Considering two things, our HUGE need on our OL and not having any great picks

[LikeUntoGod]

We are doing OK. No one will have us at "great" because we did not have the 1st pick in the draft, we had the 19th (if you notice, at lot of those teams that had a "great" draft all have a lot of early picks so...duh). We could of moved up n the draft and chances are we could have gotten a better offensive lineman then any of the two we have taken. But, by trading up, we would have lost draft picks. The good OL were getting thin as it was, chances are we would not have got a good 2nd OLineman. Sometimes you have to take someone because he is simply the best still on the board. There are guys you want but some times if is what you can get. Sorry if I use Madden as a example but I was in more then 25 drafts this last madden year. You see "experts" who have put "numbers" on players who will say that a team "reached". The truth is simple. Most of the other 31 teams are also good drafters, some are great. Sioif you need a player at a certain position, sure, take him "20 picks too soon" BECAUSE HE WILL NOT BE THERE THE NEXT TIME YOU PICK. I know when I draft I look for the players I need/want and I go get them. Think about it. You have to read the other teams. Did we draft players other teams would have drafted soon after we did? I think so far I'd say semi yes. (3 of our picks played in the SEC) Both OL we drafted can play, Ja'Wuan James (OL) will be a starter for us, Billy Turner (OL) will be or will be one soon. P.S. These are BIG MEN. We hope it improves our run game and passing game but honestly also, we are simply replacing lost players. Ok, surprised by the Jarvis Landry (WR) pick. I need not expect the early sizzle. I like the pick, he is "QB friendly. Gibson and Wallace will need to step up their game. (Hartline is Golden IMO) I like CB Walt Aikens. He is a big, very strong corner with good speed, the kind I look for. You cannot teach speed or size. Taking TE Arthur Lynch in the 5th is solid. I see him starting as a blocking TE. We all know what a poor running team we had last season. I can see us wanting to run more but then we also improve the passing game. LB Jordan Tripp? I like what they say about him. We you consider who was on the board when we picked, we did well.

 

[SWS84]

I don't know if we really did well or not until these guys get a few years under their belt, but for the most part, I agree. I give Hickey credit. He stuck to HIS board and didn't try and take players that were not a good fit for our system. That tells me he at least is communicating with our coaching staff. I hope that is a good sign of things to come. :-)

 

[finfan54]

Im considering we got a playmaker, a RT, and potential starting G while improving through Lazor, OL coaching, and RT's 3rd year with more weapons and better protection.

 

[awfulwaffle]

Everyone says we reached. Should I believe you or the majority?

 

[LikeUntoGod]

Everyone says we reached. Should I believe you or the majority?

"everyone" also thought JaMarcus Russell was going to be a great NFL QB. There is what you want, what you need and what you can get. Sometimes you have to settle for what you can get. We gutted our OL, we had no choice but to start to build it again. And everyone else knew it.

 

[MartinTheSNAKE]

We are doing OK. No one will have us at "great" because we did not have the 1st pick in the draft, we had the 19th (if you notice, at lot of those teams that had a "great" draft all have a lot of early picks so...duh). We could of moved up n the draft and chances are we could have gotten a better offensive lineman then any of the two we have taken. But, by trading up, we would have lost draft picks. The good OL were getting thin as it was, chances are we would not have got a good 2nd OLineman. Sometimes you have to take someone because he is simply the best still on the board. There are guys you want but some times if is what you can get. Sorry if I use Madden as a example but I was in more then 25 drafts this last madden year. You see "experts" who have put "numbers" on players who will say that a team "reached". The truth is simple. Most of the other 31 teams are also good drafters, some are great. Sioif you need a player at a certain position, sure, take him "20 picks too soon" BECAUSE HE WILL NOT BE THERE THE NEXT TIME YOU PICK. I know when I draft I look for the players I need/want and I go get them. Think about it. You have to read the other teams. Did we draft players other teams would have drafted soon after we did? I think so far I'd say semi yes. (3 of our picks played in the SEC) Both OL we drafted can play, Ja'Wuan James (OL) will be a starter for us, Billy Turner (OL) will be or will be one soon. P.S. These are BIG MEN. We hope it improves our run game and passing game but honestly also, we are simply replacing lost players. Ok, surprised by the Jarvis Landry (WR) pick. I need not expect the early sizzle. I like the pick, he is "QB friendly. Gibson and Wallace will need to step up their game. (Hartline is Golden IMO) I like CB Walt Aikens. He is a big, very strong corner with good speed, the kind I look for. You cannot teach speed or size. Taking TE Arthur Lynch in the 5th is solid. I see him starting as a blocking TE. We all know what a poor running team we had last season. I can see us wanting to run more but then we also improve the passing game. LB Jordan Tripp? I like what they say about him. We you consider who was on the board when we picked, we did well.

