NFL.com

These days, when I'm not eating, sleeping or yapping on NFL Network, I'm mock drafting. Pro Football Focus' mock draft simulator is a great way to run through some of the scenarios that we could encounter at the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas (April 28-30). The cool thing about this PFF tool is that you can adjust the settings to shape how the simulated picks are made -- and that's what I did in this piece, looking to explore the age-old debate of drafting for need vs. taking the best player available (BPA). Most -- if not all -- general managers will tell you that they always employ a BPA strategy, but you know need plays a role at some point. So I ran two simulations with the PFF mock draft machine: In the first go-around, I turned the settings all the way up on 'Draft for needs' and all the way down on 'Care for positional value'; in the second, I reversed those settings. This gave me a NEED and BPA option in each first-round slot. Ultimately, I chose one or the other for each pick, chronologically working my way from No. 1 through 32 like a real draft, taking players off the board as they were selected.