Proper strategy in the draft is extremely crucial to a team's long term success in the NFL. Throughout history it has been proven time and time again that the teams that consistently draft better will have a higher probability of success. The NFL is a league that has a lot of parity so the margin for error is tiny. To win week in and week out a team must have a variety of good players and depth at each position. In the modern day era of the salary cap the only way to ensure long term success is through the draft.
Playing professional football is a very physically challenging game, so much so that each year many players get injured for significant amounts of time. As a result of this a team has to plan for the possibility that a key piece of their team will not be there. Each team has to have as quality a backup as they can at every position. Bringing in young, hungry players through the draft is the best way to accomplish this. It also helps to have more guys in camp because they will push each other to greater heights. No one wants to get cut or ride the bench; they come to give 100%. This is why it's so important to have many draft picks and a good talent scout. Great backups or even top-notch starters can be found at every level of the draft. The NFL is loaded with very good players who were drafted after the 3rd round. Superstars like Tom Brady and Kurt Warner are two great examples of late round picks. Not only does the draft help you build depth but it gives you your teams' starters of tomorrow. It's rare for a player to stay on the same team his whole career and when he leaves he will need to be replaced. Having a player who knows the system and has been there for awhile is better than going through free agency or drafting and starting a rookie.
The salary cap is another reason that the draft has become so important. A NFL team can only spend so much money each year on its players; this was done to help even out the league. This prevents a big market team, like the Dallas Cowboys, from being able to buy all the good players from a small market team like the Green Bay Packers. The salary cap works as the great equalizer. This makes a team decide what positions and players they will spend the top money on and where they will compromise. Most spend a lot of money at key positions; quarterback, wide receiver running back, defensive end etc. Yet we must remember there are 22 starters and 53 players on an NFL team, they can't all be top paid proven veterans.
When players get drafted they get paid according to the spot at which they are drafted. Someone taken in the 6th round does not make as much as the number 1 overall pick. This is why it's so important to have many picks and a good talent scout. Every team knows that to stay under the salary cap they are going to have to have a certain number of unknown low-paid guys. However they want these players to be as good as possible in the event the starter gets hurt or traded away. The rookie contract will usually be 3-5 years long. This allows the team to keep him at a very low price and hopefully develop him into a good player. This creates two scenarios; where they get a good young player cheap for a couple years and then keep him and pay him more money, or after the contract is up they get a good solid veteran and more draft picks that they can hopefully do the same thing with. This makes a constant flow of young hungry players making up the majority of your 53 man roster. They need to be as good as possible to create value for your team, hopefully now and later.
A proper draft strategy will ensure quality players on your team year in and year out. That is why a good general manager is so important; it's his job to draft. He needs to work hand in hand with the coach to draft players the type of players that fit into the scheme the coach is trying to run. Not only that, he has to always have his eye on the future. Trying to sell out for a year or two to stack your team has never worked; we need only to look at the Washington Redskins for a shining example of that strategy. It's a long though out half-science, half-art form process, but one that is worth its weight in gold if done correctly.