(03-30-2021, 01:25 PM)Upper Wrote: Etienne would be a fine choice in the late 1st for a team that is pretty much complete and has the luxury of a shiny toy to put it over the top. An RB in the first round for a team that is just starting it's rebuild is beyond stupid.

Not sure where I would stand on the issue of when the appropriate time to pick a RB in the 1st round.

At face value, what you say above makes a ton of sense.

But I can recall a couple of teams who managed to rebuild properly, the Jimmy Johnson era Cowboys and the Polian era Colts.

Jimmy Johnson's first year in Dallas resulted in a 1-15 record.  His second year, he took Emmitt Smith in the first round.  With the Colts, Polian's colts finished 3-13 in 1998, Peyton Manning's first year.  They had Marshall Faulk on the roster.  In 1999, they traded Faulk away, and then drafted Edgerrin James in the top 5, a spot ahead of Ricky Williams.  While neither team took a 1st round RB in the first year, I'm not sold their second year represented near completion of the rebuild, nor am I sold that taking either RB in the first round was a poor choice.

Now you could argue the Colts were far more of a finished product than our Jaguars.  By 1999, the Colts had Manning at QB, Tarik Glenn at LT, and Marvin Harrison at WR.  Jacksonville is far less settled at LT than Indy was at the time.  You could also argue that Aikman and Manning had completed their rookie years before their teams invested in the 1st round RB the next year.  But on some level, I don't see how a stud rookie RB somehow helps a young QB less in his rookie year than he would in his second year.

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