Quote: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.

First off, I call shenanigans on your "everyone knew Leftwich would tank" assertion. I don't recall the media here saying a single bad thing about him for a couple of years after he arrived, and as many leaks as there were in the Jags organization during the Shack/Gene era (anyone else remember when the Jags website infamously posted a page the night before the 2007 draft saying that Reggie Nelson was the pick?), there's no way information that big could've stayed under wraps.

 

Second, no one wanted to trade up for Roethlisberger, at least not at a price that would have returned consummate value for the caliber of player being passed. We get back into my previous argument that spending two top-ten picks in a row and tens of millions of dollars on two guys at a position that only plays one gets you into a situation where you get hosed trading one during the draft, or you end up giving one away for a second-round pick afterwards. I'll give you this much: at any other position on offense or defense, I would agree with you probably 90% of the time. If the highest rated player on your board is a stud DE, take the man, even if you have two established starters. Ditto that for wideouts, offensive linemen, QBs, pass-rushing LBs, the list goes on. Quarterback is the only non-specialist position where it just doesn't make sense to stockpile young players with multiple first-round picks in a row.

 

Consider this as well: teams had had eight previous opportunities to trade up for Roethlisberger, and no one did. If the Jags were drafting fifth after Manning and Rivers had come off the board, they might have had more leverage, as they would have been sitting on the last of the big three QBs with a few teams that would have been candidates to draft Roethlisberger directly behind them, but not at nine where teams had already passed on the man eight times and knew that the Jags and Texans would almost certainly not be taking him.

 

Quote:I said always take the highest rated guy if you can't trade back.

 

I consider it a reach any time you take a guy that you already evaluated as worse than a guy you're passing up. That includes if you rated one guy an 87 and the other an 86.

I admire your principles and agree with your general concept, but it's my opinion that the grade given includes consideration for position and team need, and an 8.6 can, should and will be drafted ahead of an 8.7 if he can fill an immediate need at an acceptable level for his draft slot. If we're talking 8.0 over an 8.7, then I begin to agree with you that the team is reaching too far--something that I believe happened with Reggie Williams.

 

Quote:Still, I'd rather have Joe Montana AND Steve Young and keep winning Superbowls instead of having to play against him all the time.

Interestingly enough, there was not a single first-round pick used in bringing those two to SF.

 

Quote:If you assume Shack was a needs drafter (as so many have), recall in 2007, he traded down when Brady Quinn was on the board and wound up with Reggie Nelson.

Main counter-point there, Shack did not see QB as a need, even though Del Rio was supposedly pushing for a Quinn selection. He was bound at the hip to Leftwich, even as it became more apparent that Leftwich wasn't working out. Safety was considered a bigger need by Shack (and, admittedly, plenty of fans and media as well).

 

Quote:Yes, you are getting that much only watching him in the preseason. Have you not paid attention to anything?

 

The Jaguars even got a pick for Gabbert. Gabbert

Please don't even try to compare the Gabbert trade with the Roethlisberger scenario. I don't dispute that the Jags could have gotten a pick for Roethlisberger or Leftwich if they'd drafted to stack the two. I do dispute the notion that the Jaguars would have gotten anything close to the value of the ninth overall pick back in that scenario.

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