FRISCO, Texas – The 2023 MLS season only just ended but it's already time to look ahead to the 2024 season, beginning with the annual MLS SuperDraft. This year's SuperDraft will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 2PM CT. You can tune into all the draft coverage live (for free!) on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Here are some things to keep in mind before FC Dallas makes its picks Tuesday afternoon.
Draft Overview
The SuperDraft consists of three rounds and FC Dallas owns the 15th, 44th and 73rd overall picks (draft order is based on where the club finished in the previous season). Those picks can always change, of course, if the club's top brass decides to trade up or down on or before draft day.
There's a new addition to this year's draft. For the first time in MLS history, college sophomores and juniors are eligible for the SuperDraft, rather than just seniors and above (as well as Generation Adidas players). This change expands the player pool meaning there's theoretically more talent available than in previous editions of the draft.
General Draft Strategies
In most drafts – regardless of the sport or league – there’s the eternal question: Should you draft for your roster’s specific needs or draft based on the highest value pick left on the board?
FC Dallas head coach Nico Estévez weighed in on that question: "It depends. Sometimes you have very clear (positional) needs and you go for that. Other times you just go for the best available player in that moment. In the draft, you can have a general idea about what you want, but sometimes the draft moves in a different way and you have to be prepared and ready to make a different decision to adjust and adapt. I think that's what we're doing over these next few days, preparing ourselves to make the right decision in that moment and be able to adapt if we need to."
Newly named North Texas SC head coach John Gall, who attended this year's MLS College Showcase and is heavily involved in the draft process, echoed Estévez's sentiment: "The strategy is going to be 'do we have positional needs?' And then obviously, we have talent needs too. We're 15th pick, it's going to come down to who's available at that time, whether it is going to be a specific position that we target, or whether it's going to be a kid that we've identified as a top talent. It's just like in a game, you have a strategy, you have a plan, and then all of a sudden, 20 minutes into the game, 'okay, I need to tweak this, I need to I need to change this.' It's going to be the same thing with the draft where we have a good idea of of which direction we want to go. But that direction can change really quickly, and we've got to be ready to pivot and put ourselves in the best spot."
North Texas SC's Draft Impact
The addition of North Texas SC in 2019 has also affected Dallas' draft strategy and how those picks develop. After being selected in the first round of the 2020 SuperDraft by FCD, defender Nkosi Tafari spent his rookie season playing exclusively for North Texas SC in USL League One. With a year of development in USL League One under his belt, Tafari was able to break into FCD's starting lineup in 2021 and has proved himself a strong MLS-level starter. In essence, Dallas doesn't always expect its draft picks to make an immediate impact with the first team and North Texas SC allows them to develop until they're ready to be MLS contributors.
North Texas SC head coach John Gall: "Players in the draft and around the country are starting to see that we do promote from within, we do have younger players who come through our framework at North Texas into the first team. It's a super important piece for us as we go down the pecking order in terms of draft picks and in the rounds. Our environment is a great environment for young players. It's an opportunity for us to work so closely with the first team, we're on the next training pitch. Every day, Nico (Estévez) is asking for a player to fill in this spot or that spot and come in to help out. There are opportunities for our players. We tell them all the time, 'you never know who's watching, you need to be ready.'"
Former Draft Picks
FC Dallas has five of its former SuperDraft picks on its roster for 2023: Ema Twumasi (2018), Nkosi Tafari (2020), Isaiah Parker (2022), Tsiki Ntsabeleng (2022) and Herbert Endeley (2023). Both Twumasi and Tafari spent time on loan in the lower leagues prior to becoming first team regulars and Isaiah Parker - who spent 2023 on loan to San Antonio FC in USL - will look to do the same. Ntsabeleng, who Dallas traded up to draft at 28th overall in 2022, was mainly an impact sub and part-time starter over his two first years.
