Quote:
Originally Posted by Dam8610
I just looked at this. Originally I was going to just say that Ballard's 2018 would beat any of Polian's drafts (which it would, 2003 is Polian's best contender), but then I started comparing their draft histories, and I will confidently say that Ballard is better at drafting talent than Polian was, primarily due to Ballard's much greater level of success with Day 2 picks, which Polian had a notoriously bad track record with. I would say let's look at Ballard's best draft, but to do that, you'd have to first choose which is better between 2018 and 2020. For comparison sake:
**** = Made an All-Pro team
*** = Made a Pro Bowl team
** = Starter or starter level contributions
* = quality backup that positively impacted the team
2018
Quenton Nelson****
Shaquille Leonard****
Braden Smith**
Kemoko Turay
Tyquan Lewis*
Nyheim Hines*
Daurice Fountain
Jordan Wilkins
Deon Cain
Matthew Adams
Zaire Franklin**
2020
DeForest Buckner**** (via trade of the 13th overall pick to SF)
Michael Pittman Jr.**
Jonathan Taylor****
Julian Blackmon**
Jacob Eason
Danny Pinter*
Robert Windsor
Isaiah Rodgers**
Dezmon Patmon
Jordan Glasgow
Let's throw 2022 in for fun, because I see that class rivaling these two in a few years, which only speaks to Ballard's drafting acumen:
2022
Alec Pierce**
Jelani Woods*
Bernhard Raimann**
Nick Cross*
Eric Johnson
Andrew Ogletree
Curtis Brooks
Rodney Thomas II**
I would argue all three of the above classes are or have the potential to be better than Polian's best draft class, which IMO is 2003, but I'll post what I believe to be his 3 best draft classes for comparison sake:
2003
Dallas Clark****
Mike Doss**
Donald Strickland
Steve Scuillo
Robert Mathis****
Keyon Whiteside
Cato June***
Makoa Freitas
2006
Joseph Addai***
Tim Jennings***
Freddy Keiaho**
Michael Toudouze
Charlie Johnson**
Antoine Bethea***
T.J. Rushing*
2001
Reggie Wayne****
Idrees Bashir**
Cory Bird
Ryan Diem**
Raymond Walls
Jason Doering*
Rick DeMulling**
If you look at the results side by side, it's scary to think what Chris Ballard might be able to do with a franchise QB and a full array of draft picks every year. Time will tell if Ballard is the better GM, but so far he's outdueling a Hall of Famer in an area both consider to be paramount to team building.
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Ballard drafts well and certainly finds value a specific positions. Few, if any of us, have said otherwise. The problem is his roster construction. He has overvalued and spent too much draft capital and cap dollars at positions that aren't that critical for success, like OG and off ball LBs. And other than DE, which he's been horrible at drafting BTW, he has undervalued the CTQ positions by spending minimal draft capital and salary cap dollars at those positions. This is how things like having a LG making elite LT money is starting next to a complete turd at LT, or having a 1 man show at WR. How has that worked out the past 2 seasons?
Also, you do realize when Ballard hasn't had a full array of draft picks it's b/c he's traded them away right?