The Giants nab Manningham. Nice! Donnie Avery was the #1 receiver to go. I wouldn't bet a wood nickel he will have a better career than Manningham. This seems like a great value pick. Manningham has awesome hands and adjusts very well to inaccurate passes. Giants fans know why that's an important feature in a WR, and Dolphins fans will soon find out.
I'm happy that the Packers drafted Jermichael Finley with their #3. I think he's got a lot of upside as a developmental TE. Still scratching my head with every Lions pick and move, though.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ghoti @ Apr 27 2008, 11:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Steelers went for BPA and ignored need. I like that strategy, but it means they have a lot of work to do to get the OL line holes filled. OL is not something you want to screw around with. You want the best players you can possibly get for your system and they are hard to find.</div> they also might have confidence in a few guys going into training camp but besides CB, steelers only really need OL now, so they should be fine
Hmmmmm Raiders just moved up to pick 100. Wonder who they're targeting. My guess is Dre Moore or Erin Henderson
CB Tyvon Branch was the pick for the Raiders. A bit baffling considering we actually need to get rid of CBs, maybe we traded Washington to get that pick though? I'm guessing this was a special teams move as much as anything, apparently this guy is a good kick returner and we already lost Chris Carr. Another freak athlete drafted by Al. Would have rather gotten a DT or OLB.
I must be dreaming. Did Ted Thompson actually just trade UP in the draft for the first time in recorded history????? Wow!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Pack Attack @ Apr 27 2008, 09:44 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I'm happy that the Packers drafted Jermichael Finley with their #3. I think he's got a lot of upside as a developmental TE. Still scratching my head with every Lions pick and move, though.</div> I like what Green Bay has done in getting Finley & Patrick Lee. Detroit is doing a good job; Dizon is a Zach Thomas clone, Nothing has really impressed about Free Shoes U the last 2 yrs other than Fluellen.
Here's a thought; Ocho Cinco for J Taylor straight up or Seattle who is always looking to upgrade their pass rush sends a 5th this yr and 2nd next to Parcells & Co. I love Miami's trade w/ da Bears for OG Shawn Murphy Utah St. The Aggies are usually a notch below Utah & BYU but this kid is a real mauler. There is a possibility Murphy will land the OG position opposite Justin Smiley. The competion with Mormino (drafted last yr) for that spot will be interesting. O'Connell going to the Pats is a good pick. The kid has talent but SDS sucks. Bad news; it gives the evil empire a legit backup for Tommy Boy.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ghoti)</div><div class='quotemain'>Manningham has awesome hands and adjusts very well to inaccurate passes. Giants fans know why that's an important feature in a WR, and Dolphins fans will soon find out.</div> So? He's the 2nd coming of Oronde Gasden? Hmmmmm? I still hope Miami gets a RB. Some phins want Mike Hart. Not me; Forsett from Cal is my preference. Beau Bell to Cleveland... great pick.
The Giants traded the pick they got from the Packers for Ryan Grant to the Steelers to move up seven spots in the 4th round and select Bryan Kehl (OLB form BYU).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Run BJM @ Apr 27 2008, 10:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>CB Tyvon Branch was the pick for the Raiders. A bit baffling considering we actually need to get rid of CBs, maybe we traded Washington to get that pick though? I'm guessing this was a special teams move as much as anything, apparently this guy is a good kick returner and we already lost Chris Carr. Another freak athlete drafted by Al.</div> Fabian (and his 1st round contract) shipped to the Ravens for the 125th overall pick of the fourth round. Carr left via free agency. Carr is replaceable, in my opinion. He had great speed, but couldn't crack the lineup as a starting DB. Titans offered more money than we cared to match. I'm sure that these moves had just as much to do with balancing the budget as they do filling out roster depth. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>He became easier to expend after the Raiders traded for Pro Bowl corner DeAngelo Hall. Still, it seems awful early to cut their losses on a 24-year-old first-round draft pick. His speed is still there. Confidence could always be salvaged. It probably didn't help that Washington was arrested this offseason for alledgedly assaulting his live-in girlfriend in Florida.</div> See ya, Fabian.