Just passing the remaining three days until showtime... As fans, we always knocked the 2007 draft mercilessly. There's not much positive to say about any aspect of The Bobby Petrino Experience. But here's a scary thought... as bad as the 2007 draft was, we have as much to show for it today as we do from the 2009 draft, which was touted by our top brass as outstanding. Our 2009 draft class: 1st round = Peria Jerry 2nd round = William Moore 3rd round = Chris Owens 4th round = Lawrence Sidbury 5th round = William Middleton 5th round = Garrett Reynolds 6th round = Spencer Adkins 7th round = Vance Walker top undrafted free agent = John Parker Wilson Also noteworthy... we traded away Laurent Robinson to move up in rounds five and six, taking Middleton and Adkins with the improved picks. As of today, Moore is a starter, Reynolds is a projected starter, and Jerry is still on the roster - though not expected to return in 2014 if he even makes the team this year. We still have Justin Blalock, Stephen Nicholas and Jason Snelling as players directly taken in the 2007 draft class. That's two starters and a backup, just like the 2009 class. We also acquired a pair of draft picks from the Lions in exchange for Chris Houston. We used one of them to select Shann Schillinger. He might not make the final roster, but as of today he's still in the organization. Also, one of our 2007 undrafted free agents was Eric Weems. One of our seventh round compensatory picks this weekend is the result of Weems signing with the Bears. So if the 2007 draft was an utter train wreck, the allegedly mighty class of 2009 pretty much has to be labeled Smith/Dimitroff's first disaster of a draft.
Since I was just looking up the Browns draft yesterday: The Browns had the 5th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Here is who they ended up with: 1st round - Alex Mack 2nd round - Brian Robiskie 2nd round - Mohamed Massaquoi 2nd round - David Veikune 4th round - Kaluka Maiava 6th round - Don Carey 6th round - Coye Francies 6th round - James Davis no useful undrafted free agents They also traded away Kellen Winslow Jr - and traded for Kenyon Coleman, Brett Ratliff, Abram Elam, and Travis Daniels. A 2009 pick was used in 2008 to trade up to get Martin Rucker They were extremely active, yet only ended up with 1 useful player. And also LOST a useful player. The best thing you could say about the Browns that year was that they DIDN'T draft Mark Sanchez (the Jets traded with the Browns for that pick)
