In general, I believe that mid second round through fourth round is mostly a waste of time. Those picks are overvalued. It's simply too difficult to excel in that area given the blanket nature and all the uncertainties. If you want a comparison, it's like picking the winner of a second or third tier golf tournament in which none of the top guys show up.
Why make it difficult on yourself? Even an overmatched general manager or personnel man can identify at the top. I remember George Young of the Giants saying his grandmother could pick Lawrence Taylor.
I loved the Suh pickup partially because it means we actually have a great player and don't have to pretend that Wake qualifies, or Grimes, or (comically) Jones, etc. I get sick of those threads asserting that this guy is elite and that guy is elite. We haven't threatened elite in so long I can't remember the last guy who legitimately qualified.
As I've emphasized previously, in free agency I would always try for 1-0 every year, or 2-0 absolute tops. Target a great player and otherwise fill with league minimum types. Otherwise when you are targeting 5 or 8 guys then invariably it's like Storage Wars and the idiotic obsession to overpay for midrange lockers. Suddenly a pile of garbage sells for $1500. No different in free agency. You can almost guarantee the $3 million guys will disappoint.
Granted, I haven't followed this draft closely. I watched every tape of every bowl game so most of these guys were involved. The combine and workouts didn't exist to me this year, while I was happily occupied in my old Las Vegas haunts. That being said, if we can move up to grab an elite talent like Cooper or White I'd certainly do that even if meant we could go fishing for the duration. Or until the 5th round.
I'm convinced more teams would trade up if it weren't for all the time and monetary expenditure all year, and therefore a determination to spend those overrated mid round picks. Obviously some teams will thrive in those rounds, like recent Seattle. Who cares? Fixate on exceptions instead of the rule and you'll grind broke. I'm glad there is increased acceptance of that around here lately, and on sports forums in general.
I concede I don't know anything about salary cap specifics. I intentionally ignored the Tannehill situation. If we signed him, well that's what I expected. I don't have to like it or pay attention. That's not a high percentage move, like so many of our recent decisions. It may work out but it's about time we spotlighted legitimately great players and stopped playing pretend with guys like Dion Jordan or Ryan Tannehill. Since we're stuck with Tannehill he needs every bit of supreme talent around him. Suh was a terrific start. Now find someone else with All Pro DNA and not a bunch of third and fourth round guys who we have to scramble to learn more about, and suddenly they are far superior since we drafted them than if the Jets or anybody else had grabbed them.
