In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I have had a historic bias against Indiana players. Now there have been Hoosiers in recent drafts who have done reasonably well. But historically, Indiana has not been a school that has produced a lot of great NFL players, and that colors my view of their players. That said, I hasten to add that I like what I have seen and heard about Feeney and I view him favorably. Furthermore, this post isn't going to offer too much in the way of evaluating him as a player. For the purposes of this discussion, I defer to the general consensus that Feeney will be a late first-early second round talent. But there will be some limited evaluation of him
Having dispensed with that, I know Feeney is a popular choice for Jaguars fans for us at the top of the second round, with some advocating we even trade up back into the bottom of the first round to go get him, if not Lamp. That aside, I think there are two reasons I don't think Feeney will be a Jaguar by May. Mainly, I don't think he will be on the board when we pick, and, assuming TC is calling the shots on draft day, I don't think he fits TC's mold for OLs.
First, I don't think Feeney will be on the board when we pick. The bottom of the first round and top of the 2nd round is as follows:
25) Houston
26) Seattle
27) Kansas City
28) Dallas
29) Green Bay
30) Pittsburgh
31) Atlanta
32) New Orleans (From NE)
2nd round
33) Cleveland
34) San Francisco
35) Jacksonville
Of these teams, Houston, Seattle, Green Bay, and Atlanta all have needs along the OL. Now arguably, Seattle, looking to replicate the power running attack of their Super Bowl years, may likely go for Robinson, if he's still on the board, or another power guy. But generally, I think he would be a good fit in Houston, Green Bay and Atlanta. Given Green Bay's free agency losses along the OL, they have the biggest need in OL outside of Jacksonville, it would be tough to expect the Packers to pass him up. Perhaps if he and Lamp are on the board when Green Bay picks at 29, maybe they take Lamp over him, but there's a lot of teams there where need meets value to expect Feeney to be there at 35, and this analysis doesn't even address the possibility of a team trading ahead of us to land him.
But if he somehow makes it past Atlanta, he will likely make it to us. Cleveland invested heavily in the OL this offseason, and are solid now at G with Bitonio and Zeitler. San Francisco just drafted Joshua Garnett last year, and while I have not followed Beadles since he left here, based upon everything I have read, his play did not induce projectile vomiting there like it did here. Their line seems okay. So why wouldn't we take him? Simply put, because he is a pure G. An examination of TCs OL acquisitions shows he likes his OLs to be versatile. He signed Leon Searcy as a free agent. Searcy played G in Pittsburgh and T here in Jacksonville. He acquired Ben Coleman from waivers. Coleman played G for us primarily, but stepped in admirably for Boselli when Boselli was injured. In New York, he drafted Justin Pugh, a T who many felt projected inside to G. Pugh has played both with the Giants. Weston Richburg was a 2nd round pick who has played G and C. Feeney has only played the right side. I think if TC does go after an OL in the 2nd round, Dawkins, who played LT in college but projects inside or to RT in the NFL, may be more to TC's liking.
Correction edit: Feeney played some RT in 2016...about 4 games.
Worst to 1st. Curse Reversed!
