Quote:Plenty of people mocked Bortles in the Top 10 though.  Nobody mocked Alualu in the Top 20 for the most part (I didn't see any in any case).  So it's not THAT far against the consensus.  And his scouts independently came to the same conclusion.

 

I hated the Alualu pick -- I still remember it vividly.  Our internet was out.  Our T.V. was out.  So I was sitting in my car listening to the draft on the Radio.  Redskins homers because I live in Virginia.  They announced Tyson Alualu.  My first thought was "WHO?"  And when our phone lines were finally fixed the next day, I was still very upset about it.  (Granted, I wanted Jimmy Clausen, and was happy we didn't take Tebow... but back then I didn't follow football nearly as well as I do now.  I was also a fan of Joe Flacco when he came out)

 

Bortles isn't so far off the consensus that it makes you go "We took.. who?"  We're actually getting decent grades from most for the pick, aside from the people who are like 'HERP DERP he won't get to sit like he needs to cuz he's behind Chad Henne HERP DERP"

 

I guess that I meant the 'brave' portion seemed to apply to both situations. Bortles is different than Alualu in that he is viewed to need more time than most in order to develop whereas Alualu just seemed like a "Needs" pick but both regimes took their guy that went against some opinions. I talked myself into the Alualu thing and while I don't necessarily regret it, I feel like there was probably a lot of talent / value left on the board when he was drafted.

 

I'm hoping that Bortles lives up to all of that game tape that he produced at UCF.

---