The Best NFL Draft Websites of 2007

It’s time for my annual review of the best NFL Draft Web Sites on the internet. Last year was my first year doing this when I rated the Best NFL Draft Web Sites for 2006. I had such tremendous feedback I thought I would make this an annual event. So now with another year under my belt I thought I would rate the top NFL Draft Web Sites for 2007. This year I decided to try to make it a little more scientific. I am letting the two main search engines on the internet, Google and Yahoo, help me with the rankings this year as I am using their search results as part of my evaluation criteria. I am ruling out sites that make you pay to read their content as well as sites that branch heavily into other areas besides the NFL Draft, like fantasy football or sports betting.

I am also using only full featured NFL Draft Sites, so all these mock Draft databases only, are out. I have nothing against them, I have a Mock Draft Database myself and I frequently visit Hailredskins.com, they are hugely popular, I am just not including them in this evaluation. Some of the other criteria I utilize is content, I want to see quality, original content. If the site doesn’t have updated, quality information, no matter how high it ranks in Google, it is worthless.

I also took into account ease of use, I like web sites that open up fast, are easy to navigate and don’t have a lot of fancy java script and flash on them, less flare and more substance, that’s what I like. Last but not least this year I tried to limit my selection to NFL Draft Sites that have been around a while, so if you are brand new and don’t have any page rank yet, keep working and I will take a look at your site next year. So if I missed anybody, don’t take it personnel, my staff and I worked long and hard at this, but decided to narrow it down to only the top ten NFL Draft Web Sites of 2007.

1. NFL Draft Countdown:
The NFL Draft champion for the second consecutive year. Scott Wright does a magnificent job in web design, content and marketing. He actually traveled to the Senior Bowl himself and provided his readers with live reports from Mobile, Alabama. He was also featured on CSTV at halftime of the Texas vs. Nation All Star game. He does put some annoying pop-ups on his site still, but outside of that, NFL Draft Countdown brings a lot of credibility to the table, and when it’s all said and done, that’s what really matters. Scott’s annual Mock Draft is widely considered the industry standard.

2. Walter Football:
Site owner Walter Cherepinsky has done a fantastic job with this site. Walter football has ranked very well in Google all year and is probably not far behind NFL Countdown as far as traffic goes. He and his staff have put together a ton of great content and Walt himself is quick to answer emails if you have any questions or comments about his site. Walt is nipping on the heels of NFL Draft Countdown and it’s amazing how far his site has progressed in such a short time. Walt is always putting together great content, like his recently released NFL Free Agency Rankings.

3. Draft Daddy:
An excellent NFL Draft Web site with a lot of great content. I especially like their NFL Draft Blog, while it isn’t totally originally, it brings you a ton of updated NFL Draft information from around the internet. Draft Daddy started in 2003 and the publisher, Matt Bitonti, has done a great job keeping Draft Daddy a free site with quality, updated draft news and information.

4. Great Blue North report (GBN Report)
Colin Lindsay is the editor and publisher and they are headquartered in Canada. I don’t think he does much as far as marketing because he doesn’t rank very well in the search engines, but GBN still gets a lot of traffic. He gets the nod here because of content; they always seem to get the breaking news, which I enjoy. He doesn’t have a ton of content, but it is quality and his home page is run kind of like a blog with new entries pushing down the older ones. He provided his readers live coverage at the 2008 Senior Bowl this year, which was an impressive feat.

5. The Football Expert:
As long as Michael Abromowitz is running “The Football Expert” they will remain as one of the elite NFL Draft Sites. He and his staff are at the top of their game and they come out with a vast amount of original content almost on a daily basis. Michael has put together an impressive three round 2008 NFL Mock Draft. He has a huge staff with 22 other writers helping him and they are all pretty talented, especially Brian Dietzler, who is one of the hardest working writers in this industry, Brian also writes my Chicago Bears NFL Team Column.

6. NFL Draft Dog:
I tried not to rank my own web site to high, but NFL Draft Dog has come along way in only one year. We have worked tirelessly building content, marketing and promoting, and are subsequently one of the top ranked NFL Draft Web sites on Google and Yahoo. We have the usual Top 100 list, player rankings and Mock Drafts, but we also have one of the most extensive Draft Boards on the internet, profiling the potential prospects’ draft value for all seven rounds, by position. The other area that has really exploded are the NFL Team Columns, we have beat writers for almost all 32 NFL teams now. I don’t mean to leave anybody out, but NFL Draft Dog now has two senior writers, Bryan Dietzler and Daryl Breault.  Draft Dog also ties nicely in with this NFL Draft Site-Blog.

7. Draft King:
Lou Pickney is still running Draft King as before and it hasn’t changed much from last year. It still has quality, updated material. I take my hat off to Lou; he is one of the few that has attempted a 2009 NFL Mock Draft this early. Draft King is a professional looking web site and his key feature has been fan interaction, where fans email him NFL Draft questions and he answers them on his web site.

8. New Era Scouting:
The design of the site has completely changed, with an orange Halloween looking theme, but it works, and it is well laid out and organized. It doesn’t rank very well at all in the search engines, but none the less, it has excellent content. I don’t think site owner Matt Miller puts much effort into marketing and promotion, but he is a football guy and has been a well known “draftnik” for quite a while. Matt has a lot of inside sources in the NFL Draft world and has a keen eye for talent. He also has a nice blog called: Mocking the Draft, which ties in nicely with New Era Scouting.

9. The War Room Report:
Rob Tribbett is the president; I always find that title amusing. How do they get to be president? Are there elections or can you just assign that title to yourself willey nilley? Just joking Rob. Anyway, President Tribbett runs an excellent web site. Like Draft Dog, it is fairly new, but he has been steadily improving all year. He doesn’t have a huge staff, it looks like just four, but they are talented. Impressively, they have ranked the top 300 prospects for the 2008 NFL Draft. The site is kind of run in a blog format, but it looks good and is well executed.

10. Footballs Future:
A commercial type web site, I can’t find an owner’s name on it anywhere, so the content doesn’t seem real authentic, but they don’t charge a fee, they cover primarily the NFL Draft, they have a huge forum with over 31,000 registered posters and they rank very well in both Google and Yahoo. They get a lot of forum members to post their mock drafts and they subsequently have a nice mock draft database.