(05-06-2023, 01:59 PM)TheDuke007 Wrote:

(04-30-2023, 10:29 PM)TheDuke007 Wrote: There is so much to say about the draft.  If I were to write it in one message, it would be ridiculously long.  I'll start with one of my big observations.  I considered the early 4th round to be the sweet spot in this draft where a lot of excellent value met the Jaguars needs.  You had Clark Phillips at 113, Dawand Jones at 111 and Adetomiwa Adebawore at 110.  I wasn't high on Kelee Ringo and didn't want him on Day 1 or Day 2 but was good value at 105.  Nick Saldiveri was also available at 103.  The problem was that these players were gone before our picks at #121, 127, 130, 136, 160, 185, 202, 208, 226 and 240.  I would have loved to take our ten Day 3 picks and convert them into as many picks as possible in the #103 to #113 range.  

We're only talking about moving up 8 spots in the 4th round to get Clark Phillips who I like 10 times better than Ventrell Miller.  I can't believe we couldn't find a way to make it work.  I don't believe that no teams wanted to trade down.  This draft set a new NFL record for the number of draft day trades.  You just had to offer what was fair for this draft.  We clearly had the resources to do so.  The point chart says the move up should only cost us 16 points.  I know it can be different from draft to draft, but double it, triple it, quadruple it, whatever.  We had 170 points available to us.  I can't believe we couldn't make it work and still be left with more draft picks than could realistically make our 53 man roster.  It was a major missed opportunity.

Baalke made it clear that Antonio Johnson will be playing safety and special teams.  He doesn't appear to even be in consideration for the nickel corner role.  That leaves players taken at #202 and #208 to offer competition to Tre Herndon.  We can hope for the best, but I'm not optimistic.  Sadly, Herndon, who sucks, will likely be our starting nickel corner again in 2023.  If so, that will be a major failure of this draft.

I previously advocated trading up and specifically for Clark Phillips.  I was curious, so I looked at what trades were made and what they costed.  When I did, I found that I was right.  Teams could trade up and the cost wasn't unreasonable.  The team 1 spot ahead of us (Patriots) in the 4th round coincidentally traded up to the exact spot I wanted -- 1 spot ahead of Clark Phillips.  I mentioned above that the point chart said it would cost 16 points.  Guess what the Patriots paid?  16.2 points.  It cost them a 6th round pick.  Was that too much to move up?  To be fair, the Patriots traded 120 and 184 while we had 121 and 185 but come on.  Throw in another late pick or two.  Alternatively, we could have offered pick 160 instead of 185.  I find it very hard to believe the Jets wouldn't have preferred that offer to the one they accepted.

A second option also existed.  The Cardinals traded picks 122, 139 and 168 to the Lions move up to pick 96 (third round).  We could have offered the Lions picks 121, 136 and 160.  All three picks are higher.  If so, our draft could have been:

Harrison
Strange
Bigsby
Clark Phillips or Dawand Jones or Adetomiwa Adebawore or Kelee Ringo or Nick Saldiveri
Two 4th Round Picks  
Three 6th Round Picks
Two 7th Round Picks

We could have gotten a quality player at a position of need and still had more late round picks than could realistically make the team.

Interestingly, I also just totaled the points for the trade.  The 96th pick is worth 116 points.  Guess what's the combined points of 121, 136 and 160?  116.2 points!  LOL!  As I said, we just needed to offer fair value.

Sorry to get into the nitty gritty, but the point is that this notion that there were no options for Baalke to trade up is just false.

Perhaps, but you presume we coveted Philips or any of the guys you mention.  It could be that we coveted guys that went before all of them and couldn't find a partner to get up high enough to get them and then just decided to sit tight because there were plenty of guys left to choose from in the next highest tier on their board.  You're drawing fairly definitive conclusions off relatively little information.

---