From next level reports

I agree. At least a WR and an O- lineman. If Smith goes down again we are screwed, same with a lineman.

As far as BPA, sure if a top tier can't miss player falls unexpectedly, I just don't see a large discrepencey between the second tier of players.

 

#1) why do you say obviously? and "not as much" means 1% less, 50% less, or what? i'm not trying to be a smartass but am interested in hearing you expound on what apparently should be obvious to me. i question because I remember Henning saying that Smitty was going to be a huge part of the offense last season. the implication i thought was that they were planning on passing a lot more than the year before. don't have the stats but i'm thinking Goings was getting 30+ carries a game, which i think is a lot. with the progress of Jake, Smitty coming back, an improvement in the OL and an improvement in the WRs, I'd think we pass more so as to not overburden an injury suspect corp of RBs. I don't agree with all of Mags conclusions on the issue but i do agree that we should work our RBs less than we did 2 years ago ... particularly in light of the injury and fumbling worries there.

#3) I'm not sure at all about Colbert. He didn't seem to be super quick or fast. We had trouble last season with press coverage and I think we will see a ton of it this year without more speed/quickness at WR. Smitty will help but so would Williamson or Clayton. I remember too hearing that the FO was saying that wanted to get faster at WR. could be it was all a smokescreen but it was music to my ears. (not even getting into how they love to throw the long ball, them rolling the dice on Carter has to support that them wanting more speed is very high on their list of needs.) i'm torn on colbert as well as using the first on a WR. there are some guys I really like that could be there at 2.

#4) sounds good but i don't think i entirely agree with you. why would you carry 2 franchise caliber RBs? would the same logic say you wouldn't spend a ton on a FA when you seeminly have 2 good young starters? doesn't Manning, Lucas and Gamble sound much, much stronger than Manning, Gamble and Wet Spot? that's a great 3-some when all are on the field and if one goes down you're not dead in the water. would the CB situation be comparable to the WR situation? wouldn't putting Smitty, Calyton and Colbert on the field at one time cause significanly more problems for a defense than what we have now? and if one goes down (particularly Smitty), we wouldn't be dead in the water. another jet has got to be a good thing in this offense. With what we got I'd fear that our season goes down the drain again without Smitty similar to the way things went south when we lost Jeffers. I'm pretty sure that we all would agree that Colbert is not ready to carry the team. i think the fear of Cobert, Proel and Carter/4th rd rook (?) being your WRs has got to be scary enough to at least consider taking a WR in round 1 or 2.

the thing about this draft and our draft position is that it doesn't seem as of now that there is a no-brainer or even a tossup between near no-brainers. no DT or OT seems worthy of #14. i don't entirely agree with Mags conclusion about the RB situation though I think I lean with him on Benson solely on my recollection of seeing him in one game. so if not Benson and neither DJ or Rolle (who most i think hereon voted a big "NO" if he were to fall to 14), then who? i'd love him at 45 and would be willing to toss in a fourth or fifth to move up to grab him if the opportunity was there, but to me Bass makes no sense to me at 14. i'm not sold on the WRs but they make more sense at the moment to me than any other pick that should be there (said better by Mags) and that's even understanding the risk of taking a WR (course if you don't ever take a chance on taking a Jerry Rice, then your chances of getting one are greatly diminished ... i think). Williamson or Clayton would seem to be a great fit in my opinion and could overtake Colbert in short order giving us a dynamite duo at WR.

 

I'm coming around on him. I've separated him from the unadulterated hype of Roddy White, who doesn't deserve to sniff the top 30 - I don't see Williamson as a top 10 player, but his RAC ability and deep speed are the two basic things that we do in this O. That, and he has height. Very superficial reasons to like him, but it's taken me this long to be complimentary of the guy - he wasn't productive in school and that bothers me some.

FWIW, I like Terrence Murphy. I hear the team really likes the Hampton kid Mathis, who ran a blistering 40 and does have return skills. I doubt that he'll be an impact receiver, but he makes sense both in the sense that we had made a move for a guy like Steveophone and that the Giants made a move for a guy like Dixon while Fox was there.

 

I think he's going on the idea that our O is run-based and predictable. Two starting backs makes enough of a reason not to run as much (though as you know biblically, I did worry about Goings' carries late in the year too).

