Draft Grades

Right now I am more concerned with who will play left guard than the play of a healthy D-line. Williams has what he needs on defense now he can bring pressure from other areas so long as we can now cover in the secondary.OK, lets say that, for sake of argument, Williams does a brilliant job this season and provides a one year stopgap solution to our defensive woes.

And I'm talking the greatest coaching job by a DC ever.

What happens in 2008 now that we still have no young DLmen? Almost certainly another 2006--best case scenario. We will be dealing with two regressions:

1) the normal age regression
2) the regression from the greatest coaching job ever to a more reasonable average performance

A defensive rank of 30 in 2008 seems, if anything, a bit optimistic.

draft grades and what those "experts" say doesn't mean squat. I thought we needed some D line help, but hey we got the best defensive player coming out of college. You have to pick him at 6. if not trade out and that wasn't happening. DT or DE, to me, just isn't worth the 6th pick, especially the talent coming out, it just wasn't worth it. of course Joe and Co. will always put a spin on things, but he attributed some of the D line struggles to the secondary. only rushing 3 sometimes 2 trying to put more people in coverage. Daniels and Wynn both said basically the same thing. makes sense, if you secondary and lock down the receivers, that allows the D line and LB's to be more aggressive.

interesting point. Our D line was not that impressive in 2005, not a ton better than last year - however it was not a big issue because of the winning streak and the playoff birth. amazing how winning sort of hides some areas of concern.Ok, but if you believe that these "experts" know squat, and I am in total agreement with that, then what in the world are you basing your assumption that Landry is the best defensive player in the draft on? Your hours upon hours of film study of all the top prospects?

Maybe I'm sounding a bit harsh, which is the last thing I'm trying to do, but isn't your assumption that Landry is the best player in the draft based on a collection of opinions from the so called "experts" that you and I demean?

I would be shocked and stunned at the same time if six years down the road, Landry has won more games for his team than Okoye one for his. This is because Okoye lines up right next to the ball, and Landry 12 yards away. There would have to be some sort of unforseen talent gap to make Landry the best "defensive player in the draft", as a safety.

I think we can all agree that Sean Taylor is NOT a better defensive player then Tommie Harris, even though all the experts thought he would be.

I love this! I believe we are officially back in underdog mode. Feels like 05!

I wouldn't put too much into this because everyone has different criteria. If the criteria is what did you do w/the picks you had, I think Kiper gives a good & fair position on this; we picked well but didn't have enough to get a higher grade.

I really wanted a DE from this draft, but after further review I see the front office's direction. While I would've taken Okoye, I do think the late round picks were great, except for the TE from michigan. But like everybody here, I'm not a scout & can only go by what I read.

Overall, I have good feelings about this draft & a couple of the guys we got unrestricted, especially Hickman.

OK, lets say that, for sake of argument, Williams does a brilliant job this season and provides a one year stopgap solution to our defensive woes.

And I'm talking the greatest coaching job by a DC ever.

What happens in 2008 now that we still have no young DLmen? Almost certainly another 2006--best case scenario. We will be dealing with two regressions:

1) the normal age regression
2) the regression from the greatest coaching job ever to a more reasonable average performance

A defensive rank of 30 in 2008 seems, if anything, a bit optimistic.

Greatest job ever? Williams now has a better defensive backfield than he has had since his arrival, how much worse is our defensive line from his first 2 years? Salvae and Griffen are both still here, and now they will have 2 players in Golston and Montgomery to give them rest and hopefully keep them fresh as well as healthy. Evans is still a pretty decent backup, Tell me which D-lineman had all the sacks Williams first 2 seasons? Please don't use Danials as an example, beating up on a Dallas scrub who had no buisness in the NFL IMO doesn't count, those 4 sacks credited to Daniels were nice but don't happen under usual circumstances, remove them and we have who on the D-line getting all the sacks? Yet a top defense Williams first 2 years!

We all saw last season what happens when you give big money to a DL because you have a need rather than signing or drafting a DL because he will make you much better, you have people crying the same thing the next season because the player you brought in wasen't as good as you thought, thank's to AC. We didn't pass up on Warren Sapp, Julius Peppers, or lawerence Taylor, we filled a big need at the safety position with the best possible player as just about every expert has agreed upon, who is projected as a star in the NFL, was any one of these DL projected by anyone to be a star on the NFL level? I didn't here 1 expert say that, but heres a better comparison, not 1 of these DL were better than Mario Williams coming out, and how much of an impact did he make? Other than his status as #1 pick nobody would have known who he was!

Couple all that with the fact that we should be better at LB this season with Rocky stepping up whom I am very exited to see him out there on a full time basis, who I feel will be very good [much better than Marshall on the outside] and fletcher who should be better than Marshall on the inside, I would say we have become significantly better over the coarse of this offseason. Now if Rogers finally starts to lockdown WR's which he has the talent to do look out for this defense.