Commentary

Picky, picky

Which NFL draft war rooms reign? Football Outsiders ranks 'em all.

Updated: April 20, 2010, 11:33 AM ET

By Aaron Schatz | Football Outsiders

This story appears in the April 19 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

For each team's picks from 2000 to 2007, Footballl Outsiders calculated the Games Started Above Average (GSAA), a weird-science metric that compares the number of starts a player had during his first five seasons to the starts of a baseline player of similar draft value. But we also factored in the draft history, expertise of decision-makers and overall efficiency of every operation to get our 1-32 ranking. Sorry, Oakland!

*Denotes teams where the current decision-makers didn't take over until 2006 or later.

1. Indianapolis Colts

It's a family affair: President Bill Polian has been the main man since 1998, and son Chris has been groomed to take the reins. Polian finds value in undersized, unheralded players, such as six-foot LB Clint Session ('07, RD4). He's also unconventional, drafting three centers in 2008.

GSAA: 4.43

You know who's first, and you can probably guess which NFL team is last, but to read the rest of Football Outsiders' war room rankings you must be an ESPN Insider.