I can assure you that wasn't a shot at you, or anyone else for that matter. You guys should know me well enough by now to know that, in my mind, the only thing that really matters is what actually happened last Thursday through Saturday. Everything else is woulda, coulda shoulda.
Good post @Paddy_McAndrew I would say just try doing one of these, lol. Picking the bottom 5-6 teams to kill is hard. Every team made an attempt to fill the holes in their roster. And if you picture most of any class reaching their ceiling than everyone gets a good grade. Someone has to round out the back end. And for the record I think you’re too focused on the “not trading back” part. I really didn’t ding their grade for that, it was just to set the tone. My biggest issues really were trading away a pick in the 3rd round when you really don’t have many. I could excuse minimal picks for a good team. But despite optimism they did finish 3rd worst in the league last year. And the Wesco pick. He might be a great blocker. But Herndon started taking off last year and it just seems like an odd spot for a bad team to get help. I’m sure the goal is to lean on Bell, hence the blocker. But again, I just found it tough personally looking at 32 drafts to say “here’s the five worst”. Just for my amusement what 5-6 teams would you say had a worse draft than the Jets and why?
I totally understand, I really wasn't trying to have a go or tell you you're wrong at all, I respect that it's hard to write a piece like this as well as you did without offending anyone. That's why I tried to preface everything I said by saying I really liked what you wrote and I don't think you're necessarily wrong I just wanted to provide a counter point to promote discussion. The only reason I really argued some of the points was because I know that I'm the only (semi) active Jets fan on this forum so for whatever reason I feel the need to stick up for them when people call them out for doing dumb stuff. For the record, the Jets deserve to get shit on a lot of the time, they have done a lot of really dumb stuff in recent history, but I just want to make sure people aren't just calling out the Jets because they are the Jets if you know what I mean? I'm not saying that's what you're doing, I think most of your analysis was fair, but I needed to defend them a little bit just because I'm not going to go into full reasoning because I'm not super knowledgeable about that many other teams but for team that had worst drafts I would say: Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, 49ers, Seattle. I'd throw Chicago on their too but it seems unfair since they had so few picks.The problem with these kind of things though is that I'm very likely to be completely wrong about one of these teams and all their picks will turn out great My favorite drafts are: Arizona, Colts, KC, LA, NE (annoyingly probably my favorite draft), Philly, Pittsburgh, Washington
In the end these are always a matter of perspective. I find it interesting you had three of the same teams Joe and I did in the bottom five. Perhaps we’re onto something there And I find it interesting that you really liked Indy’s draft. I didn’t even give them too much credit and that’s my team.
Dallas' draft grades are all over the map. NFL.com gave them an A, Pete Prisco (See B.S.) gave them a B-, and the Sporting News saddled them with a D. Felt to me like Dallas addressed depth and NEXT year's anticipated needs a little too much. With big-ticket contracts looming for Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliott, Amari Cooper, and likely Byron Jones and Jaylon Smith, potential salary cap casualties could include Tyrone Crawford and/or La'el Collins. That's PART of where Trysten Hill and Connor McGovern come in. Hill is going to be a rotational player, but could see more work than initially expected with David Irving gone. And if Crawford is released (this year or next, when he turns 31), Hill should be able to step in without missing a beat. McGovern doesn't figure to play much this year, but I'm not complaining about adding strength along the O-line. If Dallas moves on from Collins, the team can shift Connor Williams to RT and slot McGovern in at guard. McGovern can also play center - not insignificant given Travis Frederick's health issues. Tony Pollard went a round too high for my taste, but Dallas clearly has significant plans for him - Stephen Jones talked about getting him 30 snaps a game. Of course, last year he said Tavon Austin was going to get "one or two dozen touches a game"; Austin played in just seven games, and averaged TWO touches (not two dozen) per. The team is talking Pollard up as having Alvin Kamara-like qualities; he's got juice, but I'm not going to be expecting the 150 carries/80 receptions/15 TDs per year Kamara has been putting up. But if Dallas is looking to open up the offense a bit, give it a little more pizzazz, I'd be more than happy if the team got Tarik Cohen-like production (85 rushes, 50 receptions, half a dozen combines scores). Cohen was also a 4th round pick, but clearly had far more college production than Pollard. 'Boys got more defensive line depth in Joe Jackson and Jalen Jelks, as well as for the secondary (Michael Jackson and Donovan Wilson). RB Mike Weber is nothing special, but he appears to fit better than last year's 7th round pick (Bo Scarborough). Still, with Rod Smith still around, there's no guarantee Weber makes the team. My thoughts in following along with the draft in real-time: hoping Taylor Rapp or Juan Thornhill were available in Round 2 (they were); adding either O-line or CB depth in Round 3 (check). Going into Day 3 I was eyeing Pollard, a linebacker (Vosean Joseph, Drue Tranquill, Ben Burr-Kirven, Te'Von Coney), and another RB - Traveon Williams.
