MD was right

There both beasts. Al least we didn't draft Prince Amukamara

Watt is the best defensive player in the NFL this season, no doubt. I expect that to continue.
Smith still has more career sacks and had the better rookie season. Both of our starting DE's are pretty dominant in their own right. One was the best defensive player last year (just didnt get the title).
Theres also no guarantee that Watt would have the same production here as he does in Houston. He is THE guy for their D now that Mario is gone.

Everybody is right about some draft picks now and then. Im willing to bet that Baalke, Harbaugh, and company are right more often than any of us.

Watt is a great player, but he wouldn't be as productive as a Niner. Not only would his playing time not be as great with Justin Smith and Ray Mac, but we also run a different scheme.

We tend to rush four, even in obvious passing situations, while Houston blitzes much more under Wade Phillips' scheme. Watt gets much more single man blocks than most 3-4 lineman in that scheme. This is the same Wade Phillips scheme that allowed Luis Castillo a 7 sack season. Not saying Castillo is comparable, since Watt is obviously superior, I'm just saying we run a very different 3-4 scheme.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
Watt is unbelievable. I have a lot of relatives in Wisconsin. And I've personally gone to many Wisconsin games. Both regular season and Rose Bowl. And I can tell you Watt was always a beast for the Badgers. Just unblockable and batting down passes like he does now. But I have to tell you I didn't expect him to be this good in the pros. He's unreal. Just unreal. He looks like the next Reggie White. He's going to be an all time player. Just insane how good he is.

Now I think Aldon Smith is really, really good and maybe even a perenial Pro Bowl level guy. And I love Aldon other than all his PAC MAN JONES off field episodes. But I'd have to say I think JJ Watt is probably going to be better overall. Probably an all time great vs. a Pro Bowl player is what we are looking at. Watt is like Justin Smith but younger, bigger, stronger and more athletic, with just as much motor....

Exactly.

The roof on both of these players is somewhere in the stars, both HOF potential. That being said to sit here and say one will be better then the other is wrong. JJ watt lookes like the Defensive MVP right now, but I have no doubt aldon can also get there. He's only had what, 5 sacks taken away from him already?

Originally posted by gold49er2183:
The roof on both of these players is somewhere in the stars, both HOF potential. That being said to sit here and say one will be better then the other is wrong. JJ watt lookes like the Defensive MVP right now, but I have no doubt aldon can also get there. He's only had what, 5 sacks taken away from him already?

Thats a great point!

We had less of a need for Watt than we did for Aldon Smith. Who were we going to get that could fill in Aldon Smith's role? Whereas Justin Smith's career is what Watt hopes to achieve.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Oh pleeeease....

Look, J.J. Watt is a phenomenal player. He looks like a shoe in for the HOF. But based on the personnel that we had going into that draft, picking Aldon was the right call. We have J. Smith and McDonald. Where would Watt fit? Should we have let McDonald go in FA instead? In that scenario we are left without an elite pass-rusher, something that prevented this defense from being a top unit for years.

Aldon is putting up some eye-popping numbers too you know. He has a shot at breaking Reggie White's record as the fastest defender to reach 20 sacks. Reggie-freakin'-White. I think we're doing just fine with Aldon.

This.

MadDog is one of my favorite posters, but I disagree with the idea that we should have drafted JJ Watt over Aldon Smith. He thought Watt was the better player. He might be right about that; although it's not an open and shut case at this point.

The problem was his reasoning. First of all, he didn't think Ray McDonald was worth the money he is making right now. Therefore, we should have filled the hole with Watt. McDonald has been a big time player ever since he has started. It wasn't obvious that this would be true at the time, but most of us thought a lot more of McDonald then MD did.
Second, he didn't realize the kind of need we had at OLB. He was a little too high on the players we had at that time. Most fans were screaming for us to get an impact OLB for years and years prior to us drafting Smith.
Third, he didn't think super highly of Aldon Smith. He didn't realize (nobody did) that either of these players would be THIS good.

