What is the 2016 Sturm Draft Project?

What is the 2016 Sturm Draft Project?

It is the effort to do our normal due diligence to get to know the top players in the NFL Draft.  We have done this for every draft for a long, long time, but we have focused our efforts to try to do our own homework since 2011 with our own study and analysis.

Yes, this could be considered faulty based on our normal opening paragraph: 

I have never been a scout or a NFL General Manager, but I am willing to watch a ton of football. By watching about 200 snaps of each prospect, we can really get a feel for a player and then know what we are talking about a bit better. It is no exact science, but the NFL hasn't quite figured out drafting either, so we are going to do the best we can.

Bob, How do you pick which players to profile?

My aim is to get through as many players as possible with the goal of 4 per week.  Last year we got through 75-80 players, but most year’s (including this one, I believe, it will be 50).  I talk to scouts and absolutely use opinions of smart draft people to cast a wide net.  

This won’t be the Top 50 players – because nobody knows who that will be until the draft happens.  Rather, it will be our best guess of guys who are in the mix for the Cowboys 3 picks in this draft at #4, #34, and #67. 

I will break them down in no particular order and eventually I will stack them up in a mini-board like the one we ended up with in 2015.  

One prospect a day, using at least 3 full-length games of at least 200 total snaps.  If time permits, I will try a 2^nd pass on candidates for #4 to get that snap total up to 400. 

Bob, how do you pick which games to use?

I am happy you asked.  Well, I have about 200 games available on my hard drive from 2015 and 200 more from 2014.  I pick from what I have, but I generally am looking for the 3 hardest opponents on hand.  That could mean a program or it could mean that I want to see them play against another draft prospect.  Watching guys play against substandard competition does not help when trying to project a player at the NFL level.  There are several prospects from previous years that put up their numbers against their worst 5 opponents.  That isn't very useful for this project.

We might disagree on players, but that is what this is all about.  Don’t take other people’s word for a player.  Do your own work.  Look at the players yourself and form your own opinion.  Or let me do it and tell me what you think.

Enjoy the draft season and if the Cowboys do it right, they won’t have to pick so high next year!