NFL General Managers love repeating the mantra “Build through the draft.” Their rationale makes sense; rookies are signed to cheaper deals than free agents, and have time to learn, grow, and acclimate to a team’s system. By building a team with younger, cheaper players, the team should — supposedly — grow cohesively as a unit, and you can plug the holes with key free agents.

Teams that rely on a significant impact from marquee free agents take a big risk. For every Denver Broncos team with Aqib Talib, DeMarcus Ware, Louis Vasquez, and Peyton Manning, there is a Philadelphia Dream Team or Albert Haynesworth — high-priced mistakes that can help set your franchise back a few years.

The Green Bay Packers exemplify the “build through the draft” mentality; GM Ted Thompson notoriously shies away from big free agents on the open market, preferring to ‘draft & develop’ and re-sign his own draft picks. In 2015, Green Bay had 39 players on their roster that they drafted (league average = 27). Over the last five years, Green Bay had an average of 35 players on their roster that they drafted, compared to the league average of 27 over the same period (a difference of about a whole draft’s worth of players).

Green Bay’s team building strategy has worked well for them, as they’ve won 10+ games each year since 2009, save for 2013 when they were missing their best-in-the-league QB for half the season (and still won eight games). But what about the rest of the NFL? Do teams that “Build through the draft” really perform better than teams that churn draftees?

The table below shows how the league stacks up in terms of drafted player retention over the last five years.

Number of drafted players on team roster (ranked by 5 year average)

Source: Pro-Football-Reference. Cells shaded blue indicate Super Bowl winners

No surprise — Green Bay is at the top of the list, with an average of 35 draftees on their roster per year. They’ve also been the 3rd most successful franchise (by win %) over this time period. Many of the other usual suspects populate the top of the list — the NFL’s most stable, winning franchises over the last several years, like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and New England.

However, the top of the list also shows some of the weakest franchises recently. Tennessee has done a great job of holding onto their draft picks year in and year out, but is prepping to make the 1st pick in the draft for the 2nd year in a row. Minnesota is also at the top of the list, but is ranked 22 in win % over the last five years.

Focusing on the best teams over the last five years presents a mixed picture.

Draftees on the rosters of the five winningest teams since 2011