(05-30-2021, 12:37 AM)Bullseye Wrote: 3.  Admittedly this view is unfair to the team and to the player, but of all the draft picks in the first 3-4 rounds, perhaps the one I am the least enthusiastic about is second round pick Tyson Campbell.  It's not as though I was initially opposed to the pick like I was Chaisson last year.  I'm not necessarily hostile to him as a player.  But for reasons I cannot fully explain, my attitude towards his selection borders on ambivalence or indifference.  On a lot of levels, I should be excited we got him.  Considering the talent purge we had on that side of the ball, the need for a big, fast athletic nickel corner or safety was certainly there.  Just a few years back in 2017, I advocated a heavy early investment in the secondary when we already had Ramsey and Bouye and pushed for the team to take either Marshon Lattimore, Jamal Adams, or even Malik Hooker in the first round.  While it doesn't exactly fit the scenario I detailed above, it meets the spirit of that argument.  If the team hit on his selection, the secondary and defense as a whole should be much better, whether he plays nickel, safety, or one of the outside corners.  But as of this moment, I have been unable to muster much enthusiasm for this pick. I sincerely hope his level of play makes me look back at this post and laugh.

I hope that I'm wrong, but I hated the pick at the time.  I still think it was clearly the worst Jaguars pick in the first four rounds.  It didn't make sense to me because it seemed to be neither value or need or a good fit.  To top it off, there were also some great options available at that spot.  

Value:  I looked up 8 different pre-draft rankings of prospects and the best I could find was him ranked 39th.  We took him at 33.  The average ranking had him around 60th.  If Farley or Newsome were there and we took them, I would have at least seen it as a possible BAP pick.  Why take a non-need when it isn't a clear value pick?  Obviously, the Jaguars must have disagreed in terms of his value.  I hope they are right.

Need:  I went into the draft considering cornerback our smallest need (not counting special teams positions).  Sometimes when a team drafts at a position without an apparent need, it is because they have an aging player or a player that they want to cut for salary cap reasons.  I don't see that situation here.  C.J. Henderson was a rookie last year and has 4 years left on his rookie deal.  Shaquill Griffin is only 25.  He was signed just this off-season and gave him $29 million in guaranteed money.  It will be a couple of years before we could cut him and save money.  I even liked Sidney Jones as the third option.  Upon reflection, my guess is that Meyer doesn't  I assumed because Meyer re-signed Jones that he liked him.  However, if you look at the contract, it's a one year deal.  It's also only $400K in guaranteed money and otherwise is a veteran minimum deal.  I'm now thinking that they signed Jones for depth, but felt a big need for someone better as the #3 cornerback.  I'm also guessing that the Jaguars plan to blitz a lot this year and want to have 3 speedy cornerbacks in their secondary.

Fit:  I didn't consider cornerback a need, but I thought if they were to draft one, that someone suited for the nickel role would be the choice.  I see Campbell as a better fit on the outside.  I feel moving him to nickel is a little risky in terms of his effectiveness.  Obviously, Meyer disagrees.  I hope he's right.

Great Options Available:  It's one thing to go away from need when there's no other options available.  Sometimes  you have to make the best of a bad situation.  However, that wasn't the case here.  Both Teven Jenkins and Trevon Moehrig were available.  Both big needs and both were projected to go much earlier in the draft.  We were unsure if they would fall to our #25 spot and I was excited to see both there at #33.  I know some will say that we still got Little and Cisco.  Ok, if so, Barmore was also available who would have been another great mix of need and value.  Thinking about it, my guess is that Meyer didn't like Barmore.  Maybe Meyer is right and we dodged a bullet, but I personally would feel better about our defense right now with Barmore instead of Campbell.

Again, I hope I'm wrong and Campbell turns out to be a great pick, but I call it like I see it.

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