Economist Kevin Hassett has taken to assessing NFL teams’ draft choices based on the Thaler-Massey strategy, which emphasizes a player’s value (based on performance and salary).
Hassett identifies four winners: New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions Lions, and New York Giants.
New England’s coach, Bill Belichick,…ditched his first-round pick altogether and loaded up on four second-rounders. In addition, he traded some of his later picks for other teams’ second-round picks next year. The big news is that the Giants maneuvered to get two second-round and two third-round picks, elevating their final scores.
The big losers were the Washington Redskins, the New York Jets, and the San Francisco 49ers.
The Redskins once again revealed their extreme economic ignorance, trading away their second-round and fourth-round picks…The Jets made a classic error, falling in love with University of Southern California quarterback Mark Sanchez and virtually guaranteeing they will have a large number of undrafted scrubs on their roster. Given the high salaries at the top of the draft, Sanchez will probably not generate much value above that demanded by his salary, even if he becomes a superstar.
Thaler loves the Patriots draft and also gives a positive review to the Cleveland Browns. After entering the draft with the 5th pick overall, the Browns traded down three times to take center Alex Mack with the 21st pick, plus defensive end Kenyon Coleman, quarterback Brett Ratliff, safety Abram Elam, a second round pick from the Jets, and sixth round picks from the Buccaneers and the Eagles. That’s a lot of chances to pick up some solid starting players. Football pundits didn’t think so highly of the Browns draft, but none of them are economists.
Tags: NFL draft
Nudge blog 
April 30, 2009 at 3:29 am |
On a more interesting note in relation to a possible pending pandemic, how about a discussion of public health nudges that might come in handy for (1) changing behavior (hand washing, etc.) and for (2) helping the public get a clearer and realistic understanding of pandemic risks.