How will the lockout affect the draft day decisions?

[Hottoddie]

By that I mean, will teams be more likely to select players based upon needs rather than BPA? Or, will they select BPA with the belief that once the CBA is worked out all the players that were tendered will be unrestricted free agents?

Also, since they can't sign any undrated free agent rookies until the CBA is worked out, will we see some players drafted that might have gone undrafted because a team thought they had themselves a hidden gem? The longer that player sits out there, the greater the chance another team might discover them.

All of this is assuming they don't get the CBA resolved by the draft. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Wolf6151]

I think teams will be more likely to draft for need than BPA because there's no guarantee of a FA period or what kind of new terms and restrictions there might be even if there is a FA period prior to the season. Honestly this was very poor timing for a switch to the 3-4 defense.

 

[Hottoddie]

There is another line of thought. There are several teams looking for a QB this year & if the lockout goes through the draft some of those teams might decide to wait & offer a higher future draft pick for someone like Kolb, McNabb, Bulger, Palmer, Young or whomever else is available (Leinart, Smith, Clausen) once the CBA is settled. That would allow them to fill another need with BPA & still get their starting QB for next year. It's going to be an interesting chess match.

 

[Señor Stan]

There is another line of thought. There are several teams looking for a QB this year & if the lockout goes through the draft some of those teams might decide to wait & offer a higher future draft pick for someone like Kolb, McNabb, Bulger, Palmer, Young or whomever else is available (Leinart, Smith, Clausen) once the CBA is settled. That would allow them to fill another need with BPA & still get their starting QB for next year. It's going to be an interesting chess match.

Players can't be traded now that the CBA has expired. Just draft choices.

 

[Hottoddie]

Players can't be traded now that the CBA has expired. Just draft choices.

I guess I wasn't clear enough with my comment. I meant that if there was no new contract until after the draft, some teams might choose to go in another direction during the draft with the belief that once a new CBA is in place they could offer next year's draft pick for one of the QB's I mentioned in a trade.