With all the time, effort, and money spent on the draft process

[Skull and Bones]

20-23% of all guys that collected a paycheck last year in the NFL were undrafted.  About the same percentage of 1st and 2nd rounders.  Our starting LT and Sam backer were undrafted.  Just goes to show what a crapshoot this really is.

[rocko23]

this is very true, lets just hope we get some great value from our latter round pics

[Fresh]

We really need to think about just trading away our day 2 picks. Alan Zemaitis,Julian Jenkins,T.J Williams,Chris Colmer,Marquis Cooper, Donte Nicheslon, Will Allen. I hope we do a better job

[MarleyMon81]

Hey Fresh, Cooper was actually a 1st Day (3rd round) pick in 2004...which actually makes it seem an even worse pick.

Just imagine if they had selected Anderson over Jenkins last year.  Our need for a pure speed edge rusher would be greatly reduced if Mark Anderson would have been the pick.  Oh well...water under the bridge now.

[Fresh]

Hey Fresh, Cooper was actually a 1st Day (3rd round) pick in 2004...which actually makes it seem an even worse pick.

Just imagine if they had selected Anderson over Jenkins last year. Our need for a pure speed edge rusher would be greatly reduced if Mark Anderson would have been the pick. Oh well...water under the bridge now.

Dude if we would have drafted Anderson,we could right now trade Rice. Have a young stud DE,and all we would have to do is draft a LDE at 2b  to replace Greg Spires. I like Ikaika Alama-Francis, great height at 6'5 ran a 4.85 and plays at 280. We need to take a look at him.

[caradoc]

but look at the stats on the number of starters from the various rounds.  While in any given season there may be a fair amount who don't work out, over time the earlier picks fill a much higher percentage of the starting ranks (just under 60% of all starters are rd 1-3, and 4-6 are about another 20%).  UDFA's are just over 15% of starters.

20-23% of all guys that collected a paycheck last year in the NFL were undrafted.  About the same percentage of 1st and 2nd rounders.  Our starting LT and Sam backer were undrafted.  Just goes to show what a crapshoot this really is.

Again, look at starters.

[Skull and Bones]

I know most of them are not starters but as others have pointed out we need to hit on more of our day 2 picks if all these undrafted FAs are making rosters.

[badaBucs1987]

very true you are...as we look as guys like Brad Johnson who have won us a Super Bowl.  You also have the guys like Quarles and Garcia were key contributors.  However, as you are correct, it is very important.  Teams build through the draft.

Heck We got Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks in the first.  We got John Lynch and Mike Alstott as well under Sam Wyche.  If we could have kept drafting good under MCkAY-dUNGY ERA we might have not been as bad as we were in our rebuilding years.

But Riedol Anthony, Jazqueez Green, and Kenyatta Walker just aren't going to cut it.  So as yeah, the draft is over-rated, in the same sense, it could make or break your team in the future...