Quote:But drafting a QB top-ten the year after drafting a QB top-ten is just foolish. Think of it like this:

 

Shack drafts Leftwich in '03, then Roethlisberger is on the board in '04. At the time, Leftwich was a promising young QB. There were no indications that he'd later prove to not be worth the pick used on him in 2003. Shack gets on the phone and tells other teams that he's going to draft Roethlisberger unless they trade up, but they're not sending back any offers, at least none that return in value what the team risked losing in quality. Shack now has a choice: he can play hardball and draft Roethlisberger, or he can move on to another player of similar grade who fills a position of need.

 

And let's not forget, this whole argument is based on the notion that Reggie wasn't on top of Shack's draft board at the time anyway, in which case the whole exercise is moot.

 

So now, let's say the Jaguars draft Roethlisberger and try to trade him immediately. Here's the problem with that: no one wanted to trade up for him, so what would make you think that anyone's willing to give up what it would have cost to trade up--if not more--to get him now? At that point, either the Jaguars get hosed on draft day by trading Roethlisberger for far less than market value on the trade-down would have been, they get hosed sometime after the draft when they give Roethlisberger away for a second-round pick the following year, or they're stuck with two very high-paid players at a position where only one sees the field at a time.

 

No matter how you cut it, the Jaguars made the right decision in 2004 as it related to Roethlisberger. Now, do I agree with the Williams pick? No. I didn't then, and I don't now, but if the Jaguars were left with the choice of drafting a second top-ten QB in two years, trading down without recouping the value you'd lose in player quality, or picking the next guy on the board, then picking the next guy was, imo, exactly right.

 

We as the fans didn't know what Leftwich would be, but when the Jaguars radio guys talk about the 2004 draft they say a lot of guys already knew at that point that Leftwich would never make it in the league and that taking Roethlisberger should have been done.

 

QB is the most important position in all of sports, and if a truly elite prospect is there you either have to take him or make someone else pay to come and get him. Anything else is wasting value, and the draft is all about value.

 

Free agency is for positional need.

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