We’ve all heard of the drafting the Best Player Available, especially in the early rounds of the draft. But what if a particular position was loaded with BPA’s? In other words, what if Defensive Tackle had 5 potential first rounders, each with very similar levels of talent? Conversely what if a position, say tight end (TE), only had one player who merits first round selection. Would logic dictate you draft the TE? Applying the same thought process to the entire first and second rounds, does it make sense for teams to focus on the more scarce talent? If so, what does that mean for the Rams’ draft strategy?

This morning, CBS Sports updated their ranking of the Top 100 players in this year’s draft class. With a bit of Excel Spreadsheet-ery, I uncovered which positions had the most talent in this year’s draft. Here are the results:

From the looks of things, in the first two rounds, the Rams could hold off on drafting defensive line talent. That’s good news, considering we spent a first round pick on Michael Brockers last year, and already have a fearsome defensive line. But will Fisher be able to resist? If Fish can beat back the temptation to draft a D-lineman, will he be inclined to take the Scarcest Talent Available approach? Based on the breakdown above, that would imply drafting a LB, Safety, or TE, at least in the first round, then picking up defensive line talent in the later rounds. In this scenario, the Rams could conceivably draft Kenny Vaccarro (not my favorite) with the 16 pick, then Tyler Eifert with pick 22. Then the Rams could focus on selecting an OT in the second round or beyond because there are a relatively large number of O-linemen available in the top 100 - the Same goes for wide receiver. Just for information’s sake, here are some wide receiver names we are less familiar with, and are considered to be in the top 100 football players in this year’s draft: Quinton Patton (LA Tech), Justin Hunter (Tennessee), Aaron Dobson (Marshall), Ryan Swope (Texas A&M), and Marquise Goodwin (Texas).

What do you think about drafting the Scarcest Player Available? Would you be happy with Vaccarro and Eifert in the first, then a player like Terron Armstead (OT, Ark. Pine Bluff) or Aaron Dobson (WR, Marshall) in the second round? Lemme know what y’all think.