Fairly Good - Rated 
I liked this book. It was an iteresting read which followed the run up to the draft through the lives of various players. It wasnt exactly a thrilling page turner, but i enjoyed reading it. It is a good read for anyone who is interested in the NFL/ College football.
Decent effort but hits the wrong targets - Rated 
As an avid NFL reader, I can guess what I'll be getting for Christmas and sure enough The Draft was tucked away underneath my tree. I had quite high hopes as the draft is one of the great events in the NFL. It marks the start of hopes and dreams for the upcoming season but it is an area where an outsider, especially a non-American has little access.
The Draft attempts to remedy that lack of access, it details the events that lead up to the 2005 NFL draft from the middle of the 2004 college football season through to the draft itself and immediate aftermath. The book walks through the process with three players: Antaj Hawthorne, Fred Gibson, and Chris Canty. The astute NFL reader may recognise just one of those names in 2008. As well as the players story, the book briefly touches on University of Virginia head coach Al Grohl, and covers the efforts of the Atlanta Falcons to bolster their talent through the draft.
Ultimately though the book is dominated by its coverage of agents. Agents such as up and comer Todd France are given more space in the book than any player or coach. This speaks to the most disappointing element of Williams approach - he just doesn't have the access that the outsider craves. Williams clearly doesn't have an inside track and even acknowledges himself as not really being a football man in the acknowledgements section. Had the author been able to bring an insight into the struggles that teams and players make in the lead-up to the draft, and the history and implications of drafts past and present, this would have been a great book but it isn't as that is not really what it is about.
The book follows the American style of selling individual stories and the stories that Williams has access to are limited. Despite this, there is a frustrating lack of focus on why top rated Defensive Tackle Antaj Hawthorne slips down the rankings. Most of the coverage of Hawthorne is dealt with as a by-product of detailed descriptions of agents fighting one another to sign new prospects. While agents might have been interesting to know about, they are the very least entertaining element of the book. Williams attempts to spice up his agent sections by referring to Jerry Maguire repeatedly in the early going but there is none of the passion of that film repeated here.
The story of Chris Canty is better handled as to an extent is that of Fred Gibson but there is no real insight into their characters, their feelings, their struggles to be drafted. I expected so very much more.
The one area I was really looking forward to was some coverage of the process that players and teams go through. The pre-draft Combine for instance does come up though as an NFL fan, there wasn't anything new for me in that. What was new though and is why I gave it a 2 star rating is the insight into the Atlanta Falcons. This could have been a lot more of the book but what is there is good stuff. The coverage of team owner Arthur Blank and head of player personnel Rich McKay is not in-depth but it is enough to give a flavour of where the Falcons wanted to go. In retrospect, this puts the Mike Vick saga in a new light for me - McKay's Falcons Filter that includes character assessment is really interesting to read knowing what we know now about Vick and his incarceration.
The other section that is woefully under-played are the history sections - there are two fascinating insights but they comprise such a minor part of overall narrative. The first history section is on the history of the draft itself, this is a reasonable chapter though I'd have like much more on the implications of the draft and more on the effect of salary caps on drafting which gets only a passing reference. The second element is the history of the combine and of player preparation for it - the workout warrior mentality that produces great results in testing but weaker results on the field is very useful to read about but is not analysed.
Another gripe is the writing and editing itself. Phrases are repeated in multiple chapters and the writing jumps around from scene to scene without segue. At times I had to catch myself from drifting off as my own train of thought became more engaging than the written material in front of me. For all I'm not a fan of Feinstein, Next Man Up is a much better look inside the world of pro football and I'm still waiting to find a book as good as You're OKay it's just a bruise.
Overally, the book is not what I expected or hoped for. It doesn't have the analysis, the insight, or the access. Far too much of it is taken up with agents - I reached the half way point and wondered when it was going to start. It did get a little better as the countdown to draft day began but was ultimately not as satisfying as anticipated, and had the promise to be so much better.
Solid but better editing required - Rated
An interesting book covering the run up to the NFL annual draft. Written in a similiar style to a Michael Lewis or John Feinstein book Williams spent a year covering the rise and fall in the fortunes of various players, agents and teams.
This subject matter can be quite opaque with a vast array of characters roaming through the pages, however if you are interested in how one of the world's most successful sporting leagues keeps parity between teams then this a good read.
My quibble would be that I think some more proficient editing was required, some sentances seemed to be repeated pages apart when describing players, possibly intentional as there are a lot of names to keep track of but the writing is not as fluid as it could be.
In summary it is good reading and interesting but Lewis or Feinstein would have covered the subject matter more cohesively. Still, I enjoyed it and would read another book by the same author.
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