http://www.draftmetrics.com/files/THE BEST JOB OF DRAFTING.pdf Very interesting data. Over a 10 year period, the Dolphins are overall the 19th best drafting team in the league (or the 13th worst, whichever way you look at it.) Over the past 5 years though, according to their metrics and formula, Miami is the 2nd best drafting team in the NFL.
Their metrics are based almost entirely on starts which doesn't necessarily account for how good a player is. Sure, Jon Martin was a starter but he wasn't very good. Plus the drafting team gets credit for starts on other teams. We get credit for guys like Langford and Donald Thomas even though they don't play here anymore, for several years in Thonas's case. Interesting article but not sure it really evaluated what is or isn't a good draft
Nice find. Give you a better idea of perception vs. reality. I wonder what the average lifespan is for a drafted player staying in the NFL?
While their may be a minor flaw in looking at starts and basing a big portion of the formula off the # of starts amassed, it is still a better way of evaluating that the subjective way many Dolphins fans have evaluated the Dolphins performance in the draft. It puts an objective number on things and allows you to look at the performance of each team eliminating the bias that plays out when you look at only subjective information.
As long as the point of the league if not winning Superbowls, we'll be fine with this metric for assessing success, Now if only we can improve and be more like Kansas!
