The official 2008 draft discussion thread

This has Snyder's prints all over it. Snyder is definitely an "offense-centric" guy and loves the guys at the skills positions. Frankly, I'm shocked we have not addressed CB, DT, DE, OT, or OG yet. Yes, we have picks in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th, but I'm stunned we've only drafted guys on O.

I actually think it has Zorn's prints all over it. He probably looked at the results of Moss and ARE over the past few years and told Cerrato, "My offense won't work with these wideouts."

Im telling you, do not be shocked if there is a huge shakeup at wideout in the coming months.

Moss, Cooley, and ARE should be fine, you have to earn your paycheck after all. The fact that their positions were picked means they'll be getting some help and competition at the same time.

Got to earn your keep.

This is very much like when we got ARE and Lloyd...we needed just one good receiver, but we got two instead. Why does our team overreact? Portis goes down, and you give up the 4th for TJ Duckett....ugh. Well I hope we can find some hidden gems in the later rounds. I wonder how Moss and Cooley are feeling right now.Both WRs we selected were the top rated players left on the board when we selected them, so I don't have a problem with those - they ensure Jason Campbell's very bright future IMO. That said, I did not like the Fred Davis pick. We just gave Cooley a long term deal and Calais Campbell could have filled a need on the DL. ARI selected Calais between our Davis and Kelly picks. We've done nothing to address depth in the trenches. That should be our top priority tomorrow.

Cerrato is an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are we going to run the run and shoot???????

We'll see. Only time will tell. They watched the tape, Campbell's college coach is on the staff, so you have to trust their judgment at this point. Certainly you have to trust them over internet mock drafts ... Fred Davis seems like a luxury pick, but he did have tremendous production at the college level last season (881 yards) and won the Mackey Award. Pittsburgh did have success with Spaeth (Mackey award winner) and Miller (Mackey award winner) running two TE sets last season. I guess he was the top player on their board and they didn't like some of the other defensive players on the board at that time. I'm very surprised they didn't go DE at 48 though. Not quite ready to write off the FO just yet ... all these guys had tremendous production at the college level in big time programs.

Interesting take from ESPN's Gary Horton:

"They're obviously trying to load up on offensive weapons and use many formations. It has been the goal of the organization to put multiple receivers on the field, which opens up the run game. Now you have the current group of WRs, you have an athletic TE in Fred Davis. They should help in the passing game down the field. You now open things up for Clinton Portis and you have the luxury of moving Chris Cooley all over the field as a Dallas Clark kind of guy. This potentially looks like an offense that's going to be very tough to match up against. Their depth on the perimeter will take most defenses farther than they can go."

Maybe there is a method to the madness, fellas. Perhaps we can utilize Cooley more in space now- how many times did he have to stay in and block? BFD will not only provide this on protection, he can also act as decoy protection later on in the game and curl underneath and/or take it down the field. The defense is going to have to account for a lot more now. The Davis pick is more than meets the eye.

Thank god I waited before I posted, otherwise I'd be blasting the team right now. I don't like these picks but hopefully I'm wrong, and the team does know what it's doing. One thing is for sure, we won't have a shortage of wideouts.

We'll see. Only time will tell. They watched the tape, Campbell's college coach is on the staff, so you have to trust their judgment at this point. Certainly you have to trust them over internet mock drafts ... Fred Davis seems like a luxury pick, but he did have tremendous production at the college level last season (881 yards) and won the Mackey Award. Pittsburgh did have success with Spaeth (Mackey award winner) and Miller (Mackey award winner) running two TE sets last season. I guess he was the top player on their board and they didn't like some of the other defensive players on the board at that time. I'm very surprised they didn't go DE at 48 though. Not quite ready to write off the FO just yet ... all these guys had tremendous production at the college level in big time programs.

Or perhaps he had glowing things to say about Campbell and they just didn't listen to him?

I just dont understand how we dont get Campbell or Groves where we were drafting in the 2nd round....that absolutley boggles my mind...two wide receivers and a tight end?? Just really dosent make a whole lot of sense to me


I would have thought they'd at least take a blocking TE

Good point. This is just overkill. There's not going to be enough balls to go around to all these guys. Not one pick for either line? Come on.

These guys aren't selected solely for their one-on-one pass catching abilities. It's a big-picture strategy. This draft maximizes Zorn's WCO potential. It increases the decisions defenses will have to make.

maybe they are looking at the fact that ARE and moss will both be 29 this season (not that old i understand that) but 2 players that are also injury prone and felt that these 2 receivers were too good to pass up