You know your ideal strategy is literally illegal in the NFL, ya? There's a salary cap floor that you have to hit, 80% of the total cap over at least a 3 year average or something like that so your team of 53 players on rookie contracts comes nowhere close to that. Where does your money go then? Oh... probably to the 26 year old 3 time Pro Bowl DE.
You get 28 draft picks over a 4 year period. Your standard for a GM that "drafts well" is to have 53 starters chosen within those 28 picks + 25 undrafted free agents.
Man... this is such a weird take.
The second sentence of my post literally states this "optimal strategy" isnt realistically achieveable... Instead its a guideline to the most logical way to build a winning roster.... Teams get 2 types of assets, chash and draft picks.
Sure you can buy talent with cash, but the more important the position, the more expensive it gets. Draft picks dont work that way. A 1st round pick is a 1st round pick no matter what position you draft, and the contract is also cemented no matter who you draft.
With that in mind, wouldnt it make sense to use draft picks for the higher valued positions and get high quality supporting cast players through FA contracts. I'm not advocating signing no player at all, but when you have the option to either trade for high value position guy who's going to break the bank in 1 year or take your shot in the draft instead, the logical anwser is obvious.
If there is ever left over cash, you can then extend guys who YOU KNOW perform well on your team because they have done so for 4-5 years already, there's no guessing or system projecting... This limits FA mistake, which are quite common, you cant say the draft is a crap shot(You didnt say that, but its used quite often as an argument) and turn around ignoring the fact that high priced FAs also bust frequently, they're just as risky, only with a bigger price tag.
Like I said, in an ideal world, you'd like to always have your LT, QB, pass rushers and #1CB on rookie contracts... Its a pipe dream, I know, but the other extreme alternative of having all those guys on their 2nd contract is impossible and would make for a seriously top heavy team with no supporting cast. Both these scenarios are extreme and far fetched, but they show you where to lean for a sound strategy.