I keep hoping that we'll eventually see the error of our ways in being so run-happy and can find a happy medium. Grind out when up by 10, but get to ten up with a nicer mix of run/pass. That way we're not perennially having to pass too much late in the season when our backs are tired/hurt.

That's probably why I'm getting behind a receiver pick in the hopes we'll use said player, but I'm not hopeful enough to want a TE.

 

not me.....I want to have Davis or a Davis like player running the ball 30 times a game for 120 yards and 2 TDs each game....

I do however favor picking up the TE from Virginia at 14.....Heath.....

Is that a good value at 14?

 

he's dropping like a rock.

 

I don't see why. A sports hernia is a stupid reason to have a guy drop. But if teams want to drop him like they did Witten, hope we're not so stupid this time.

 

HeadCase:
#1) We had 422 rushes last year versus 536 pass attempts. In 2003 we had 522 rushes and 460 pass attempts. "Obviously" those numbers are almost reversed, which is an enormous change for an NFL team. It seems pretty clear that those changes were not intentional, but were made because of injuries to our running backs. Goings did have 30 carries in three games late last season, and it's no coincidence that those games were Jake's 3rd, 5th, and 7th lowest attempts totals of the season. (most games Jake had 35 or more attempts, but in those three he had 29, 30, and 24)

#3) You presumably read about the front office interest in Sports Weekly's draft guide. I talked to Matt Pitzer about that afterwards and while he wouldn't tell me who wrote it, he said it was not from the team and that he would be very surprised if they were looking for more speed at WR as opposed to size. As for Colbert in general, aside from the drops he was pretty much what we thought we were getting. He wasn't super quick or fast at USC either, just their leading receiver of all-time. Now I wouldn't mind upgrading there or anywhere else, but unless he's already a bust, that isn't a "need."

#4) 3rd corners see the field far more often than 3rd wide receivers, especially in our offense. Plus the requirements of a 3rd WR are more limited, so you certainly wouldn't have to use a first or second round selection on one. Seriously, though, you do not use a first or second round pick just for depth, which is our problem at WR. You use middle round picks and free agency for depth. If Williamson or Clayton are the best player available, that's fine. If they're a surefire upgrade over Colbert, that's fine too, but it means we wasted the pick on Colbert.

Rest:
Barron is worthy of #14 on the basis of talent alone, but I share the sentiments of many that I'm not keen on him. Travis Johnson is also worthy at #14, but I'm not sold on him either. Keep in mind that there's a difference between a player's appropriate draft level and whether or not you think he'll succeed.

And for the record, did you actually ever watch Williamson play? I'm just curious because most of his support seems to come from people who have either just read about him or just seen his combine numbers. Clayton I could at least respect, but he seems to offer very similar skills to what Colbert brings.


Magnus:
Williamson is just 6'1". That's taller than what we have, but hardly "plus" height. Heck, his 40 time was only a couple of hundredths faster than Clayton's too, and we already know how misleading 40 times are in the first place. From watching him at USC he can definitely run straight ahead for thirty or forty yards and occasionally catch a ball, but I'm just not convinced he can do much else. As stated earlier, I think if you had put Williamson in a pro-style college offense, he would have looked completely lost. Now I'm willing to disagree, but quite frankly I just don't think enough people are judging Williamson based on what he showed on the field. I've seen WRs in option offenses show much more skill.

And yeah, I think getting a return man in this draft is critical. Plus we better block worth a damn on special teams this season. Our return game has been bad to atrocious since about midway through the 2003 season.


riddel:
I think the concerns about Heath have to do more with him not being quite as athletic as someone like Shockey, and not a very good blocker. Similar TEs (Daniel Graham) also went toward the bottom of the first.

 

i'd pass on johnson.

i'd take barron.

i agree on the WR situation -- i like clayton a lot. could some of it be worry about smith's recovery from injury?

i think LB makes the most sense for the #1 and the kid from texas seems to be the choice, if he's there.

 

I know that about Williamson - you can ask anyone here who's had me argue against them that Williamson wasn't worth hype just because he was 6'1 and ran 4.4. The end result, though, is that his speed does justify his abilities as a deep receiver, something we use a good deal. That he can take a shorter pass and spread it, tends to support the other part of how we use the O - it was a fairly strong topic mid-year that the team was trying to use 87 and 83 in a RAC mode when it's not their strength. It's Smitty's, and it's Williamson's. Whether it's a first round guy or the slot receiver I want, I assume that that player would have that open field ability.