A realistic draft room does not ignore the board, but it also does not worship it. The best simulators and the best real-life processes both work by blending player value, team need, role fit, and roster context rather than pretending one number is enough.
Need matters most when the room is clustered
If multiple players are living in the same rough talent neighborhood, roster pressure becomes the separator. The further a team moves into the draft, the less helpful it is to simulate behavior as if every front office were just taking the top remaining score in a vacuum.
Scheme and depth chart are not the same thing
A team can need help at a position and still be a poor fit for a certain player type. That is why strong mock draft logic has to account for system fit and role projection separately. One tells you where the hole is. The other tells you whether the player can actually solve it.
Why the simulator has to reflect this
The more the mock room behaves like a real draft board meeting, the more useful it becomes. That means honoring market board gravity, then letting needs, depth-chart fragility, and scheme preferences move teams inside that realistic range instead of creating fantasy-draft behavior.