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Lane Kiffin with the local media following the selection of Darren McFadden with the fourth pick of the draft (but before the first round was over): Q: Was this just a matter of McFadden being too good to pass up? Kiffin: That was definitely the case. I remember mentioning that running back wasn't a need for us, and it wasn't. We're kind of piled there with a number of really good running backs and guys coming back, including Michael Bush, who we really don't know enough about yet. It was not a need but it became a situation … speaking for myself, I knew months ago that this was the guy that we had to have and we had to figure out a way to get him. Hopefully, he was going to fall to us. We lost the coin toss and moved to four and that scared me a little bit there. Fortunately, he was still available and in the end we got everybody on the same page. We're all really excited. Q: Any chance of trading McFadden for additional picks? Kiffin: No, there's no chance of that. There was too much work that went into this. We're so fortunate for him to fall to us the way he did. There was even at one point, there was even a conversation where we were even thinking of going up to get him. At one point, where we thought somebody else was going to go up and get him, we were going to try to beat them. Fortunately, the information we ended up with was accurate that he would be there and it worked out perfect. Q: Can he be used like Reggie Bush? Kiffin: Yeah, he does have a lot of similarities to Reggie because he is a dynamic pass-catcher as well. Obviously, the speed and acceleration. You can use him outside. When you talk about guys who can catch the ball, he's one of those guys that can do it out of the backfield but he can also do it outside. There's a lot of options to explore. But at the same time, learning from when we first got Reggie, and even as you watched New Orleans when Reggie first got there, you don't want to do too much right away with him because you want him to master some things first before you try to put too much on him. So, we'll monitor that as well before we throw everything at him. Q: Was there heavy trade talk from teams trying to beat you to McFadden? Kiffin: Not necessarily. I think more teams, my guess is, were after Dorsey right there because there's more teams that had a need for a defensive tackle and a player like Dorsey so there was at least one deal that we had in place if Darren wasn't there, we were going to go back. But once he was there, no one jumped us to get him or someone else to take him so then it became easy. We were prepared to go back if he was not there if he would have got taken right before us. Q: Tough to pass on Dorsey? Kiffin: It wasn't only because the position. As you look at Glenn, he's going to be a great three-technique in this league. To take a guy fourth overall and put him at nose with Tommy Kelly already there at three-technique just doesn't make very much sense to do. To pay a guy what you're going to pay a guy in the fourth slot and move him to nose, which isn't even his natural position, it's just too hard of a switch to do. Glenn's a great player. I actually was hoping he wasn't going right after us so we've got to play him twice a year. I was hoping he'd go somewhere else. It just didn't make sense. Q: Could you still add picks? Kiffin: There's a possibility of that. That's going to be more watching the draft and how it goes. There's a couple players where we've said at a certain point if they're there at this pick then we're going to have to look at giving away something next year to go get them. It will be more about how the board goes than just trading up to get another pick. We're not just going to get another pick to get one today. It has to be one of these few guys that we have targeted who we think can really help our team. Q: Do you envision him in two-back system sharing the role like Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister in New Orleans? Kiffin: There's too many variables to know that right now. We'll look at a number of things. The same things that we did with Reggie and what they ended up doing in New Orleans. One of those things will be playing him with Justin or the other back at the same time in the same backfield, as well as possibly playing him outside as a receiver at times too. The last thing we want to do and I feel fortunate having learned this with Reggie his first year there and even as you talk to New Orleans with what Sean (Payton) went through with Reggie you get so excited about these guys and you start doing all these things with them and they don't get really good at anything. The last thing we want to do is do too much where he's not becoming a great running back back there in the tailback position. What else can we look at? But we want to make sure we use him there first and we don't put him in a situation where he's not developing there. Q: Did you look into his character issues? Kiffin: Here's the first thing on Darren. I can't find a person who will tell me that when walks in the building until the time that he leaves they've ever had any type of issue, whether that's been weight room issue or the way that he practices or his relationships with coaches. This is a guy who really loves football and is passionate about football and is passionate in the way he prepares for it. The way that he works out for it and the way he goes about it on game day as well. That was the first thing to look at. Then you look at the off-field issues and there are some things there. They've been based on other people's actions that have brought him into them. What was very important to me the first time I sat down with him, I wanted to know was he going to make excuses for them or was he going to be accountable for them. And he says, 'Those are situations that I should have made a better decision. I've learned from them now and I am going to make better decisions now.' As opposed to, 'This is why I did it because I had to protect my brother or whatever the situation is. He realizes that and we had another conversation this morning about that myself and Darren again just to make sure. 