Quote:There were a ton of these same people who wanted the Jags to tank to get Jevan Snead a few years ago. Jevan friggin Snead.... :blink:

 

Now, they're so sure Bridgewater is the sure fire savior. He very likely may be, but he also may not be.

 

It's okay though. I am clearly not going to change the minds of the so called "fans" so I'll just sit back and watch them cheer and giggle with every loss. It's what makes them happy after all.....

 

Those are two different issues you are discussing.

 

Issue 1:  Whether the "bibbers" are advocating the team could benefit from a higher draft position.

 

Issue 2:  Whether the "bibbers" think the team should use the benefit of that higher draft position on a particular player-in this case Jevan Snead.

 

A bibber or group of bibbers misidentifying the player the team should take with the higher draft position (issue 2) is really irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion.  It's not necessary for people posting on the message board to correctly evaluate a particular player.  That is the team's mandate.

 

However, draft position could mean all of the difference in the world in determining whether a team maximizes the benefit a draft could offer.  A team with too low a draft position could, indeed, correctly identify the top player at a given position-even if that analysis differs than that of the "bibbers."  However, if the team's original pick is not high enough to draft that player, and the team in position to draft that player has no interest in trading down to allow our team to get him, then in most instances, whether the team evaluated the player properly or not becomes moot.

 

It is entirely possible Bobby Beathard ( a successful long time GM with the Dolphins, Skins, and Chargers) evaluated the 1998 draft properly and determined that Peyton Manning was the best QB in the draft, the best player in the draft, and had him at the top of the draft board.  However, since Indy wound up picking one spot ahead of them, Beathard's correct analysis of the top of the draft became moot when Indy decided to retain the pick and chose Peyton Manning for themselves.  Beathard and the Bolts were left to pick the best of the remaining players (which, for obvious reasons, excluded Manning).  SD, also needing a QB, chose Ryan Leaf.  Again, its possible that, if given a choice between Manning and Leaf, Beathard would have chosen Manning and NFL history would have been much different.  However, that choice was taken from him due to draft position.  At this point, the incorrect evaluation of Ryan Leaf's value vis-a-vis the rest of the draft class became the issue.

 

Now we "bibbers" may or may not have a preference for a particular player to be chosen, and that preference may or may not match the analysis of the team.  But, we want the team to have EVERY opportunity to get it right, without possibly having the team's preferred choice taken from them before they had the chance to utilize the pick on the player.  If the team got the pick right, it's fine with me if their choice is different from mine.  To see this in action, look at all of the converts now singing Blackmon's praises when many last year didn't want him, continued to blindly accept Ketchmanite philosophy and eschew "shiny things."

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