re: ESPN:Saints offer an instructive alternative approach.

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They really do it both ways. 18, 17, 15 were all draft years with lots of volume.

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It's not the fact that we NEVER draft "straight", but that we trade up more than any other team in the league to target players, as well as use picks to trade for players (did this more often in the early Payton years with guys like Vilma and Shockey, but have also done it recently with guys like Teddy and J. Jenkins).

We do specific player targeting more than any other team, while many teams are content to just wait or even trade back.

It has produced what I imagine is the fewest amount of picks in the league over that time, yet one of the highest hit rates in rounds 1-3, and in later rounds in which we traded up or in to target specific guys.

For us it works. Most teams (and fans) consider it blasphemous and have been saying for YEARS it'll catch up to us.