JJ Watt looks like Godzilla, but Aldon Smith is still King Kong. Both players are a lot better than anybody could have thought.
We certainly made the right decision when drafting Aldon Smith over JJ Watt. He was a player at a much bigger position of need, and he is a dominant player, chasing Reggie Whites records and might turn out just as good or better than JJ Watt in a few years.

We needed Aldon more than Watt. Where would've Watt played last year and this? Maddog was absolutely right about him being a stud, but we already had McDonald and J Smith at DE and no one other than Brooks who could rush the passer from the OLB position.

JJ Watt is a beast, Shawne Merriman was a beast. If JJ can play for 5 or 6 years at this level then he is for real. If his name keeps coming up on IR then we know why he was such a beast. We're playing a guy this week, Jason Pierre Paul that may be the best in the business. Aldon Smith is getting better each week, he has a body type that can get bigger. Something to keep in mind, roids keep evolving to a point where they are almost untraceable unless testing is specific. If it reaches that point the chemists change the formula. The Testing process is several steps behind.

What would have been ideal is for us to have drafted both Watt and Smith. But since that was not possible we picked the player that we felt we needed most and so we got Smith and he has helped our defense. If we had drafted Watt who knows how it would have worked out for us. So for us it has worked out well indeed. Whether Watt would have helped us more is unknown. So we got a good player and Houston got a good player as well. Now we will see how we will do over time.

Originally posted by RishikeshA:
JJ Watt is a beast, Shawne Merriman was a beast. If JJ can play for 5 or 6 years at this level then he is for real. If his name keeps coming up on IR then we know why he was such a beast. We're playing a guy this week, Jason Pierre Paul that may be the best in the business. Aldon Smith is getting better each week, he has a body type that can get bigger. Something to keep in mind, roids keep evolving to a point where they are almost untraceable unless testing is specific. If it reaches that point the chemists change the formula. The Testing process is several steps behind.

what are you trying to say...

Originally posted by gold49digger:
what are you trying to say...

If JJ breaks down use your own conclusions.

Originally posted by WINiner:
Maddog is one of my least liked posters, and I disagree with him often, but when it comes to Watt and Smith he is 100% correct. Our team would be better with JJ Watt than we are with Aldon Smith.

JJ Watt is going to be a HoF type player, while Aldon is going to be real good, but not the level of Watt. Barring injury of course.

Gotta give credit where it's due.

With no doubt Watt is playing excellently this year, and had a very good last year, but I am still not convinced that we should have drafted him.

Our need at defensive end was not as great as our need at outside linebacker.

We desperately needed an outside linebacker.
Aldon Smith played very well last year, and we needed the sacks he got.
This year Aldon has shown an apparent ability be a solid four-down outside linebacker.

We did have Justin Smith and Ray McDonald at defensive end.
Justin Smith is an all-pro defensive end. Ray McDonald is very good and vastly under rated.

If he can 1.5 sacks against the Giants, he will tie Reggie White as the fastest player to 20 sacks.

At draft time, MD misjudged Aldon Smith.
At the end of season MD expressed clear doubts about Aldon's ability to play as an outside linebacker--to be, and if I remember correctly his words correctly, to be more than a one trick pony.

But, as you say, MD does merit recognition for his praise of JJ Watt.

Watt is a remarkable player and seems to be a very solid citizen.
I hope he continues his excellent play (except when he plays against us) for years to come.

Originally posted by RishikeshA:
JJ Watt is a beast, Shawne Merriman was a beast. If JJ can play for 5 or 6 years at this level then he is for real. If his name keeps coming up on IR then we know why he was such a beast. We're playing a guy this week, Jason Pierre Paul that may be the best in the business. Aldon Smith is getting better each week, he has a body type that can get bigger. Something to keep in mind, roids keep evolving to a point where they are almost untraceable unless testing is specific. If it reaches that point the chemists change the formula. The Testing process is several steps behind.

Why would you imply that JJ Watt is using steroids?

Argument by unsubstantiated insinuation seems highly suspect.