I would find it a near certainty that the team's personnel evaluators were either letting public consensus enter their evaluation, or sharing private information with draftniks. Either option contaminates both information sources so they can no longer be combined cleanly at the end.If a FO does all their research with all their pros and makes the picks they are confident with, why would you criticize the team if it looks like a draft reporter’s list? Shouldn’t you rather, based on your previous sentence, give credit to the reporter for accurately predicting what the paid scouts and coach/GM were going to pick?
Even the most thorough public draft analysis that consists of half a dozen smart guys working together ala PFN pales compared to a single NFL team. The Hawks have 20+ employees in our scouting department alone and they attend college games/combine/senior bowl/pro days in person. They get private medical information, conduct private interviews, and pay people to do private background checks. If Dane Brugler comes up with the same list as we do from his couch then there's a major problem somewhere.