As always Ted you make some pertinent points... and then some clouded by your designated role as the unofficial Saban apologist. :)
I remember when you arrived on FH.. it's true you and I were at odds on Ryan. I never said he sucked, but like more than a few professional evaluators, said there were enough issues including interceptions and level of BC competition to make him a helluva deal in the mid teens (about where the Ravens traded down to take Flacco which turned out to be apples to apples) but not as a number 1 draft pick. Neither of us were here in 05; personally I was on a usenet fins group and, hating Feeley, was very vocal about drafting either Rodgers or Smith. The fact that Gosselin, Mayock, SI and others had Rodgers above Smith made him the more palatable choice AFAIWC. I wasn't pleased with drafting a part time SEC RB at #2, especially since one of the 2 highly thought of QBs was still available, but like a lot of others was caught up in the Saban as Savior hype and yielded to what I thought at that time (but now know a lot better) was his infinite football wisdom. Of course that was before Frerrotte, Culpecker, Jason Allen, Hagen, Daniels, etc.. and before Linehan left for the Rams HC job which in year 2 ended up revealing that "the emperor had no clothes."
As far as Mayock predicting Rodgers would fall, he obviously got wind that moron #1 Saban would go for the familiar and that moron #2, Gruden after winning 5games, was standing pat with Brian Griese. It had less to do with Rodgers perceived worth than reporting of the circumstances. The same can be said for Ryan: if Vick wasn't revealed as a detestable animal torturer and killer, Ryan would have fallen to the Ravens@ #8. If the Ravens who took a flier on Troy Smith 2 years before, saw enough to stand pat.. I doubt Ryan would have tumbled to the 56th Brian Brohm spot: instead just like the Packers did with Rodgers, someone probably would have opportunistically taken him somewhere in the latter part of the first round. Bottom Line: it's all circumstantially situational.
Unlike you and others, I'm both inexperienced, unschooled, and time-challenged in evaluating college players so aside from what I see personally (and the first time I saw Rivers before he was even a blip on the radar, I wanted him badly), I yield to experts I respect. So far I've read some nice things about Devlin but have not seen him, have read good things about the NV kid and read/observed Ponder a few times. All sound promising.. at least at this point. Yes, I agree it's easy to practice revisionist history- and that includes Ryan too since while he was considered best of breed, his breed was kind of pockmarked. Say what you will about Jake in the context of SB LT's as the consolation prize, but when's the last time an elite RB led his team to a SB, let alone a SB victory, so even more of an argument can be made against Ronnie, especially since RBs have the shortest shelf life and can be harvested throughout the draft and beyond.
Saban set this franchise back, created the presence of Cam and left us very little in the cupboard. A case can be made that things might have been different with the SB MVP who took a lot of **** off Favre and the GB fans and who just won 4 games on the road to get into the POs and ultimately win the golden chalice, in the POs throwing 9TDs to 2 Ints, ran for 2 TDs, had a 68% competion rating and 110QBR.
Comeon Teddy, admit that if Rodgers played for an SEC doomat like Kentucky or Vanderbilt, Saban needing a QB more than a dime a dozen RB, would have still predictably stayed in his vacuum visioned comfort zone but would have drafted Rodgers instead of Ronnie. :hump:
