Quote:I think I get what you are saying, but I want to be sure.

 

Can you think of a non QB that exemplifies your closing point?

 

I believe many WRs fall into this, as well as many OL.

 

It seems like we're always talking about how eye popping a particular candidate is, only to have guys under the radar (or at least further down the board) outperform them.

 

Joeckel is one.  Most thought we got the better of the two at the top.  Both were looked at as mostly plug and play, and certainly stars after settling into the league.  Instead, these OL drafted behind them went to Pro Bowls:

Kyle Long G

Travis Frederick C

David Bakhtiari T

 

Now, of course I don't think we should have taken them at #2 - but if your concerns are great enough (or if you projections were good enough) then you'd want to get out of that draft spot and/or pick up one of the other players later.  If it were a crystal ball business, we'd have taken Ansah instead at 2 and been able to get our LT later in round four (where we selected Ace Sanders [TMD props here.])

 

At a position like WR there are so many it's hard to know where to start.  There are more Heyward-Bey's than there are Coopers.  The second round talent seems to hit more there.

 

It could be said about RB as well.  But style, "fit," workload, and mileage also play a factor.  I don't think that position is more/less predictable than in the past so RB is probably not applicable here.

 

I think for the same reason WR and OL are less predicatable, so are secondary players.  Shut down corners and hard hitting safeties seem to be rather predictable, but anyone in between seems less so.  I think secondary, WR, and OL all suffer a bit from basketball on turf syndrome.  If athletes are making plays and dominating their competition, I question how much coaches put into fundamentals with guys like that?  Are they letting them get away with sloppier play because they're making the plays?  I think it's a question worth asking.  And of course, in an NFL scout's mind they either don't want to lose what they see as rare physical talent, and most coaches probably have the mentality that they can fix and/or work with anything.

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