I lost interest early in the second round. There was a run on all the players I really liked -- Marqise Lee, Kyle Van Noy, Cyrus Kouandjio, along with Ra'Shede Hageman and Jordan Matthews.
Those are all first round caliber players. And that's the best segment of the draft every year, IMO, the slotting between 33 and early 40s. You can really capitalize on great value if you know what you are doing. The league annually is willing to let previously blue chip rated players drop to early second round, but not lower than that. This year Kouandjio went 44, the lowest among the group I named. Basically that demonstrates that the hype over a deep draft was overblown. A guy like Kouandjio normally would slide to 38 or 40, maybe 42. So he's a few spots lower this year. In a weak draft he might be a few places higher. We're talking 5-10% variance either way from standard, not massive like so many adjusters prefer to believe. There are always deep positions in each draft, like wide receiver this year. Otherwise it's foolish to believe the overall quality varies dramatically from year to year.
I am not pleased. Our need is great players, not certain positions. Patching is the solution of middling minds. We got one player in the top 40 and it's debatable whether he belonged there. I say no. I never viewed Juwaun James as a first round talent and I've been familiar with him for 4 years.
Then we started screwing around in the late second round and lower. That's where you get guys like Ego Ferguson. It always amazes me that the caliber of player drops off dramatically in the bottom half of the second round. You can find a gem but the burden is tremendous. In the top 40 even a mediocre general manager owns the advantage.
As I posted last year, my philosophy would be to acquire as many top 40-42 picks as possible with my early selections, and otherwise take the late second round through fourth round off. Then begin heavy again in the fifth round, preferably with multiple picks. The Dolphins seem to be doing the opposite, placing great faith in late second through fourth round picks.
Very poor instincts, IMO. If you are going to waste time in those middle rounds, at least take players with huge metrics, like Kareem Martin or Ben Gardner. Those metrics allow opportunity for a home run. I was impressed that McShay made a positive remark toward advanced metrics on tonight's telecast. Most of the traditional draft analysts scoff at that type of thing.