Ryan has the benefit of having Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, and hell Jenkins is probably better than any WR on our roster, and they have a very good o-line and RB in Turner. No one has any idea what Ryan does if he did not have that behind him.
You also have to remember where we were when we made that pick. Both our o-line and d-line was in shambles going in to that draft. Parcels has always known you have to have a good o-line and d-line before you build up any other part of your team. Before we drafted Long we had only had 2, 1 starter, of our o-lineman that currently part of our very good line(Carey, Berger.)
Looking back now I would not trade our 2008 draft for anyone's. We got 2 starting members of our o-line, (Long and Thomas.) Now we have one of the youngest o-lines in the NFL and one of the best 0-lines in the NFL. Then we got 1 starting DE and another who plays a lot. Oh yeah and our starting QB who looks as if he may be our franchise QB who pay as a 2nd round draft choice, and not a one of the higgest paid in the NFL as we would have to pay if we took Ryan. Then we signed our starting WR and K as undrafted rookies.
Ryan is good, but this is not the 2001 draft where we passed on a franchise QB and got nothing in return. We got our starting QB and the guy who insures his blind side is protected. These are 2 conerstones of a great team. Every year the teams with the top 5 picks are looking for those 2 positions. Just ask Oakland. We could have Robert Gallery and Jemarcus Russell. We got both last year in the same draft. I love Parcels, Ireland, and Sparano.
