There are so, so, so many ways to build a professional sports franchise. You know, teams buy players in free agency, they sign developing players before their peak at a discount, they trade for “system fit” players whom they believe will excel within their scheme, and then they draft them. In football, building through the NFL’s rookie draft isn’t just a strategy, it’s an ethos.
But doing it successfully is seldom easy, takes sometimes as much luck as player evaluation and process skills, and it’s rarely a quick path to success. That’s why the Sashi Brown-led teardown of the Cleveland Browns was received with so many mixed feelings over the last two seasons.