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How the NFL’s best teams outsmart everyone in the draft

Let’s look at the past eight years of draft data to see how the five best NFL teams (over the past five years) tend to approach NFL Draft strategy.Watch on YouTube | Subscribe to SB Nation on YouTube

The Patriots, Broncos, Packers, Seahawks and Bengals have the NFL’s best total regular season record over the past five seasons. If we go back a few years before that to 2008, relative to league averages, certain trends and differences start to stand out, such as:

• Which of the best five teams have completely ignored first round offensive skill (QB, RB, WR, TE) talent?
• Is there a dropoff for offensive line value?
• Which of the best teams looks at later rounds (fourth to seventh) to stockpile defensive talent?
• What side of the ball have the Patriots loaded up on in the early rounds (first to third)?
• What positions have the Broncos focused on to help build depth for their recent Super Bowl run?
• How have the Packers maintained an explosive offense without giving Aaron Rodgers first-round offensive weapons?
• Which group has more overall picks: the NFL’s best or the league average?