I have to be honest I expected the Giants draft to get slaughtered. And frankly I think it deserves to be. I disagree with the player evaluation of Jones -- but if he is your guy I agree with the idea of not screwing around and taking him as soon as you are on the clock. I just see a day 2 guy who was drafted #6 overall. But QB is the most important position in sports so hating the player doesn't mean hating the strategy. After all the stuff about Haskins and his newly created brand started to come out I can see why Gettleman was never serious about taking Haskins. I don't care if he has a family business - but Dave Gettleman - he cares. Dexter Lawrence at 17 -- the giants have one position group where they seem to be in pretty good shape. The defensive line. So what do they do? Take a 350 pound guy who had to have a screw inserted in his foot that I see as a two down player. They seem to think his injured foot held him back as a pass rusher the past two seasons and that he will play nose and DE in their defense. But he only played about 50% of the snaps at Clemson and at 342 pounds he is simply going to need breathers. I don't hate the player but I hate the positional value here. They could have taken the last of the top tier edge players in Montez Sweat, they could have finished the offensive line with Andre Dilliard (and had a transition plan for the end of the Solder era which is coming sooner rather than later). Need and value were aligning and they went away from that because Gettleman simply wanted the biggest player in the draft. Then they trade up for a low athleticism DB (though admittedly a great college player) giving up two picks when in reality if they just stayed put one of the top 3 corners was going to be available at 37. Clearly they liked Baker the best of the bunch and gave up a 4 and 5 to get him. Because they gave up those two picks they had to wait all the way to 95 to make another selection instead of having the draft capitol to move up in the third round. The value really dropped off right around the middle of the third and they sat and waited for Ximines instead. They rounded out the class with mostly interesting players and Love feels like a steal in R4. Bottom line I don't dislike the players but Gettleman's use of value and resources is completely out of wack. He effectively used 6 draft picks on DB's in this class. 3 for Baker, 1 for Beal in last years supplemental draft, 1 for Love and 1 for Ballentine. 6 picks spent on DB's... and 2 picks used on his deepest positional group (DI) while only spending a 7th on the O-line, no one being added to the mix to spell Barkley in what is supposed to be a run heavy offense, a 6th round receiver with a limited route tree to replace OBJ. So I guess intriguing is the right way to label it... I sit back and see what the Giants lost and what it turned into. Effectively the Giants traded Snacks Harrison, Eli Apple, and #37 overall for Deandre Baker. Effectively they traded OBJ for Dexter Lawrence, Oshane Ximines and Jabrill Peppers. I really just can't help but think this Giant team is worse off now than they were before Gettleman got here... and I can't help but think he wildly mismanaged his resources in this draft.
Sorry, I forgot to chime in on this. I agree with your assessment, period. Bradbury should be real solid in front of Cousins. Going into this draft I was concerned it would'nt go so well, to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised that they bolstered the offense as well as they did. The offensive line is going to be much more versatile, helping in pass protection, which has been a huge problem for Cousins as he's not the worlds greatest scrambler, so now he should have better pocket presence and time. Quicker offensive line will bode well for a running game that struggled last season. Irv Smith Jr was a fantastic pick. Depth for now and soon to be starter. Rudolph on his last year of contract, so who knows what direction him or the Vikings will take, so that's where Smith Jr comes into huge play. Running back still concerns me. Im a huge Cook fan, but he makes me nervous as to staying healthy, but his eyes might light up when he see's the new and revamped O-Line also. Behind Cook is Roc Thomas, Boone and now Mattison... very, very young and unproven. Abdulla from the Lions isn't high on my list either, but might have some useful contribution at times. Im still hoping Mattison becomes a surprise to the League as Diggs did. Stefon Diggs was a 5th rounder... he's ok , lol. Shockingly to me they did well on defense considering their late round selections. I think they scored real nice talent at those low picks and addressed key positions as well. Bottom line... I was pleased they went offense at first and quite shocked, it was needed, but still caught me by surprise. I think Spielman listening to others was smart on his part and the addition on the staff of Kubiak was key to helping HC Zimmer also. Your assessment of "solid" is spot on. Looks better on paper than I thought, now I cant wait for camp. ____________ __________________________ EDIT; Forgot to mention Olisaemeka Udoh out of Elon with the 193rd overall pick. This kid plays every weekend, solid, flying under the radar and is 6' 5" tall at 323lbs... my diamond in the rough pick.
Don't agree with all of the rankings but, as always, you do a solid job of reasoning out your opinion.
