Chicago Bears: 5 things they can learn from remaining playoff teams
By Dan Dundas
The Saints Showed Keeping Draft Picks Can Pay Off
No matter how thoroughly you scout, the NFL draft can be a 50/50 proposition or worse depending on the type of culture and scheme players enter into. Teams that hit on lottery tickets in one draft can make tremendous gains in the win/loss department in a short amount of time.
Nowhere is this truer than the 2017 New Orleans Saints draft, which could be historic in it’s quality and quantity. Even greater than the Seahawks 2013 draft, the Saints hit on giant lottery tickets in first round cornerback Marshon Lattimore and offensive tackle Ryan Ramzyck.
Marcus Williams and Alvin Kamara followed in the 2nd and 3rd, and defensive players Alex Anzalone and Trey Hendrickson were in the 3rd as well. Granted they had 6 picks in the first 103, but this is an outlier of a haul. Lattimore and Kamara are three and four-time Pro Bowlers respectively, Ramczyk and Hendrickson might have one or two invites before they are done.
No one can expect to hit a draft like this, but even filling a roster with quality professional player’s year after year can set a great base, and allow teams to take swings in free agency they may not consider otherwise.
Not to put Pace in a corner, because he has made quite a name for hitting on mid and late round players from Eddie Jackson and David Montgomery in the 3rd and 4th round, to later round heists like Jordan Howard and Darnell Mooney.
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The first round has been Pace’s Achilles heel, with unfortunate names like Kevin White and Mitch Trubisky, but he has a chance to rectify this with a possible franchise altering draft coming this spring. The key for Pace will be to actually hold on to some of his picks, as the more swings he can take, the better chances the Bears will have. As a former scout, Pace should know this more than anybody.