Quote:Our defense could get to that level if we suck for long enough.  That is basically what SF and SEA did.  They were horrible for so long and stockpiled a ton of top 15 talent in every draft.

 

Building a team to be smaller and quicker (which is basically what Prisco is saying) is a dumb move.  You draft studs like Pat Willis and Earl Thomas.  End of story.

 

 

SF did draft some great players like VD, Willis, Aldon Smith and A. Davis with their top 15 picks from 2005-11, I can give you that. And they also found Gore and Navorro Bowman in 3rd round. But still, they did almost nothing with that talent until Jim Harbaugh come in 3 years ago.

 

As for the Hawks: from 2003 we only missed playoffs three times (2008, 2009 and 2011), so we didn't have a lot of top 15 picks to collect talent like 49ers did. Our only top 5 pick in last 15 years was Aaron Curry in 2009, who as you probably know was a big bust and is already retired.

 

But everything that happened before 2010 doesn't really matter now, because we currently only have 2 players (center Max Unger and punter Jon Ryan) on roster from pre-Carroll era. Red Bryant was the third one. None of them were selected in 1st round.

 

Yes, we did have two top 15 picks in 2010 in Carroll's first year. We select Russell Okung with "our" No. 6 pick and then Earl Thomas with No. 14 (we get this pick a year before from the Broncos for our 2009 2nd round pick). And then in 2012 we get Bruce Irvin with No. 15 pick (original No.12). Of course ET is our best and most important player on defense and Irvin is a solid player, but I don't think that qualifies for sucking for long time and stockpiling high draft picks.

 

Still, having regularly top 15 (or even top 10 or top 5) picks doesn't always work well. Just ask Browns or Rams fans. They did draft some good to great players, but were not in playoffs in last 10 years.

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