Everyone still seems to boast about JJ's drafts. I understand that you will miss here and there but John Avery still drops my jaw.
1st round pick 1998.
We missed in 1999 too. On everything.
JJ traded down into almost the end of the 1st round before he picked Avery so he was not sold on him either. The RB position back then was like the QB postion has been for us latly we could not find one regarless of the pick. Until we traded for Ricky Williams we were the laughing stock of the league when the running game got mentioned. So Shula and JJ both threw a lot of darts at the RB position over the years. The same thing can be said when we picked Jamar Fletcher he was a very late 1st round pick but we struck gold in the 2nd round with his Wisconsin college team mate Chambers taken in the 2nd round.
PS JJ was so good because he kept trading down collecting many more draft picks using the quanity over quality theroy. Lots of JJ picks did not make it either but the half that did turned out pretty good and many of those in the later rounds. Most coaches have such a limited criteria in their drafts based on needs, size etc that it takes them much longer to build through the draft. Jimmy just collected football players let em fight it out in practice and the good ones stuck regardless of size or speed. If there is one major thing that concerns me about BP is that he discounts too many really good football players based on set criteria. Hopefully Ireland will loosen him up some in that department!
