Day 2 brought some mixed emotions for me.........
1) I LOVE the Jamar Taylor pick. I think we may have drafted ourselves a solid starting CB for years to come. Hopefully he steps up and takes a starting role and performs so well that we may or may not have to resign Grimes after the season if Grimes dosent return to top form.
2) The third round bothered me on a few levels. First let me say I have no clue about the Will Davis pick. I simply dont know anything about this player other than reading stats and opinions from other so called experts. Im not going to make judgements about a player like that who I never saw play. I havent even so much as "put the tape on" of this kid. That wouldnt matter as much though. I never saw a Utah St game and watched the kid play. Occasionally I will see some of these lesser known teams during the year if they play some kind of night game and I happen to have it on. If that happens and someone mentions a player being a pro prospect, I would keep an eye on him as the game is played. But, this never happened for me this year so I honestly have no idea about him. Hopefully he is a flat out stud. You really never know. There have been very good CBs emerge like this before so lets hope this is the case with Will Davis.
3) The cornfed pick really upset me. Again, I dont know a lot about this player. He started at UT and apparently at LT, so he has to have some talent. Whether or not it translates to the NFL we will see. Hopefully, he at least will be useful and at a minimum we added depth to our G position. I see most are suggesting he will play G in the NFL. Perhaps he can challenge Jerry for a starting spot. Maybe he blossoms and can take over the LG role for us in the future. We will see.
The major issues I have are the way it broke down. First the LT that everyone seemed to think had borderline first round talent and could actually play LT in the NFL goes 2 picks ahead of us and we still go cornfed. Then a few picks later, with Stedman Bailey still on the board, we trade back. Then we wait until Bailey comes off the board and trade back up one spot behind to get Davis. This made no sense to me on several levels.......
First of all, why not trade out of that first 3rd rounder and keep the other to take Bailey?
Was anyone going to nab that cornfed before our next pick?
Was Davis going to go before we picked again in round 4? I suppose so since we traded back up to get him.... BUT,
How much did we actually gain by moving out of our 2nd spot in that round and trading back up a few spots later? Id like to see the breakdown of that. Did we actually gain anything or did we lose ground by doing that?
But, the biggest problem was simply the fact we passed on Bailey. St Louis has the most impressive draft so far IMHO. Perhaps Cinci who has also done a great job. But, just watch Bailey outperform Austin in St. Louis just like he did at WVU. I wont use the word OUTSHINE because I think its possible that again Austin will make more highlight reel plays, but its possible he dosent in the NFL. But, overall production Bailey will still have more and its also possible he winds up with just as many highlight plays with the level of competition being tougher for them in the NFL.
Basically St Louis lost Amendola and replaced him with Austin and they lose Gibson and replace him with Bailey. Huge upgrades for St Louis, especially Bailey for Gibson. They may lose WPA, but they will get their TDs up. Bailey is going to be a stud in the league.
I just dont get how we addressed the WR problem we had so much. We retain Hartline, swap Bess for Gibson which is a bit of an upgrade, and add a stud in Wallace. But, is that really enough? I dont think so. We needed another stud and Bailey was right there to do the job.
Overall I still think its been a solid draft for us but, not getting Bailey is a huge let down for me. We added the best defensive player on the board and he is a huge game changer so Im still really excited about that, but we still need another great WR. I see a couple of decent guys on the board still, but none who I feel could be a star in this league like Bailey. We dont need role players, I can live with Matthews for that. We need IMPACT players. Guys who are top level of the NFL. Thats what I feel Bailey can be. Thats why Im let down.
However, the reason Im still overall very pleased with this draft because we went and did what needed to be done by getting an IMPACT player in Dion Jordan. Not settling for the mediocre, the quality starter, the cornfed, and making the aggressive move to go up and get a game changer. We still need Tannehill to develope into a top tier QB and we still need to add a couple of more players who fall into the category of impact player who is near the top of the league at his position in order to really make championship runs.
