Philadelphia Eagles Legendary Coach, Dick Vermeil Interview

Aug 29, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen (69) talks on the sidelines in the game with the Tennessee Titans at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. Vikings win 24-23. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

BG: It’s obvious you know for teams to hit on their picks in the early stages of the NFL draft, but how important do you think it is for teams to hit on players when we get to the later stages of day two and day three to find those diamond in the rough players?

DV: “To me, that’s what makes your football team. The last draft that I was involved with was 2005, and in the fourth round we drafted Jared Allen, who completely ended up being better than any defensive lineman drafted in the first round. Then, he was also a long-snapper. You gotta be a little bit lucky, and you’ve gotta invest as much time evaluating those guys as you do the higher picks.

Sometimes it takes a little more work, but I remember this, my first three years in the league, we didn’t have a first, second, or third round pick. They had been traded away, but we had great success in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh rounds, and on up, because we didn’t waste any time evaluating the superstars because we couldn’t draft them anyway.

So, we invested more time in the so-called medium to late-round picks, and you know, we ended up hitting on more of ‘em. We got an all-pro running back, an all-pro defensive tackle, an all-pro nose guard, all in the seventh, eighth, ninth round picks. The departments today are also much bigger, that they aren’t spreading themselves too thin when they invest a lot of time on all the kids.”

Next: Importance of Building a Team Through the Draft