Theory Behind BPA?

[Captain Silver]

Worked for the Packers. They had Favre and grabbed Rogers...

[Sarcasticfury]

Worked for the Packers. They had Favre and grabbed Rogers...

Favre was also slowing down, falling apart in the playoffs, and playing the Will I Or Won't I game.

[Gabrosin]

Best Player Available basically means "don't reach". Don't select a player at 8 (Joe Flacco) when you could still get him at 16. If the best player available to you is one you don't really want to take, then trade down. Find the right spot for value based on what's on your board. You don't want to get the first player in a particular tier, you want to get the last one.

[Rxdoxx]

The Ravens Brass has made their bread and butter in the draft by having the philosophy of selecting the best player available on their board regardless of needs. This got me wondering... wouldnt the team stack their board according to their needs though? Even if a crazy talented qb fell to ravens, I think he would be lower on the board than a pass rusher, wr, or db. Just trying to figure out how the ravens stack the board since this time of year leaves plenty of time for speculation. Any ideas?
ian

I broke down their philosophy in this post yesterday
http://forum.russellstreetreport.com...186#post927186

[lordbern]

I'm laughing because the other night I watched 'Caught in the Draft' on the NFL Network and they mentioned the Raiders chose a punter in the first round one year (in the 70s?). Al Davis was pretty much the one who pulled the trigger on that decision. They've (Raiders) have made some crazy picks over the decades. Thank goodness we don't have that level of crazy in our front office.

[Rxdoxx]

I'm laughing because the other night I watched 'Caught in the Draft' on the NFL Network and they mentioned the Raiders chose a punter in the first round one year (in the 70s?). Al Davis was pretty much the one who pulled the trigger on that decision. They've (Raiders) have made some crazy picks over the decades. Thank goodness we don't have that level of crazy in our front office.

the Raiders with Ray Guy in '73 (7 probowls) and the Saints in 1979 and they drafted him high because he was a punter and a kicker

Russell Erxleben (born January 13, 1957) is a former American football player and currency investor. He shares the record for the longest field goal in NCAA history, originally set in 1977 while playing for the University of Texas. Erxleben was a three-time All-America punter (1976, 1977, and 1978). He was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, an extremely rare occurrence for a kicker. After an NFL career lasting six years, he became a currency investor. Convicted of securities fraud in 1999, he was released from federal prison in 2005. He was again convicted of investment fraud in 2014 and sentenced to 90 months (seven and one-half years) in federal prison.

Raiders drafted K Sebastian Janikowski in the 1st in 2000

StLouis Cardinals drafted K Steve Little in 1978, Redskins selected Charlie Gogolak in the 60's

[Captain Silver]

Favre was also slowing down, falling apart in the playoffs, and playing the Will I Or Won't I game.

That didn't really start to gain steam until after, and he went on to play 6 more seasons, including a very strong one with the Vikings where he might have made a Super Bowl had the Saints been flagged for ruffing the passer unlike if Brady had been playing.

[AirFlacco]

It isn't regardless of need.

I think the better descriptor of their philosophy would be "Best Player Available, according to value" To use your scenario, the Ravens won't select Mariotta if he were to fall. Instead, they would find a trade partner (the value part) and move to a position where the best player available is some value to them.

Exactly - according to value or position of need. I posted
a list of those on the other thread like Flacco, Ngata, Heap, Ray, C-Mac
Reed to name a few. They were the BAAs at positions of need.

Ray, Reed and Flacco turned out to be the best players in
their draft with Ray and Reed the best at their positions - ever!

Ogden was strictly the BAA or value. Ravens had a big strong line that
came over from Cleveland but JO was the BAA. Then later
someone left the line and they slid JO over to LT and he
became the best ever there so he and Ray turned out to be
the best players in their draft - same as Joe and Reed. In
his draft we wanted Lito Shepherd, CB, who had a nice career in
Philly. Kiper called Reed the safe pick at the time and the
rest was history. I remember how glum everyone was at the
Ravens draft party at the stadium that year. Tom Davis and
Tom Matte thought it would be Lito and were glum when Reed
was picked. Nobody including Ozzie knew he would be the best
Safety ever. Oz just knew he was the BAA at position of need.

Phil Savage said to Nasty at The Barn after the draft that I see a
lot of jerseys here that say R.Lewis, J.Lewis, Heap and Ogden.
We didn't know they would be the stars they became. We hoped they would
but had no guarantee.

