Like I said, I agree with MadDog 100% that B- is the best that I can give them. My personal take of the draft is as follows :
- I like Eric Reid, but I thought trading up to 18th to get him was just a bit extreme who was more than likely doable in the 2nd round
- Giving up the 34th pick to trade down to me was a huge mistake. Of course I had Justin Hunter being the BPA at 34th and true enough I was totally spot on. Just as we handed the pick over on a silver platter to the Titans, what happened next ? Well, the Titans wasted no time, but to pick exactly Justin Hunter at 34th right away without hesitation which clearly showed the value was there.
- So, I thought OK if they didn't want to get a WR that early, at least get a top TE to replace Delanie. This was the juncture when I lost it, not only did they not pick Justin Hunter (which I would have been OK with if they had sorted out the TE spot), they also gave up Zach Ertz and went for Vance McDonald instead. What can I say ?! Even McDonald himself said he is hugely under-developed, that pretty much says it all.
- In other words, in my mind we lost 2 top quality skill position impact playmakers in 1 single swoop if you will.
- Then, we drafted 3 DL and 2 LBs which I thought was just way excessive. Sure, they wanted a DL, I will give them that, but 3 was just too much.
- Then, I want to talk about the speculation factor. Both Tank and Lattimore are injured. Perhaps less for Tank, but Lattimore tore 3 of 4 ligaments in his knee, was it really necessary to take such a risk ?
- As for Quinton Patton, I don't have much comment on him, he was rated high and projected to go relatively early, but he fell so I guess there might be some value there although he is far from being one of my favourite WRs.
So, anyway, I saw a lot of As and A+s in WZ which I felt were just way too high and probably less than objective. If the 9ers were worth an A+, I was wondering how the heck would I be able to grade quite a number of teams which drafted far better than us ? Just the top of my head, the Vikings and the Rams stood out big time. Both teams didn't mess around, they knew what they wanted which were highly ranked impact playmakers and weren't prepared to take risks to draft some unknowns from the lower rounds. So, they went about their business and got it done. My God, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Cordarrelle Patterson, Sharrif Floyld, Xavier Rhodes and Alex Ogletree, I think the names speak for themselves.
So, going into this draft when the 9ers were all hyped to make a major killing with 13 picks, I couldn't help but to walk away feeling somewhat dejected and disappointed. I think perhaps with the exception of Eric Reid and possibly Quinton Patton, we basically ended up with 2 injured players and a bunch of very raw and lowly ranked players. I mean with 13 picks, couldn't the 9ers have gone after at least a few impact playmakers like the Rams or Vikings for example ?
So, yes definitely a B- at the very most from me if I am trying to be polite.
I will close by saying watch out for the Rams this season. We already had issues with them last season, if Bradford lives out to what they think he is with all these explosive weapons, then is going to be hard for us to get a W.