NFL Draft Economics

the risk of the draft

        

       As much as the NFL Draft is a strategy for teams, it is also a game of chance.  Teams can only hope to get the player they planned on, as it all depends on what the teams ahead of them choose to do.

        According to NFL.com freakonomics, the NFL Draft is a "game of luck."  Teams all want to get the best player for their team but at the same time they want the most valuable.  A quarterback like Cam Newton who leads a college team to a national title  and also wins a heismen trophy is obviously much more valuable than any other first round pick.  However, if a team already has Tom Brady in the starting positions, why would they draft a quarterback?  The patriots did not have the first pick in the 2013 draft, but that is to make a point.  Teams want the most useful players for their team unless they can get something out of it.

        Freakonomics also says that it is much smarter to sell a first round for two second or third rounds.  A team can never really know if the player they get will be worth anything come the season.  The bears drafted Kevin White in the first round of the draft a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately, he appears to have been a total bust for the bears.  Also Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round of the draft!  He is arguably the best quarterback ever and was totally underrated going into the draft.  I am sure any team would wish they grabbed him earlier.  Just shows they can only predict so much, the draft is a gamble.  

The Free Agency

The Free Agency

When NFL teams are deciding how much money they will spend in the NFL Draft, they have to consider other options for spending.  One of these options is the free agency.  This is where players are allowed to be picked up by any team.  However the free agency can get expensive.

There is a lot more too look at when spending money on the nfl draft.  People set aside the free agency, even though many great players including Peyton Manning were taken as free agents.   Often times people can get great deals on players in the agency.  So why would they waste all of their money on contracts from the Draft.  Peyton manning was picked up in the free agency by the Denver Broncos from the Indianapolis Colts.   “Peyton Manning signed a five-year, $96 million contract in March 2012 with the Denver Broncos with $58 million guaranteed. The first year of the deal, worth $18 million, was fully guaranteed, and the final $40 million in guaranteed money came from passing a physical on his surgically repaired neck.”  Peyton manning is arguably one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.  Teams can not sleep on players they can acquire in the free agency.

Opposing this, the case of getting a great player from the free agency is quite rare.  Teams have earned success mostly from the players who they have drafted over time.  The 85 bears were not taking may free agents.  They draft their players and build up from there.  If a team spends too much money in the free agency they will not be able to afford other players to help build their team.  

Dez Bryant's Past

The Background Check 

The people in the NFL draft take into consideration a lot more than we know.  They weigh in many little factors besides just stats and numbers.  They look at the background of each player and try to understand them.  Players are not simply judged based on how they perform at a college level.  Nor are they simply judged based on how they performed in the combine. On NFL.com they discuss the background checks they go through for players.

When people try to predict the players to be drafted, they are more often than not, dead wrong.  The people making the decisions are looking at every single detail about the players.  Not just combine stats.  Scouts want to draft players that they can trust on their team.  They don’t want players who are known for getting into trouble all the time, or that had a bad rep.  At the same time they are able to see the golden boys for their team.  They see players that grew up from nothing and had to work their way to the top.  People who really are respectable and great players.

Dez Bryant, a wide receiver for the dallas cowboys, is known to be quite the emotional player.  They talked about his background check as one of the worst they had ever seen.  “Bryant was raised by a single, often-absentee mother who spent 18 months in prison for selling crack cocaine. He grew up impoverished and without direction, which explains his “lack of life skills" and ignorance of basic adult responsibilities entering the NFL.” Seeing this really stands out to scouts.  Dez Bryant appeared to have a bad background, but in reality he never got into any trouble himself.  He was a clean cut kid and did well.  Sure he is emotional, but that is probably from his tough life growing up.  It is really amazing that Dez was able to rise to the top from so little.  

The NFL Draft Blog #2

RESEARCH NOTES

TITLE ADDRESSING MAIN IDEA OF SOURCE:

Pay for Playoffs? Not so Much

RESEARCH SOURCE (Title, author, link if available):

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/01/21/nfl-playoff-pay-salary-structure

NOTES FROM SOURCE: Copy/paste or paraphrase relevant details from the source. If you copy/paste be sure you include quotation marks!

• NFL players are the least secure group of athletes—in terms of overall and guaranteed compensation
• NFL player contracts are irrelevant in the playoffs, as postseason pay comes from the league, not the team
• Even a player making the lowest salary allowed, the NFL minimum of $435,000, made almost $26,000 per week this season, still more than any player in the postseason made in the Wild-Card or Divisional playoff round
• .In a “normal” business, employees are often financially rewarded—whether as part of an outlined incentive program or as a discretionary reward—for superior performance.
•  

TEXT OF BLOG POST

(Broken into easy to read paragraphs, formatting font to make it easier to follow main ideas, etc.)

INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH: Despite the importance of postseason games, players earn an absurdly small fraction of what they make during the regular season. It’s the opposite of how almost every other business is run. And it’s also part of the motivation behind the owners’ push for expanded playoffs

• Opening lead sentence to get audience’s attention
• Who/what is the source & why is it reliable
• What is the thesis/argument you will prove in this blog post? (bold these 1-2 sentences in your blog post)

[DELETE THIS & WRITE YOUR INTRO/LEAD PARAGRAPH HERE USING GUIDE ABOVE]

NFL players make a certain amount of money that is determined by the league not the team.  This is why postseason play does not benefit the player that much as they do not make more money than they do typically. NFL players are valued by their original performance.  Tom Brady was a major bargain that took place in the past NFL draft.  He was chosen in the 6th round of the draft and is now one of the best NFL quarterbacks to ever play the game.  If not the best.

2-3 SMALL BODY PARAGRAPHS (Organizes and analyzes evidence from the source about author’s argument). See ideas for organizing your blog post here.

The NFL Draft

BLOG POST #1

• RESEARCH TOPIC/TITLE: The NFL Draft americanfootballfilms.com

• KEY ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE I’M ADDRESSING:  Because of scarcity, people choose.  All choices have an opportunity cost.

• OVERALL RESEARCH QUESTION THAT CONNECTS MY TOPIC TO THE ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE:

How can NFL teams take away the best players from the draft while simultaneously spending less money on players contracts?

• 3-4 SUB QUESTIONS/TOPICS THAT HELP ADDRESS THE OVERALL RESEARCH QUESTION and EMBEDDED LINKS TO RELIABLE SOURCES THAT HELP ANSWER THE QUESTION
• What determines the value of the individual player in the NFL draft?
• Sports Illustrated
• How can teams take away the most valuable player specifically for their team?
• SBNation
• How much money can each team afford to put into contracts each year?
• SB Nation