Quote:I'm fairly sure that every major media draft board had Fowler in the top five.

 

As stated before, that was solely because people were convinced we were going to take him.

 

Having him actually grade in the top 5, and draftniks projecting we would take him top 5 are two entirely unrelated things.  No one had him anywhere near there until rumors started flying we would take him there.  Huge difference.

 

A lot of folks are acting like they forgot what trouble draftniks were having trying to grade these "edge" players.  No one had a clear consensus on who was the best prospect (though consensus was arguably Gregory before his pre draft shenanigans) and no one could agree on which position they projected at best.  So, the tweener OLBs were a bit elevated (the group which Fowler was a part of) and I feel the true RDEs were a bit overlooked or mis-evaluated.

 

Because the class was a big question mark, OLBs and RDEs alike got lumped together as "edge," which IMO was a disservice to all.

 

All had different strengths/weaknesses, and rather than examine those vs fit in different schemes and grade them according to those rush OLB or RDE roles - they were all labeled "edge."  Made the work easier for the draftniks, but caused poorer "evaluations."

 

In the past, you were an RDE or you weren't.  If you weren't, you were scouted at rush OLB.  A tweener, who could possibly play RDE in right scheme or if used the right way.

 

We got a tweener, not a true RDE, and those speculative types of players aren't top 5 picks unless your name is Lawrence Taylor.  If we were going to reach for a LEO with the fifth pick of the draft (and that's precisely what we did given this entire explanation,) there were other candidates that were just as good or even better prospects to take there.  And that's just looking at the "edge" players alone... not even counting Cooper or Williams at other positions.

 

If you can't accept it was a reach after all the evidence, then that's great.  That's my observation and I've spelled it out quite clearly.  I'm not here to convince you, just share my thoughts.  Which, are well researched, well backed, and well explained as succinctly as possible.  Much more so than a "so and so said on such website" retort.

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