When making mock drafts, we tend to look at a team’s depth chart, identify its least attractive position and peg that as the team need. Smart front offices take it a step further, though. They look at their coaching staff’s scheme to identify the need within the need. A team needs a linebacker. O.K., but what type of linebacker? Every team says it takes the best player available and that their coaches will fit the scheme to their personnel. That’s not how it actually goes—even if the team truly believes it.
Most coaches coach what they know.