01-04-2021, 02:21 PM
(01-04-2021, 02:17 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: True. That's the great think about the FA period now being before the draft. Fill what you can with FA (Thuney, please) and then draft BPA that still addresses a need.
It hurts teams that free agency comes before the draft. In free agency you can target your most serious position of need, but in the draft you really need to take the best player available instead of reaching for a lower rated player based on position. Obviously teams take positions of need into account when ranking players on their draft board, and after the first couple of rounds it probably doesn't matter that much. But when you are talking about a top five pick in the first round it can be a huge mistake to reach based on position.
If the draft came first teams could take the best players available and then fill in the roster holes in free agency. But players don't like that because desperation is what drives big free agent contracts, and if a team has already addressed its biggest need in the draft they will not be as desperate to sign free agents.
