GM Ted Thompson's Interview

Of course he didn't give up much information. Not that I wanted him to. The draft is part poker game and he has to keep his cards close to the vest. They'll consider trading down or up, a player will come off the board if character is a concern, and they've done a lot of scouting.

His explanation rambles on a bit, but he explains why he is such a good GM:

(Do you go through different scenarios, saying if X player and Y player are both available, which player will we take?)
We do that with our scouts, after they came back in after Easter. The things that we focus on, we don't get quite there. We're talking more in terms of making sure that the positions are balanced properly. That, OK, we have Joe Y at linebacker and we have Joe X at guard. We have this guard in the fifth round and we have the linebacker in the fourth round, but wouldn't we think about those guys at about the same time? So we kind of try to make sure that it's balanced horizontally. It's a little bit easier to balance them just by position, because you say I'd rather have this receiver than that receiver. But when you're looking at it this way, you have to first get this right, and then make sure that this is balanced as well. If any of that makes sense, that's good.

It's easier to rank a single position vertically (#1, #2, #3, etc.) but he's looking horizontially and making sure every position is addressed in the draft. He can't guarantee that every pick will succeed, but at least he can keep adding players to every position so no part of the roster is starved for talent.