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This article talks about what "the Chart" is in the NFL and what role it plays in the draft process, how the Chart is used, and some of the criticisms people have had with it throughout the years.

What is "the Chart" and when is it used in the NFL?
To understand what a draft chart is and how it is used in sports, the draft process needs to be discussed first. In all major American sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) the teams in their prospective leagues participate in a yearly draft made up of each teams where they have a chance to select players coming out of college or internationally to join their team. The order in which teams pick, specifically in the NFL, depends on the teams record from that current season with the worst team getting the first pick and the best team getting the last pick. Teams have the choice of staying put and drafting a player, or trading out of their spot to move up or down the draft board. This is where draft charts are utilized by coaches and executives during the process.

Draft charts, or simply known as "the Chart" in the NFL, is a analytical method used by executives and coaches to put a point value on each pick in the draft, declining in value with each subsequent pick. This method was created by minority owner of the Cowboys Mike McCoy, but it is credited to Cowboys Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson. Since its creation, NFL teams use it as their primary method to asses draft value to this day.

How does it work and where does the data come from?
As stated before, the data was created by minority owner Mike McCoy who at the time was an engineer. In a 2007 story for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, McCoy was asked by Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson to come up with a way to quantify the value of each pick so they could have an easier way of assessing trades. The one model he used to come up with point values was 2 third round picks equaled 1 second and went from there.

The point system is based off the trade value each of the picks have depending on their position. For example, The Chart values the 1st pick in the first round at 3000 points, but the 10th pick in the first round is only worth 1300 points. If a team wanted to trade up to that 1st spot from the 10th, they would need to combine picks that would have an equal value to 3000.

What are some examples of The Chart being used today?
Ever since the Chart was created, NFL teams have used the same or adjusted versions of it to be a guide for trading during the draft. According to theScore, they detail multiple instances where the chart was most likely used to help during the trade process. During the 2013 NFL draft the Cleveland Browns traded up from the 9th pick, valued at 1350 points, with the Minnesota Vikings who had the 8th pick which was valued at 1400 points. The Browns also threw in their 145th overall pick valued at 33 points to roughly reach that value of 1400 points for the 8th pick.

Another example provided was the trade between the St. Louis Rams (presently known as the Los Angeles Rams) and the Washington Redskins (presently known as the Washington Football Team) in the 2012 draft when the Redskins traded the 6th overall pick (1600 points), 39th pick (510 points), 2013 first rounder, and a 2014 first rounder for the St. Louis Rams 2nd pick (2600 points). Those future first round picks ended up being the 22nd pick in 2013 (780 points) and the 2nd overall pick in 2014 (2600 points). The Chart doesn't accurately place values of future picks, so Washington had to estimate what those picks would be valued at in the. Picking Robert Griffin III did not work out for Washington, therefore providing the Rams with higher valued picks than previously thought.

In the 2013 draft, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, traded up in this draft to select center from Wisconsin Travis Fredrick. With the chart being out for so long now, the public criticized the Cowboys for being "robbed" in this situation, but creator of the chart Mike McCoy said the chart was supposed to be a rough outline of trade deals and not the end all, be all value of draft picks.

Criticisms of the Chart
One of the criticisms of the Chart was the fact the original chart isn't updated to the modern NFL according to theScore. Chase Stuart of footballperspective.com actually tried to come up with his own updated version of the Chart. The chart he developed uses Approximate Value (AV) to asses the value of these trades, a stat developed by Pro Football Reference that places a value that asses how good a player was in that particular season. In Stuarts most recent chart constructed on November 19th, 2012, he took the AV of a player in his first five seasons and only counted their AV total if it was over 2 since anything at or below that doesn't provide much value to a team. The highest AV a player could provide in his model in one season is 10, but this would only be valued at 8 because the first two points don't count. Therefore, the highest AV a player could have through his five seasons combined is 40 according to Stuarts model. In one example he provides in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns traded their 4th, 118th, 139th, and 211th for the 3rd overall pick with the Minnesota Vikings to draft running back Trent Richardson, who was seen as a bust later on. According to the original chart, the Vikings lost this trade heavily, but the Stuart chart says the Vikings actually won this trade.

Another criticism cited in theScore article is the unpredictability of trading future picks in later drafts and not being to accurately value them. The common practice is with each subsequent year, they need to lower the round of the pick by one. In the St. Louis and Washington trade, the Redskins 2013 future first was valued as the 54th overall pick and the 2014 future first was valued as the 66th overall pick at the time. In actuality, those picks ended up being much higher and turning into the 22nd pick in 2013 and the 2nd pick in 2014.

Cade Massey and Richard Thaler also criticized the Chart for overvaluing early draft picks and not being the proper market price in comparison in conjunction with players being drafted in those spots. Instead of valuing the pick based on its position, they take what they call surplus value. In the study they took all possible trades listed that excluded current NFL players involved in the deal and measured the value of picks relative to the first pick in the draft. They discovered that the chance of the player a pick before another was about a 50-50 chance, with them concluding teams who trade up for the first pick are giving up to much when having a surplus of them is more beneficial in this situation. In another scenario they focused a study centered around the idea of opportunity cost when trading down. They took data from the 1991-2004 draft and analyzed the different trades combinations if they possessed the number 1 pick. By taking the success rate of players from their first five years, this study supported their conclusion of trading down and acquiring more picks would be more beneficial rather than keeping the top pick.