Julien Laurens and I came up with the Gab & Juls draft in 2022 as a way to mimic the excitement of the NBA and NFL drafts. Since then, it has grown -- we did a draft for the top 10 players born in 2000, followed by one for the top 20 of those born in 2001 -- and this year, we've gone even further. We moved the draft to April, to coincide with the NFL draft, and invited both Tor-Kristian Karlsen (a scout and former director of football at Monaco) and our colleague Ryan O'Hanlon (a writer and analytics maven) to pit their wits against us.
We went to six rounds and drafted a total of 24 players, with the only eligibility requirement being that these players were born in 2002. We randomized the draft order -- Juls picking first, Tor second, Ryan third and Gab fourth -- and did it "serpentine" style, meaning that the person picking last in a round would then have the first pick in the next round. Following the draft, we have some quick-hit analysis of our picks followed by a review of the 2000 and 2001 drafts to see how well our previous draft classes measure up.
Here we go...
