I thought Luke Joeckel was a wasted pick at the time  because we already had Eugene Monroe on the left side, so we needed a right tackle. Now with Monroe gone we are finally able to say it is not a wasted draft pick. Getting two mid-round picks (I wish ESPN said which rounds they are) instead of one compensatory pick will help us a lot. So anyone who says we wasted our #2 overall draft pick now has no idea what he is talking about because at TAMU, Joeckel played on the left side.

 

That said, this report shocked me as much as the Tyson Alualu pick because Monroe was one of the best players on the team and playing under his rookie contract. I know it is hard to get good picks in return for bad players - D'Anthony Smith would have given us a seventh round pick if Seattle had kept him - but keeping all of our best players would be more logical in the short term. If we can get a very good right tackle in the draft and he plays up to his potential, this will go down as a genius long term move.

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