Former Minnesota Vikings General Manager Mike Lynn called the NFL draft overrated and traded a thousand picks for Herschel Walker.
That`s how it seems now, as Walker tiptoes into the taekwondo business and the Dallas Cowboys march into the playoffs.
The Cowboys have the Vikings` first, second and third picks in this year`s draft, scheduled for Sunday. The picks are the last remnants of the 1989 trade. Dallas owner Jerry Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson don`t think the draft is overrated at all.
The Bears use the draft almost exclusively as their means to procure players. They would rather draft their own prospects than trade or sign others from the Plan B free-agent lists.
The Washington Redskins don`t put so much stock into developing their own talent. The last No. 1 draft choice of the Redskins before last year was Darrell Green in 1983. Green and 1980 No. 1 pick Art Monk were the only Super Bowl starters picked in the first round by the Redskins.
The Redskins thought the Bears` Wilber Marshall was worth two No. 1 picks, so they signed him as a restricted free agent. The Bears think they are better off with Wendell Davis and Trace Armstrong, the two No. 1s they drafted with Washington`s selections.
Different teams use the draft in different ways. The smart teams invariably use it better than the dumb ones. Although invented to help the bad teams and hurt the good ones, the draft cannot control the intelligence of the drafters.
Lynn thought the `90s, with Plan B and more liberal free agency on the horizon, would see the demise of the draft as the primary method for recruiting. But his Walker trade went overboard, leaving the Vikings a void that will take years to fill.
Lynn sent five players and eight draft choices to the Cowboys, including the first- and second-round picks in 1990, 1991 and 1992. The Cowboys have already parlayed the players and picks into such a bonanza that the ongoing results are impossible to chart.
Under former General Manager Bobby Beathard, the Redskins traded every No. 1 pick from 1984-90 with better results than the Vikings are realizing. When Beathard moved to San Diego, assistant Charley Casserly succeeded him and appeared to change the policy. First, he used the Redskins` No. 1 pick last year to take Bobby Wilson. Then he traded with Beathard to procure an extra No. 1 pick from the Chargers for a second-rounder last year, guard Eric Moten. The world champions now have the sixth and 28th picks in Sunday`s first round. But Casserly has announced he wants to trade the first pick for an established player.
The Green Bay Packers have new drafters this year because the old ones failed. General Manager Ron Wolf and coach Mike Holmgren replaced Tom Braatz and Lindy Infante because the Packers haven`t enjoyed good drafts since Bill Tobin left with the Dan Devine administration in 1975.
”If you look at the drafts the last 10 years there-the highest picks-I think you`d be very surprised at the number of guys who didn`t make it,”
Holmgren said.
Packers fans wouldn`t be surprised at all.
Wolf, who helped conduct successful drafts for the Los Angeles Raiders, says a batting average of .250 is ”darn good” in the draft.
”I`m not talking about the real obvious players now, but when it`s all done, if you`re 25 percent right, you`re good. The guy in Chicago (Tobin) is very good.”
The Packers have the fifth pick and know they have to be better than 25 percent sure of it.
Nobody has drafted better than the San Francisco 49ers since 1979, when they lucked out in the third round and took Joe Montana. Former scouting director Tony Razzano recently quit and always maintained that former coach and General Manager Bill Walsh accepted too much credit for Montana and subsequent drafts.
Montana`s play and Walsh`s coaching, followed by George Seifert`s coaching, helped the 49ers win four Super Bowls. But the underpinnings of sensational drafts were the key. In 1985, the 49ers traded with the New England Patriots to snatch Jerry Rice. In 1986, the results were even more spectacular.
The 1986 draft was weak overall. Of the top 10 players selected, only five remain with the same teams. The 49ers switched places with Dallas in the first round and then traded out of the round with Buffalo for a second and third pick. They traded the second to Detroit for two later picks. Before the draft ended, the 49ers landed Larry Roberts, Tom Rathman, Tim McKyer, John Taylor, Charles Haley, Steve Wallace, Kevin Fagan and Don Griffin-eight starters who would help send the team to two Super Bowls.
Walsh also used some of the spoils from that 1986 draft to trade for Steve Young the next year.
Although not a good draft, the good drafters found a way to make good in 1986. The Bears found Neal Anderson with the last pick in the first round. The Redskins found Mark Rypien in the sixth round.
The Dallas Cowboys and Phoenix Cardinals have zero players to show for their 1986 draft. Several other teams have only one player left.
The Cowboys used their No. 1 pick obtained from the 49ers that year to draft Mike Sherrard. Guess where he is now? Alive and well and with the 49ers. Nothing is more important in ensuring success than meticulous preparation for the draft. Yet in the `40s and `50s, teams came to drafts equipped with magazines as their most reliable scouting tools. The Bears put defensive coach George Allen in charge of drafts in the `60s. By the `70s, former Bears General Manager Jim Finks purposely left coaches out of the process for fear their input would prejudice their coaching.
In 1969, the Bears had so many voices in the draft room they yelled and argued their way past the 15-minute time limit and missed their turn. They jumped back in to select Ohio State tackle Rufus Mayes and announced he was the man they wanted all along.
The late Fido Murphy, who worked for the Bears Mosebar and Thayer ended up saving face for the Raiders and Bears.
Anything that can happen at the draft does happen. The late Norm Van Brocklin got tired by the end of a draft with the Atlanta Falcons and selected ”John Wayne, Apache University.”
When the Raiders were in Oakland, Wolf got caught on a drawbridge one year and listened to half the first round on his radio. There are no drawbridges on his way to Lambeau Field, but there are pitfalls everywhere.
