How NFL Teams Really Make Their Draft Picks

Jerry Jones was infatuated with Johnny Manziel, the rock-and-rolling, Heisman-winning quarterback out of Texas A&M. Thought he’d be the perfect fit for the Cowboys. And as anyone who follows the NFL knows, Jones is the type of team owner who makes his own calls in the draft.

Commissioner Roger Goodell approached the stage to announce the Cowboys pick. The TV commentators were talking about Manziel. The network had a camera trained on him to show his reaction just after the pick was made. Everyone was just waiting to hear his name called.

And then the moment came. “With the 16th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys select Zack Martin, guard, Notre Dame.”

How did it happen? How did Dallas avoid busting on the player the ultimate decision-maker loved? What made them pass on a player we now know as an NFL washout in favor of a player we now know as a two-time All-Pro?

Here’s how: Jones listened to reason—and to fists pounding on the table.

It can be unhealthy for an owner to have all of the drafting juice if his subordinates are afraid to challenge him. But it doesn’t have to be. 

Stephen Jones, Jerry’s son and the Cowboys’ player personnel director, was among those in the team’s draft room that day, warning about Manziel’s off-field behavior, lack of size and inexperience running a conventional offense.

“If you had an owner who didn’t listen, that would be a negative,” Stephen Jones said. “But Jerry is a great listener. He loves to have long discussions about guys, hear the whys and why nots and play devil’s advocate.”

This conversation, this give and take between advice and power, is the key to the NFL draft. It’s what every team has to balance this time of year.

Is the draft room a democracy, dictatorship or monarchy? Is power distributed evenly between the three branches—executive, scouting and coaching? Is there value in referendums?

The decisions a team makes in how it answers these questions, how it governs its draft room, are more critical to its success than any 4th-and-1, game-on-the-line decision in any big game.

 

The role of the owner

Some team owners believe they are the most qualified to run the draft. Jones has the final word for the Cowboys, as does Mike Brown for the Bengals, just as Al Davis and George Halas once did. Jimmy Haslam may be on his way to becoming the loudest voice for the Browns, as he has been researching how other teams work when the owner sits on the personnel throne.

There are advantages to this structure. The most significant is this: The owner will not be influenced by fear of drafting a bust.

“It’s easier for an owner to take a Dez Bryant [who has a troubled past and volatile personality] after a lot of people pass on him,” Stephen Jones said. “Jerry is an entrepreneur. He’s been a risk-taker all his life.”

Security can be a double-edged sword for the drafter, though.

The Cowboys made the right call on Manziel, but last May they went out on a limb for defensive end Randy Gregory, who had been passed over 59 times after failing a drug test at the combine. Gregory now will be suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy, and Jones has been hearing from the critics.

A team owner likely can’t know as much about a draft as someone whose sole job it is to study the prospects. Owners are pulled in many directions and often have other business interests.

Realizing this, Dan Snyder of the Redskins has altered his approach, relying on general manager Scot McCloughan to call the shots. In fact, McCloughan said Snyder declined an invitation to join a draft-room meeting two weeks before the draft last year.

“He said, ‘I’m not going in there. You’ll embarrass me,'” McCloughan said. “He equated it to me talking about the stock market.”

Some general managers seek out input from owners.

“Our owner played in the league at a high level,” Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman said of Jerry Richardson, a former NFL wide receiver. “I truly value what he has to say.”

Most owners have a limited role in the draft. Some choose to be responsible only for giving a thumbs up or thumbs down on character risks.

Giants owner John Mara empowers general manager Jerry Reese to have final say in most matters. But Mara sits in on draft meetings and studies the book of scouts’ reports. And if there is a disagreement between Reese and the head coach, Mara casts the tiebreaker.

In 1995, the Giants’ decision-makers found themselves in a dispute while on the clock over which running back they should take with the 17th pick. General manager George Young and the scouts wanted Tyrone Wheatley. Head coach Dan Reeves and the assistant coaches wanted Rashaan Salaam. Just before time expired, Young got his way and the Giants picked Wheatley.

Mara remembers the uneasy feeling as the seconds wound down on their pick that day. In order to avoid similar panicked decisions, he said he now presides over a meeting a day or two before the draft. Mara, Reese, head coach Ben McAdoo, senior vice president of player evaluation Chris Mara and vice president of player evaluation Marc Ross will spend a couple of hours trying to envision every possible scenario and conclude how they would handle it.

The draft-room blowup might make for a dramatic movie scene, but it’s more likely to play out in Hollywood than East Rutherford, or anywhere there is a draft room.

“If there is a disagreement during the draft, we might walk out of the room and talk it out out of earshot of our scouts and assistant coaches,” Mara said.

 

The role of the GM

Most owners hire general managers to conduct the draft-room orchestras. In theory, at least, the general manager should have the best grasp of what the organization is trying to …

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