Quote:Would you pass on an All-Pro player because you already have a Pro-Bowl player in that position, to draft a Pro-Bowl player in another position? If it doesn't work out it doesn't matter the philosophy, but if it does work out, you are leaving better players available to be picked by other teams.

 

 

It depends. 

 

Under your rationale, Indy might have been better served taking one of the QBs in 1999 instead of RB Edgerrin James, a year after taking Peyton Manning.

 

Lots of people trash the Jaguars for bypassing Ogden in favor of Kevin Hardy in 1996.

 

Had we drafted Ogden that year, we'd have an offensive line featuring Boselli at one tackle, Ogden at another tackle position (who knows whether he would have been as good), and Searcy at G.

 

Now assuming Ogden's career at RT for us would have mirrored his career at LT for Baltimore, we'd have a great OL.  But we wouldn't have been able to stop anyone at all.  LB would have continued to have been a huge liability.  We wouldn't have had the defense we had from 1996-1999. 

 

Hardy made a lot of plays that, while not flashy, bolstered the defense quite a bit.  He was a good blitzer overall (when he played for a coordinator who believed in practicing the timing of blitzes and actually utilized his skills in that area).  He was strong at the point of attack against the run.  He dropped well into coverage and was a sure tackler.  To date, nobody who has made this argument has explained where we would have gotten Hardy's 10.5 sacks in 1999 from without him.  If we kept Robinson, it s doubtful we'd get Hardy's production from him.  He's never recorded more than 6 sacks in a season, and he came from a blitz heavy defense in Houston/Tennessee.  To date, we have not had a better all around OLB.

 

Had we drafted Ogden, you could make the argument that we would have expended more free agency dollars on the defense, exacerbating the eventual salary cap hits and still not have produced as effective a group.  Eventually, the salary cap still would have cost us Boselli, Walker, Keenan, Ogden, Searcy, et al, and still have gotten no further than we did. 

 

The Raiders of the 70's and 80s and Cowboys of the 1990s had two all time great OLs and both had Super Bowl winning dynastys with them.  But they also had balanced teams, with talent on both sides of the ball.  I think Hardy was important enough to those defenses on those TC era to say that without him, we'd lack that balance to have been a serious contender.  In a best case scenario, we'd be like the Marino era Dolphins.

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