groundgame

The author? old friend Pete Prisco:

Repeat after me: Free agency's for losers, draft's for winners
April 29, 2006
By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer

Sometimes we wonder why the good teams stay good in the NFL.

Then we have draft day to remind us.

Maroney is the latest great Patriots pick. (Getty Images)
We wait and wait and wait for draft day to roll around, thousands of storylines being bandied about as we prepare for the actual event. Then, as the day rolls on, the hidden storyline that is far more important than any of the others emerges.

It's this: The good teams draft well, the bad teams don't. It's that simple.

The New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts showed us that again Saturday.

They can all find good players, once again proving that they have outstanding personnel departments run by men who care more about football than track numbers.

The Patriots were the first of the four teams to pick Saturday, with the No. 21 spot in the first round. They went for Minnesota running back Laurence Maroney, which was a must since their running game struggled last year and Corey Dillon's career is coming to the end.

New England didn't stop there. After losing David Givens to Tennessee in free agency, they had to get a weapon outside. So they moved up to the top of the second round with a trade and landed Florida's Chad Jackson, a guy some thought would be a mid-first-round pick.

The Patriots know how to get better on draft day, which is why they have been a dynasty the past five years.

Remember all that worry about how the Pats lost too many people in free agency and didn't do anything to replace them? Forget that. They're improved.

Next to show off were the Steelers. They've always been one of the best personnel teams in the league. When a player is ready to leave via free agency, they usually let him go and almost always have a replacement reedy.

Why? They draft well.

We saw it again Saturday. The Steelers lost Antwaan Randle El in free agency, so they had a hole at receiver. Sitting at the No. 32 spot, they saw Ohio State's Santonio Holmes -- a faster Randle El -- sitting on the board. Rather than wait and hope he fell, the Steelers moved up to get him by trading to the No. 25 spot with the Giants.

Hok

Which good picks did the Colts make again?

Prisco's such a Manning jockswinger.

Gon_Trevil

As usual, nothing to see there. I think a middle-schooler could have provided more insight, and in a more interesting manner.

JJDChE

That's what I was going to say. The Colts draft blew chunks.

shirtsleeve

Hey! Chunks is the name of my dog!

shakadave

I think the Eagles would have been a better example for the point Prisco was making. Seems like many of the Eagles' picks were "Patriot-type" players that had been mentioned a lot in this forum.

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Please, God, don't let us ever suck as bad as the 2011 Cowboys did in the Jets opener.
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"I got a little shine on and showed you guys a little taste of my speed."

----Vince Wilfork, Jan. 7, 2007