How all 16 NFC teams were built
Inspired by last week's piece on the Seattle Seahawks' prowess in turning late-round draft picks into starters, I decided to dig deeper to gauge how much Pete Carroll's roster stands as an outlier.
Which teams rely almost solely on the first few rounds of the draft? Are any playoff rosters assembled primarily through free agency? How detrimental is it to suffer a draft drought after years of nailing picks?
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys: Jerry Jones' squad is viewed as a deep-pocketed one reliant on big free agency splashes. On the contrary, this roster was built through the draft's first three rounds, bolstered by a few players who fell through the draft cracks such as Tony Romo, Miles Austin and Barry Church.
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NFC North
Green Bay Packers: Perhaps no organization's style is as distinctive as Ted Thompson's Packers, which didn't carry a single free-agent acquisition from the past half-decade. Thompson has made up for scant first-round production the past three years by dumpster-diving for starters and key role players in the mid- to-late rounds of the draft.
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NFC South
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New Orleans Saints: Conventional wisdom posits that a successful NFL team can't be assembled via free agency. The 2013 Saints roster argues otherwise. Drew Brees rivals Reggie White as the best free-agent signee in NFL history. He was joined by the league's best passing-down back, two starting cornerbacks, two starting linebackers and a Pro Bowl guard.
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NFC West
Arizona Cardinals: The backbone of the roster was acquired in the draft's first three rounds. Like most regime changes, though, this franchise required a free-agent binge to fill out the roster last offseason. The Cardinals were successful on that front, importing Karlos Dansby, John Abraham and a cast of solid starters.
San Francisco 49ers: Jim Harbaugh's squad came to be an NFC powerhouse on the strength of an almost unparalleled seven-year stretch of first-round studs from Vernon Davis and Patrick Willis in 2006 through Aldon Smith in 2011. Key pieces were added via trade (Anquan Boldin) and the second and third rounds, but Rounds 4 through 7 have been fruitless.
Seattle Seahawks: The impetus for this project, the Super Bowl champions are the NFL's model franchise for the concept of competition winning out over draft pedigree. Although several trades (Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin, Chris Clemons) and free agents (Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril) were instrumental, no other organization comes close to matching the dozen draft picks from Rounds 4 through 7 playing key roles in 2013.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000325732/article/what-we-learned-about-roster-construction-of-the-nfc