MVN - Most Valuable Network

Draft Dreams

I don’t know about you, but for me, the NFL Draft is like Christmas day. You dream endlessly about the possibilities and anxiously await as the picks scrawl across the bottom of the TV. Nothing changes the future of your franchise like a great draft.

Russell Maryland, Alvin Harper, Erik Williams, Leon Lett and Larry Brown in 91 was one of them. Ware, Spears, Burnett, Barber, Canty and Ratliff could be another. And who could forget Quincy, Dixon, Blade, Steele, Nix and the great Char-ron Dorsey in 2001. Which reminds me, when Jerry hasn’t had Jimmy or Bill holding his hand, Santa has delivered us a big pile of shi…coal.

Check out the names from Jerry’s drafts (1994-2002) here. Ellis, Flozell and Michael Myers in 98 would be the only one considered decent. The drafts of 99, 00, and 01 produced a total of Dat Nguyen and a couple journeymen.

Every morning, I sit in the shower and play out my perfect draft scenario. Yes, I have a problem. My problem is how are we gonna get a stud CB, WR, OLB and O-lineman in one draft?

Where’s free safety you ask? There’s no doubt that we need another player in the secondary so that Roy can play attack safety rather than sitting back in the cover two. To do that you need two cover corners and a ballhawk centerfielder. We’re one of three with Terence Newman.

Check out my previous post on how to best utilize Ol’ Roy.

Anthony Henry can’t play man-to-man without help over the top, and he’s become injury prone. Aaron Glenn faded fast last year and will be 35 when the season starts. I like Jacques Reeves as a possible 3rd CB, but not a starter. Considering a CB usually takes a year to get up to speed, it seems that now is the time to grab one. Plus, this draft seems to have a decent supply.

Coverage abilities are easy to see and the demand so great that you don’t see many late round gems at cover corner. Picking out the top man-to-man cover guys (not cover two guys) from the All-Pro voting nets Bailey, McAllister, Newman, Mathis, Asomugha, Samuel, and Hall. Five first rounders, one early second (Mathis), and a fourth (Samuel). So unless you’re Belichick, good luck finding a premier cover guy outside the first 40 picks.

While I’d love to add another free safety, we have some potential already on the roster in Pat Watkins and possibly Henry. Watkins had some bumps last year, but he played pretty well down the stretch. And he has the speed/size to be a good ballhawk.

Henry seems to have the right characteristics to make the move to FS, other than being injury prone. Could he be a poor-man’s Rod Woodson? Possibly. Between him and Watkins we should be decent.

So a cover guy in the first right? Not so fast, WR is a screaming need. Terry Glenn rarely plays an entire year, and will be 33 this season. And he’s the good one! TO is like the alcoholic uncle you hope makes it through the next family barbecue without another scarring episode.

Crayton is a great #3, and maybe a solid #2. I like Hurd and Austin, but realistically, we’re lucky if one turns into a good #2 or #3. We need a go-to guy, and now is the best time to bring in a young WR to develop alongside Tony Romo. We don’t want our promising young QB withering away with weak receivers.

Assuming that CB/WR are near the top of the best overall players available, it would seem that taking one of each in the first two rounds is the way to go. From my analysis, the problem is that players capable of being either a #1 receiver or a starting-caliber cover corner run out early to middle of the second round.

Sidney Rice is tops on my list. Who cares if he ran a 4.5. He’s 6′3″, 200 lbs, and caught 23 TDs and 2200 yards in two years of SEC ball. He must be plenty fast if he’s separating from SEC corners.

His biggest knocks are size and route running, both of which can be fixed. The kid’s only 20 years old, so just through maturing and training he’ll get substantially bigger. Plus, we don’t need him to start right away; we can wait a year until he’s a 6′3″, 220 lb, route-running playmaker. The good news is that he should be available for our pick in the first, and perhaps even early into the second. My only worry is that Spurrier’s receivers haven’t done well in the NFL…but this guy doesn’t look like your stereotypical Spurrier WR either.

I’m not overly smitten with any of the CBs like I am with Rice (he also has a great football name!). Aaron Ross, Chris Houston and Darrelle Revis all look to be good corners. After that it’s a lot of question marks.

Marcus McCauley is your classic workout warrior. Eric Wright reminds me a bit too much of Derek Ross, as does Tarell Brown. Tanard Jackson, David Irons and Fred Bennett sound average. Daymeion Hughes is a cover two guy. Josh Wilson is intriguing, an undersized speed guy with great production. However, I’d like to have a bigger guy across Newman for match-up reasons: Newman blankets the speedsters while the other guy bangs with the big boys. Jonathan Wade sounds interesting as a developmental type.

OLB and O-line should be the next priorities. Who knows what’s gonna happen with Ellis, and even if he does return, he’s only a couple years away from becoming a situational pass rusher. Plus we need some depth so we don’t have a repeat of last year. Lamar Woodley would be my dream 3rd round pick. I love guys who did nothing but make plays in college, against big competition, but are a bit too short or too slow.

As for o-line, we have a solid starting five, but there isn’t a sure-shot in the bunch. Flozell is who he is, inconsistent, plus a free agent at year’s end. He’s an aging guy who will get overpaid and should be allowed to walk. Kosier is solid, and could be the John Gesek type on a great o-line, but doesn’t dominate. Gurode, his career plagued with concentration problems, finally focused his mind in what happened to be a contract year. Grrrreat. Bigg Davis we’re hoping can play to his talent. And Colombo has played all of one year injury-free. Our promising young backups are a 7th rounder and a free agent, neither of whom have played.

It’s time to add a young stud to the backup slot vacated by Fabini. I’d love to have Doug Free slip to us in the 4th. He’s a big guy with great feet, but lacks power. Turn Juraszek loose on him and he might end up being a good tackle.

Close your eyes (but somehow continue reading). We trade down to the late first and get Ross. We use those picks to trade up in the second and catch a falling Sidney Rice. Woodley falls to us in the 3rd and Free in the 4th. Too optimistic? How about Rice, Woodley, Free then Wade? Sprinkle in a late round hit and bang, we’re living like 1991.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 8:29 pm and is filed under The Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.