Paragraphs would have been nice, but very good post. Same with your second post of this thread.

Im happy we addressed our biggest weakness. Hopefully our Offensive Line will be a strength for us this season.

 

[Mogwai]

We really did have pretty terrible draft position. I don't have a problem w the James pick because after Pryor went there wasn't a single player left to be taken that I considered special. I'm mostly fine w the draft. I think hickey had a lot to clean up from Ireland's ****ups. It'll take next year's draft before we really can make moves to compete

 

[aquabob]

Our draft position did suck indeed

 

[doughbraz54]

The majority experts who never get 50 percent of the picks right? Or the experts who claimed like said above Jamarcus Russell as a great QB. We have people on this board that are better talent evaluators than the experts. Our picks could all be great or could all be busts. Time will tell.

 

[LikeUntoGod]

Paragraphs would have been nice, but very good post. Same with your second post of this thread.

Im happy we addressed our biggest weakness. Hopefully our Offensive Line will be a strength for us this season.

I do write in Paragraphs and sometimes it simply comes out as one block, no idea why....

All we need is for our OL to be better then it was last season. And that bar is not set very high. We were very poor in run and pass blocking last season. It really makes you wonder how much was the players and how much was the bullying crap going on that had our OL playing so poorly. 2 of our starters may well be rookies.

But with B Albert at LT, M Pouncey at C, and J James at RT and maybe with Billy Turner at one OG spot, we do have a good young group to start the season with. This is one of my points about us taking Ja'Wuan James when we did. If we believe (as I think our coaches do) that J James is already our starter at RT, then we took him at the right spot.

I was surprised with the WR Jarvis Landry pick and then we drafted a TE in Arthur Lynch and another WR in Matt Hazel. This shows me that our front office is serious about upgrading and bringing some more competition in our passing game.

Maybe this is about improving our passing game and also at least until our OL jells, our short passing game. RB Knowshon Moreno caught 60 passes last season for a outstanding 9.1 YPR. That is a lot more passes caught then our whole RB corp caught last season. TE Arthur Lynch is a short-to-intermediate catcher. WR Jarvis Landry works the inside very well. This season, to help against the pass rush early, we might be looking to up our short, quick passing game.

In other words, while we worked to improve our OL both to pass block and hopefully to run block. We also might be looking to spread even more in our passing game.

IMO, one of the best things our OL can do to help our passing game is to help our running game. For instance, we were 29th in running attempts per game last season and 26th in total rushing yards and 26th in yards per game. I think most of us can agree that a lot of the reasons for our low rushing attempts was poor play calling by Sherman. But there were also times we seemed to not be able to get a push on anyone.

 

[roy_miami]

We really did have pretty terrible draft position. I don't have a problem w the James pick because after Pryor went there wasn't a single player left to be taken that I considered special. I'm mostly fine w the draft. I think hickey had a lot to clean up from Ireland's ****ups. It'll take next year's draft before we really can make moves to compete

Yup. This draft was about playing catch up, trying to get the type of players on offense around Tannehill that should have happened at least a year ago. Our draft was very similar to what the Eagles, Chiefs and Chargers did last year... now who's going to say the Eagles had a terrible draft by taking the big cornfed at 4 overall?