Everyone wanted Matt Ryan but Joe has emerged as the
better QB and best player of that draft. Someone posted a
link that Bisciotti wanted to trade all our draft choices for
Ryan but OZ talked him out of it. He did ask about a trade
but the other team asked for too much. Had we mortaged
the farm, we wouldn't have come out with Flacco and Rice.
Cooler heads prevailed in the Ravens war room but not in
Atlanta when they traded all those picks for Julio. That just
got Billick's brother in law fired as coach. All those picks cost
him bodies - depth which killed them.

Back to JO, Lawrence PHillips was the guy everyone wanted
including Art. Phil Savage said do you want a player that will
let you sleep every night or one you will have to bail out of
jail in the middle of the night. Art wisely let Oz draft JO while Phillips ended up
in jail after most of the Ravens fans booed Oz for not drafting
Phillips at the very first draft party at downtown Sheraton.

Heap, C-MAC, Starks were all BAAs at position of need.
Shannan Sharpe left a year later and Heap stepped in at TE
just like JO did at LT.

Ernie Acorsi who worked in the Colts front office during the
Walter Peyton draft said he got his masters degree in the
draft during that one.

Stupid Colts passed on Peyton because they had a good RB
in Lydell Mitchell up the middle so they took a lineman
instead and Walter Peyton became one of the greatest RBs
in history.

This is why you take the BAA and the teams that don't usually
draft at the top all the time while Ravens usually draft at
the bottom just like another pass rusher in 2d round last year
when everyone wanted a WR and Jernigan filled in nicely while
Ngata was suspended and greatly contributed to the POs while
Mosely, another BAA just missed winning DROY and greatly
impacted all year instead of the lineman we wanted like Zach
Martin who fortunately went to Dallas a spot ahead of us.



Drafting the BAA at the position of need is how Ozzie wins
SBs.

[Sarcasticfury]

That didn't really start to gain steam until after, and he went on to play 6 more seasons, including a very strong one with the Vikings where he might have made a Super Bowl had the Saints been flagged for ruffing the passer unlike if Brady had been playing.

Rodgers was drafted in 05. Favre and the Packers would struggle in 05, and 06,( and had rumors of retirement), choked in the conference championship in 07, had more talks about retirement, and then retired for the first time in Match. So it's not like tthey drafted Rodgers without reason.

[Ravenswintitle]

Rodgers was drafted in 05. Favre and the Packers would struggle in 05, and 06,( and had rumors of retirement), choked in the conference championship in 07, had more talks about retirement, and then retired for the first time in Match. So it's not like tthey drafted Rodgers without reason.

Rodgers also fell down the chart a lot; it's still the talk of green room horror stories. At the spot he was available to the Packers they likely never figured he'd be there. Or another way to say it, couldn't pass it up...

[AirFlacco]

BTW, Rogers took Boller's place at Cal and GB offered NE
the same picks Ozzie offered for Boller. Miami also offered
the same picks for Boller but Ravens drafted higher in the
order that year and won the sweep stakes giving up a future
#1 who turned out to be Wilfork of NE while we got Swan
Edwards-lol. Ozzie said never again. He'd never trade a future
#1.

That got MIke Nolan in trouble. SF jumped in front of Ravens
to draft Joe Staley, OT by offering a future #1. Ozzie wanted
Staley bad. His presser was like a morgue. We still had JO
left who could have groomed Staley. In the end by trading
that future #1, Nolan was short of talent which got him fired,
same as Mike Smith in Atlanta.

BTW, Rogers was the first Tedford QB to make it big in NFL while
so many others like Boller and Akili Smith flopped.

[Sarcasticfury]

BTW, Rogers took Boller's place at Cal and GB offered NE
the same picks Ozzie offered for Boller. Miami also offered
the same picks for Boller but Ravens drafted higher in the
order that year and won the sweep stakes giving up a future
#1 who turned out to be Wilfork of NE while we got Swan
Edwards-lol. Ozzie said never again. He'd never trade a future
#1.

That got MIke Nolan in trouble. SF jumped in front of Ravens
to draft Joe Staley, OT by offering a future #1. Ozzie wanted
Staley bad. His presser was like a morgue. We still had JO
left who could have groomed Staley. In the end by trading
that future #1, Nolan was short of talent which got him fired,
same as Mike Smith in Atlanta.

BTW, Rogers was the first Tedford QB to make it big in NFL while
so many others like Boller and Akili Smith flopped.

Smith went to Oregon, not California.