SB Nation's 2015 NFLDraft Preview

Building for the Future

The San Francisco 49ers could have kept their original first-round pick, the No. 32, in the 1985 NFL Draft and gone in a more conventional direction. After all, Bill Walsh's team had just won the Super Bowl; they were obviously doing something right. Instead, the Niners pulled off a last-minute trade with the Patriots to get the No. 16 pick, jumping in front of the Cowboys to nab a 6'2, 200-pound receiver out of Mississippi Valley State, Jerry Rice.

Most teams at that time didn't feel like Rice was worth a first-round pick because his 40 time was slow. San Francisco saw something else: their own future.

Walsh's 49ers had already set off a revolution in pro football, a league with prolific offenses powered by the passing game. A few other teams had already embraced that approach by the time the 49ers had won their first two Super Bowls. The Dolphins had Dan Marino. The Broncos had John Elway. The game was changing, and the 49ers wanted to have the pieces to keep their place in the coming arms race.

San Francisco went on to win three more Super Bowls after drafting Rice, who went on to break a pile of records himself.

In the 30 years since the 49ers drafted Rice, prolific offenses have become commonplace in the NFL. The Niners team that won Super Bowl XXIX in 1995 was only the third team to score more than 500 points in a single season. Since then, it's been done 14 times, seven times in the last five seasons.

Every team stacks its draft board with an eye toward the future, hoping that this latest group of rookies can be the cornerstones for the next great team, one that can score at will or clamp down on the offensive proliferation that's become the hallmark of the modern NFL.

Finding franchise quarterbacks

Montana, Elway, Manning, Brady, Rodgers ... it's tough to build a dynasty without the right signal caller. The Buccaneers are expected to make a quarterback the first overall pick in this year's draft, either Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota. That will be the sixth time in the last decade a quarterback has been the first player selected in the draft.

But picking a quarterback first overall is still no guarantee for success. Since 2000, Eli Manning is the only quarterback taken with the first pick who has won a Super Bowl.

Reliable pass protection

With the investments teams make in their quarterbacks, it's essential to give them some protection from a glut of pass rushers who have flooded the league in recent years. Offensive tackles have been another popular pick for teams in the draft's early rounds. and another run on the position is likely again this year. Ju'Wuan James was the surprise entrant to the first round last year -- he was taken way, way above where he was projected, and it wouldn't be a big surprise to see something like that happen again, perhaps with several players.

As many as nine tackles could go in the first round this year, and teams will scour the later rounds of the draft looking for help at what's become a cornerstone position. It also means that an early run on tackles could lead to a surplus of other positions in the later rounds.

Another big year for receivers

There seems to be a superabundance of highly talented receivers entering the draft for the second season in a row. Last year, five receivers went in the first round -- Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Brandin Cooks, and Kelvin Benjamin -- and another seven went in the second round. This year, it's not out of the realm of possibility to see eight receivers go in the first -- Alabama's Amari Cooper, West Virginia's Kevin White, Louisville's DeVante Parker, Central Florida's Breshad Perriman, Oklahoma's Dorial Green-Beckham, Arizona State's Jaelen Strong, USC's Nelson Agholor, and Miami's Phillip Dorsett come to mind.

Beyond that group of players, vigilant teams will comb the later rounds for help at one of the most valuable positions in the game. You can't build for the future without top-notch skill players, and teams aren't willing to miss out on the next Jerry Rice like they were three decades ago.

Running back rebound

The devaluation of running backs has been a hot topic over the past few years, but if 2015 is any indication it may be a little overblown. Creative coaches are finding new ways to put points on the board these days. MVP-caliber seasons from DeMarco Murray and Marshawn Lynch mean that running backs are again part of the recipe for team-building.

The drought of first-round running backs may come to a close. It's expected that Todd Gurley and Melvin Gordon will each hear their names called in the first round. Past that, there's plenty of talent in the second and third rounds, making this one of the stronger running back classes in recent memory. Is the devaluation of running backs reversing course?

Boise State's Jay Ajayi, Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah, Indiana's Tevin Coleman, Miami's Duke Johnson, Alabama's T.J. Yeldon, Northern Iowa's David Johnson, South Carolina's Mike Davis, Minnesota's David Cobb, and USC's Buck Allen all seem poised to make some noise in the NFL and a few of them just might be the kind of player at the heart of a dynasty.

Look for long, tall cornerbacks

Plenty of teams are guided by the principle that a good defense trumps everything else. As a result, the value of cornerbacks and pass rushers has grown in response to prolific passing attacks.

The Seahawks and their Legion of Boom are the best example for the move to longer, angular cornerbacks on the outside, but there's been a slow shift to it NFL-wide with the ever-increasing prevalence of big, highly athletic receivers. How do you match up with Demaryius Thomas? Dez Bryant? Calvin Johnson or A.J. Green? Well, you need big, tall, fast, and long cornerbacks who can hang with them step-for-step while still being able to apply some muscle at the line of scrimmage.

Draft a shutdown corner, and he can be the nucleus of a stifling defense.

Pass rushing power

If teams at the top of the draft aren't picking a quarterback, you can usually expect to see a pass rusher get taken there. Last year, the Houston Texans added Jadeveon Clowney to their defensive talent base, a bookend to franchise cornerstone J.J. Watt.

Eight pass rushers went in the first round last year. The year before that, teams spent 10 picks on players who specialize in getting to the quarterback. The 2015 draft class is once again heavy on players who fit the bill for that; as many as a dozen could go in the opening round.

Building blocks

Smart teams can find franchise building blocks in every round of the draft. Tom Brady didn't get drafted until the sixth round in 2000. The Seahawks found Richard Sherman waiting for them in fifth round four years ago. It's not the round where a player gets picked so much as it is the player himself and the coaches and general managers who see a diamond in the rough.

It will take years before we can reasonably identify the best players to come out of the 2015 NFL Draft, when those green rookies have grown into franchise cornerstones. Nevertheless, it's important to remember that dynasties are built on draft day.