Originally posted by magnus ver magnusson
No, St. Louis drafted an all-around good player, not a pass blocker who has some problems against the run. St. Louis did also have a lot of skill set talent on offense, and at the time not many defensive needs. OT was their major need, and it cost them. Has Pace helped them? Certainly. Is he the reason their offense was so good? No. He's about fifth in line on that answer.
To get into St. Louis, they were so bad for so long that they were able to draft the nucleous of their talent and sign /trade for impact players. Warner was obviously the intangible that nobody expected. If Pace wasn’t blocking for Marshall and pass blocking for Warner…I doubt they would be as dominant as they have then. The year they took Pace, they had tons of holes but the best player available at that spot was pace
Any scout will tell you that McKinnie is nowhere near Pace or Ogden. And if you're looking at those two and thinking that the fact that each team drafted an OT, and that's the secret of the success, then we're done talking. Fact is it's just like the Rams, except for not really, because we have ten holes and 4 decent picks. If we drafted McKinnie, we'd have nine holes, with the least of the ten being filled, and by a tackle who lacks the push in the run game we need. Tell me, do you like it when your strong safety can bench what your RT does, when you're playing ball control? I don't.
I’ve read several that say he is better than both. Infact, some say he is the best that has come out in the past 10 years.
Not to mention the lack of a trade down, something you won't address.
I think they want to trade down, but with who? How many spots are they willing to drop? How many more picks will they get? What player do the really want and will he be there after they trade? Until there is some hard evidence they are going to trade, you have to assume they are staying put.
Stubblefield went to Kansas, and I know you're not suggesting that the Washington pairing of Stubblefield and Wilkinson was productive. Furthermore, I'm really not certain what Wilkinson does to this argument other than simply add to the list of defensive linemen that were busts within the last ten years. Kinda like saying that "well this guy reminds me of Jason Peter."