2024 NFL Draft Roundtable: Is the NFL Draft overrated?

There is no doubt that the NFL Draft is one of the most popular events in all of sports. But is it overrated?

Broncos Country—it’s officially NFL Draft Week and you know what that means. Our annual Mile High Report NFL Draft Roundtable discussions are back!

For our fourth installment, I wanted to see how the staff felt about the NFL Draft in general. We all know it’s an opportunity for the Denver Broncos and every other team in the league to help build for the future, but is the spectacle really that important overall in the team-building process knowing roughly 75-percent of selections bust out by the end of their rookie deals?

With that in mind, I asked the staff “Is the NFL Draft overrated?”

Scotty Payne

No.

Laurie Lattimore-Volkmann

Overrated for whom? It’s huge for the players, game-changing or fire-worthy for the coaches and good for months of debate among fans. Totally worth the hype.

Tim Lynch

To an extent. So much emphasis is put on “theoretical value” that it does detract from reality sometimes. What is a first-round worth if you hit on a franchise quarterback? I’d trade three first-round picks every time if it meant a franchise quarterback. That said, if you trade up to draft a guy who never plays then there is some value or potential value lost on the back side of that trade. Overall, I think good drafting is vital to team building, but it’s not the only thing.

Adam Malnati

Yes.

Ian St. Clair

Just like everything with the NFL, it’s become a spectacle. It’s a piece to the puzzle of putting a franchise together, but it’s not the end all be all that it’s become either.

Scotty Payne (Part II)

There are some bad takes in here. Look at the top teams in the league, they’re all pretty good at drafting. They find talent in every round and have good depth because of this. This allows them to collect compensatory picks each and every year. The Broncos are on the opposite end of that spectrum, and it is a big reason why they’re a bottom tier team. Saying the draft is overrated is asinine. It’s a key part of roster building.

Christopher Hart

It’s definitely an important aspect of creating a vision for a team. It’s essential for rejuvenating a roster and replacing old players with young players. It helps craft the future. It’s an opportunity to change the course of the franchise with just a few selections.

Look at what the Houston Texans did last year with C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson. Those guys are going to be dominant forces in the league at quarterback and EDGE for a very long time. It’s easier said that done, but when you hit like that—it can change everything. I’m impressed with what Nick Caserio and DeMeco Ryans are building down there.

Like Scotty said, most of the best teams in the league are really good at drafting. There are exceptions to the rule, like those who inherited or had a long-term franchise quarterback from years ago, but more often than not—you need to draft well to be a contender in the National Football League.

But it’s kind of important to realize that most of these picks don’t ever work out. There are a lot of reasons for that. Constant coaching and scheme changes, off the field stuff, character issues, etc. Those things that are really hard to quantify and measure. It’s something that scouts and teams are always looking to build upon and improve.

But as a whole? No, I don’t think it’s overrated. There might be a lot more media hype and coverage building it up now than in years past, but that’s kind of cool. It’s exciting to see all the analysis and varying opinions from not just professional analysts, but fans like us. Over half my life ago when I started scouting players, I was using old school TVs and VHS tapes to record games on TV. Now we have much better access to information and tape that can help form better opinions. I think it’s all pretty fascinating and cool.

What do you think, Broncos Country? Is the NFL Draft overrated? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.