If you google the terms 2011 nfl draft big board, you get over two million results. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry puts together a big board of names for their amusement and to try and draw some hits. Last year we began what hopefully can become an annual tradition of determining our own 49ers-based community Big Board. This has been made immensely easier thanks to Chris Pokorny over at Dawgs By Nature, our Browns blog. Chris developed a nice little program that allows us to tabulate votes for the board in a fairly simple manner.
After the jump, you'll find a poll that allows you to rank your top 5 players. I've included a pool of 25 players, whom I grabbed from the Scouts Inc Top 32 over at ESPN.com. I basically listed the top 25 players, although I made a couple small changes to reflect my own personal interest. The poll is on a page within the page so you'll see an option to scroll down to view all 25 players. If anybody has any questions about voting, leave a comment below.
After the jump, I run down what I'd like people to consider when placing their votes. After that you can vote for your top 5. After we get that compiled, we'll remove the top 5 names and vote on 6-10, 11-15, etc.
We're all fairly smart people, but for those who don't quite know all the terminology, each NFL team creates a big board of players they are considering drafting. The 49ers have likely been compiling this year's Big Board since well before this offseason began. Over the course of many months (I'd imagine starting not too long after the 2010 NFL draft), the team has scouted, discussed, and debated the many draft-eligible players. Over the course of that discussion the team comes to some kind of consensus in ranking them starting at 1 and going for however long they feel is necessary.
In the end, I'd imagine each team's big board looks different than any other team because of a single team's own needs. Additionally, a certain character flaw in a player can be enough to nix him on one draft board, and potentially boost him on another.
In doing this community draft board, I'd like you to keep in mind a couple of things. I don't want you ranking players based on where you think they'll be drafted. I want you ranking them based on how they would fit the 49ers needs. The 49ers have a whole variety of needs, so this is not a simple task. The team doesn't need a quarterback, but the team still has to rank Sam Bradford under this hypothetical: If the 49ers were the only team drafting and thus they had access to every player in the draft pool, who would you take first? If that player was gone, who would be their second choice?
Now, if you're a believer in "best player available," rank them accordingly. If you think A.J. Green is the 10th best player on the board for the 49ers purposes, DON'T RANK HIM IN YOUR TOP 5. In the end it comes down to how you value things like need, value, and character. That's not an all-inclusive list, but certainly something to consider.
Niners Nation Community Draft Board
So how will your vote help determine our draft board? Well, the guy you rank 1 gets 5 points, the guy you rank 2 gets 4 points, and so forth. Unranked players get 0 points. The program tallies up all the votes and provides us with a ranking of the 25 players listed. The top 5 point-getters will comprise our top 5.
Again, we're developing a draft board for the 49ers. This is not a mock draft, this does not factor in the needs of other teams, or trades, or anything like that. So, go ahead and vote, and please only vote once. I think technically you could stuff the ballot box, but don't be "that guy." We did this last year and I think folks enjoyed putting together our own draft board. The plan is to post a new poll each morning so make sure and get your vote in today as the poll will be closed when the next poll opens.