and AJ Hawk playing on the defensive side of the ball opposite Rodgers. All of the Tannenbaum fanbois would be saying "great move, we got our franchise QB" and then bitching about something else when that turned into 10 or 11 wins for the Jets and no Super Bowl because the team talent did not support it despite having the franchise QB.
The thing about the Packers though is, they already had a Franchise Quarterback, so had the luxury of grabbing Rodgers when he amazingly fell that far. Unfortunately, Clemens was far from that when the Jets needed a guy in 2009. I'm all for holding the fort with draft picks and even trading down, but sometimes trading up is a necessary move for a franchise. The Bengals are a team that managed to hit gold by staying where they were and grabbing a QB in the 2nd who looks like he could be their franchise guy, but they were also in a unique situation in that they had a "Franchise" guy in Palmer, even though he was threatening retirement. They weren't going to risk a high pick on a QB despite what was available to them that year in case Palmer suddenly comes back and you're in a bit of a pickle paying two QBs decent money.
