Drafting a guard in the first round.

I've been thinking about guards quite a bit leading leading up to this draft.
Lance Zuerlien has us taking Brandon Scherff with our first round pick.
Some have said "you dont draft guards in the first round".
I did some checking and went back five years to see how guards went in the first round.

2014 - 0

2013 - 3

2012 - 2

2011 - 2

2010 - 2 (one of which was Mike Iupati at #17)

A couple were top half round. Most were middle and back half.

So they do go in the first round to some degree.
The question is do we want to pay #5 money if we do take one?

I've been thinking about guards quite a bit leading leading up to this draft.
Lance Zuerlien has us taking Brandon Scherff with our first round pick.
Some have said "you dont draft guards in the first round".
I did some checking and went back five years to see how guards went in the first round.

2014 - 0

2013 - 3

2012 - 2

2011 - 2

2010 - 2 (one of which was Mike Iupati at #17)

A couple were top half round. Most were middle and back half.

So they do go in the first round to some degree.
The question is do we want to pay #5 money if we do take one?

IMO No, because there are no superstud guards this year worthy of the #5 pick. IMO the best guard value spot this year is late first/early second.

These guys have Scherff as the 5th best talent in the draft.
2015 NFL Draft Rankings - DraftCountdown.com (http://www.draftcountdown.com/sub/Rankings.php)

6th best here.
NFL Draft - 2015 NFL Draft Prospects - CBSSports.com - NFLDraftScout.com (http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/prospectrankings)

8 here.
2015 NFL Draft Player Rankings - National Football League - ESPN (http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/rankings/_/year/2015)

I think we may end up trading back a few spaces, I worry if doing so will make us miss out on a game changer to line up opposite of Kerrigan, I say no to guard at #5 as well.

Drafting a guard later in the first is fine, but not high. Regardless of how talented Scherff is, taking him at #5 over a guy who could potentially be an elite pass rusher would be stupid.

Top 10 player needs to be a high impact player, give me a front 7 guy with this pick. U should be able to get a solid Oline player with our second pick

5 or 6 years from now would you be OK with giving this OG top dollar, top OT $$$ to resign him. If you say yes then do it. I'm saying NO trade back maybe then yes.

If we stay at #5 I think it will be to draft an exceptional player at a high impact position. In our case, that would probably be an OLB to play opposite Kerrigan. I'm not OK with picking an OG at #5 but what do I know?

If there isn't a player on the board that SM thinks is worthy of a Top 5 pick, then I hope he'll try to trade down to the 10-15 range and draft his highest rated player on the board, regardless of position. I'm fine with an OG in the 10-15 range. We need to get better everywhere.

There will probably be OL's available who are worthy of being picked in the second round.

2014 - 1




Correction. There was a guard drafted in the 1st in 2014 and it was the Dallas Cowboys when they drafted Zack Martin.

If Mariota slips to us at #5, trading down at that point could be very rewarding. QB desperate teams with a lot of picks like Cleveland two picks in the top 20 could make interesting trade partner.
Then we pick schref.