With the draft rapidly approaching, NFL teams are providing insight into the 2015 NFL Draft as well as talking about the process of the draft itself. Buffalo Bills General Manager Doug Whaley recently met with the media and discussed where they stand in regard to the upcoming draft. Likewise, Kansas Citgy Chiefs General Manager also shed some light on the draft as well as the process itself.
Buffalo Bills GM Doug Whaley talked about the challenges involved with the draft when a team doesn’t have a first round pick. For Whaley and his draft team, its a challenge and an opportunity for them to show their mettle.
Q: Is it less exciting when you don’t have a first round pick?
DW: I disagree. For us, as personnel people, it’s more exciting because when you’re picking in the top 10, which we’ve had recently, it’s pretty easy, because those types of players, anybody can see. When you don’t have that top 10 pick and you’re picking late, or even in the second round, it puts the onus on us as scouts to prove our wares. So our scouting staff has been really excited since the start of the fall scouting process.
Q: Have you guys approached it any differently then, looking at maybe some of the guys a little more closely that you wouldn’t normally?
DW: No, not at all. We’ve actually set it up the same way. We’ve investigated the first-round picks, all the way to the seventh-round picks because you never know what’s going to happen. One of our mantras here is never say never. You never know when somebody may fall or some deal may come to our attention that we can move back into the first round. We have to be prepared.
Q: Doug, how do you look at that now, the possibility of a trade back into the first round? Is it contemplated on a regular basis now or would it have to fall in to your lap? How much strategy is also there to attempt to be proactive with that?
DW: We’re going to set up our board where if, we’ll put a denotation line, of guys that, if we see fall, that we think we have a chance to go up and get and we would consider it. But, I’ll tell you guys right now with the lack of ammunition, I would highly, highly doubt that we do. We’d be more prone to listen to offers to move back from 50, and pick up some more picks. But, again, like I said, I will never say never. And like Tim Murray says, it’s free to listen.
Whaley also talked about this year’s draft in terms of talent and how they go about evaluating it.
Q: Conventional wisdom says that this year’s draft is not as deeply talented as last year’s draft. Can you kind of say if that’s correct in your mind, or does that really matter?
JM: I think every draft is the same. The drafts are always good early. In the history of the league, the first three rounds, those are the guys making it. Four through seven, a little less. That’s how it should be. But it’s up to us to be good evaluators and our scouts, to make the four through seven count.
Whaley also talked about the role that coaches play in the evaluation process and made it clear the team valued the insight of new head coach Rex Ryan.
Q: What’s Rex’s role during this draft and has it changed from previous coaching staffs?
DW: No, and we always want to incorporate the coaches’ scouting process and their thoughts on players into what we’ve done. We’ve started this process all the way back last May, but we value what the coaches’ opinions are on players and especially how they see using them once they get to be Buffalo Bills. So we’ve done that with every coaching staff that we’ve been a part of.
For Kansas City Chiefs GM John Dorsey, the draft is an opportunity to be part of building a football team. He and his team take a top to bottom approach looking at the draft and evaluate it as a whole.
Q: How much do you focus on the first round where you can visualize how things are going to stack up versus the later rounds where it’s a crapshoot?
DORSEY: “I think the hard part is, as you go through this thing is, at different points of this draft making sure that you are doing what is best for the organization. And that is studying the first round all the way down to free agency and making sure that you have everything completed, and all of your facts, and you’ve had discussion points, and you’ve laid out, and you’ve turned over every stone to make sure that that top guy all the way down to the bottom guy, you have done all of your research with regards to those players.”
For the Chiefs, the major prep work has been done all that remains is to meet again with coaches and the draft team to finalize positions and thoughts and to hone the draft board.
Q: What is left between now and the beginning of the draft on Thursday?
DORSEY: “Well, from a procedural standpoint, we met with the offensive coaches yesterday. Actually had some meetings with Andy (Reid) and Mark Donovan this morning and Clark (Hunt). We’ll meet with the defensive staff with regards to the defensive staff’s perspective, and then we’ll meet with special teams coaches on Monday.”
Q: And what does that accomplish?
DORSEY: “Well, I think what it accomplishes is you want to get as much input as you possibly can with regards to how people see specific players, especially coaching staffs because they are going to have to coach them. What we do is then, you listen to everybody, you filter through everything and see if it best fits the interest of the organization. Then on Monday, Andy and I will sit down, we’ll talk where we are as a team, where we think these players in this draft can help us, and at the end of the day, we’ll have this thing wrapped up here. The hard part is making sure you are making the right choices of the players. That’s the hard part.”
Dorsey also talked about how the team approaches its draft board and the process of assigning grades. He also weighed in on drafting for need versus talent and the role character plays in their evaluation process.
Q: When you assign grades throughout the draft process do you base it solely on a player’s ability or do you also consider your depth chart and team needs?
DORSEY: “No, I think what you do is, I think you evaluate his talent with how he plays the game. And then I think you have to begin to filter through the processes of the makeup of the person. How do they fit schematically, that’s how you kind of go through the process. It’s not one simple grade that you can automatically place on one particular part of it. There’s a few filters that you have to filter down.”
Q: But you still have to stay true to the board?
DORSEY: “I agree with you on that.”
Q: So when you do that, how much does need play a role on where you are ranking guys?
DORSEY: “I don’t think that you have to base your grade solely on need. I don’t think you can do that, that’s not the best way to do this.”
Q: Does it play a role though?
DORSEY: “No, I think what you do is you evaluate the person of how he plays the game of football and how best he can help this organization.”
Q: When it comes to grading a player, how much do the intangibles, like a guy’s work ethic or his character, come into play?
DORSEY: “I think that’s important. All along, we as an organization have done a really nice job of saying, ‘you know what? You get guys that really like football that have a degree of character within their person.’ I think that goes a long way in terms of sustaining a high level of success.”
Q: You say you typically have 150-175 guys on the board in a normal draft. What is the high and low side in all your years of football on your board in a given draft?
DORSEY: “I would say 220 all the way down to 150, 130. No, actually they say if you really do it right and are any good, you can hit 140.”
Q: So the fewer the better?
DORSEY: “Well, it’s quality over quantity.”
In listening to both men talk, its obvious they have put in significant time and effort toward the draft process. Both teams have solid plans as well and a good recognition of what this draft brings and how to approach it.
Neither man tipped his hat on what his respective team was looking for and some of the responses, particularly about the quarterback position, raise some questions. Will one or both team look at this year’s crop of young quarterbacks? Will either team look to swing some trades? What will they ultimately do in this year’s draft? We will know soon enough.
While it could take a few years to adequately judge this year’s draft at least some of our questions will get answered starting Thursday as the 2015 NFL Draft kicks off in Chicago, Illinois.
For a full transcript of Doug Whaley’s comments click here and for a full transcript of John Dorsey’s comments click here.
