Traps Teams Fall In Picking Players

[Philosophers]

Was thinking this morning about this not in any sort of order:

1) love of talent/athleticism while missing mental intangibles like maturity, motivation, coachability.

2) Immature player they think they can mature through lockerroom chemistry, father figure coach.

3) Player they really like for intangible traits but overestimates player's physical skill.

4) Player they really like but fail to do enough background check on them.

5) Player whose skills are augmented by college team talent around him so without similar talent he is less effective.

6) overvaluing  college coach's recommendation of a player.

[londonblue]

The college and NFL games have drifted further apart making it harder to directly translate production or lack of production from one level to the next. The need to project more from traits and intangibles inevitably increases room for error.

Teams can also get medical evaluations wrong for people with a history of injuries but also for players with very heavy or very limited college use.

You also get process errors. Too many voices or too much weight on a single voice (GM, Head Coach) dependent on the specific team dynamics.

For all of the brainpower, analytics and process they deploy teams still need luck as do the players themselves when drafted. Sometimes it is just the wrong environment. Sometimes there is a fluke injury. Sometimes timing is off (talented WR stuck with a bad QB etc.).

The bottom line? Drafting is difficult!

[GloryDays]

I would add to those, neglecting red flags on players; specially when a player injury history shows they might be too fragile for the NFL and the kind of hits they have to absorb.