Originally posted by ckparrothead
I don't think anythings been proven by any recent trends. The good thing about a draft pick is he has to work his way up. Draft picks usually are not depended on to be a cornerstone of the team right away until they develop and if they do not ever develop, then yeah you've wasted your draft pick but you haven't wasted your time all that much putting an incompetant player on the field.
****Who plays QB until the draft pick is ready???*****
In order to get hold of the best looking prospects who have "been through the system" so to speak you have to invest a little in them...look at us and what it cost just to get a guy like AJ Feeley. Because of what we invested in Feeley, we're obligated to let him start. And he could suck or be mediocre for a long time and we have to put up with it just to give him that shot. We stuck with Fiedler for a long time through mediocre and outright aweful play...especially in 2000. Why? Because he was our free agent pickup, the guy thats been in the league and played in preseason games and played in NFL games and proven he could play in this league.
**** You're also married to a boom or bust player if you draft a QB.....How long are most rookie first round QB contracts....5 years? 6 years?....what's the difference? You still need to find somebody that can play NOW....****
Truth is most NFL QB acquisitions could use a year of sitting on the bench and getting to know their team and playbook and getting comfortable...but there is more pressure to start the free agent/trade pickup than there is the rookie first rounder truth be told.
*****But the FA QB should be ready to step in and play immediately, if you've done your homework and selected the right guy...rarely so, with a rookie****
For every Jake Delhomme situation, there's a Rick Mirer/Erik Wilhelm or Jay Fiedler/Brian Griese situation out there...or even the Matt Hasselbeck situation where teams suffer a long time waiting for their free agent or trade QB to finally show what you think he's got. Hasselbeck may be a stud now, but those first couple of years he really sucked in Seattle and they lost games and were stuck waiting for him to just become the QB Holmgren knew he was.
*****Elway sucked...Young sucked...McNair Sucked, Harrington sucks, Carr sucks....fact is, not many rookie QBs don'tsuck their first few years....again, draft a QB, fine but, who plays until they are ready?*****
It all comes with inherent risk, and personally I believe gambling on lesser free agents and trade quarterbacks is just as risky as taking guys in the first round, if not more. At least in the first round over the last 10 years or so you've got about a 50/50 chance finding a guy you can really believe in for a while....and contrary to popular opinion, a 1 out of 3 or 4 chance of getting a genuine franchise guy that goes down in some record books and gets awwed and such...well that ain't all that bad to tell you the truth. Would you give three first round picks from back in 1995 to have Steve McNair on your roster over the next 10 years? It would be tempting..
.*** In a word...NO....I remember too many years not being impressed by McNair at all....
about the last 10 years' drafts....you can say it as many times as you want but, I'm still not buying the story...you're trying to tell me that Carr and harrington and Ramsey are franchise QBs...and I'm saying that their stats look a lot like Heath Shulers' first few years in the league. The FACTS, to this point, say they are NOT franhise QBs....the FACTS, so far, say they are busts....they may turn out to be franchise QBs but, you saying that they are already is premature.*****