'Darren, if you're there when we go, I need this, this and this. And you need to understand this is how you need to be.' He's right on the same page and he understands it as well. Q: How good can the Raiders be on offense? Kiffin: As I talked about the other day, that's going to be our job to put these personalities and different type of players together. This isn't just where we've added one guy at a certain spot. We're going to have possibly a number of new starters on our team, especially on offense. We have to get these guys together and get them gelling together and working together. That's why this offseason is going to be so important and it's so important for our guys to be in here right now, our newer guys working with the coaches as well as our guys coming into their second season as well. Have we increased expectations? Yes, if that's what you really wanted to know. We've increased our expectations on offense with our group a lot and we've added a lot of speed with Javon and Darren. Q: How will this affect JaMarcus? Kiffin: I think it's going to help JaMarcus a lot. It gives him another tool to work with. As you go back and you research quarterbacks that have done really well over a long period of time it's because they have the right things around him. It's the same thing after the San Diego game we talked about in the press conference afterwards. We need to surround him with better talent. We think we've done it this offseason. That's how young quarterbacks do really well. There's not a better way than having a great running game and adding to that with a guy who can also catch the ball as well. Q: What do you do to get McFadden ready to handle the sudden riches, fame? Kiffin: Yeah, the league does a great job of that before you even get to what we do, specifically, with the rookies. They take them for a whole week and really educate them on all the issues they're going to have in the first year. Then, we also have a number of meetings — Willie Brown heads up a program for our rookies here — and we really have to monitor these guys because you think that they're old enough to handle all the stuff. But that's not it. And it's our job as coaches as well to always be communicating with these guys. What really excites me about Darren is he's got Tom Rathman as his coach. So, here's Tom Rathman, a guy who has been in the league, a guy who has been with great players. He has seen players that have got to the top and then went right back down to the bottom, or guys that even never got to the top because of how they acted and how their rookie year, how they went about things. That went into this, as well, knowing that Tom has done a great job with our running backs in our first year and what a good job he'll do with Darren, as well. Q: The reaction of RB coach Tom Rathman? Kiffin: It's interesting because there were scenarios that we had to go over, with Darren not being there, and trading down. It just shows you the type of guy Tom is. You can have those position coaches, 'Well, we got to do whatever it takes. Let's trade up.' He wasn't that way at all. Tom the whole time was, 'We got to do what's best for the team. We'll get a great player regardless.' That just shows you who he is. Q: How is McFadden different from Fargas and Rhodes? Kiffin: Yeah, Darren's faster than either of them. Justin at one time was comparable speed-wise but Justin through the injuries over the course of time isn't the same speed that Darren is now, and neither is Dominic. So, you have a different speed factor there and you also have a guy that's going to catch the ball outside of the backfield better than either of them do. Like I said before, it's really good to have guys that are different instead of just having a couple of guys that are very similar. We're real excited to go to work with this and figure it out and how much can we do right away that's going to help us win. And not (do) too much. Q: Do you mean line up McFadden on the outside? Kiffin: Yes. Q: When did Al Davis let you know this is the guy you wanted and were going to get? Kiffin: About 30 minutes ago. It's a long process. It's weeks of meetings. In the end, we end up on the same page. I can't tell you where he was right away because we have separate meetings initially before we come together. But I know right now that we're both extremely excited abou the pick and how we're going to utilize him and use his talents best. Q: Did you recruit McFadden when you were at USC? Kiffin: No, we didn't. He was someone that we contacted really early, and it became apparent that he was not going to go far away from home so we didn't pursue him.</div>
ROTR, yeah I'm pretty much on the same page as you. Fabian was probably worth more than a 4th round pick but we've got 3 CBs who are head and shoulders ahead of him and we're paying him first round money. It was a good move to dump his contract and get a pick out of it. We drafted another CB who is apparently a very good return specialist (again, to replace Carr) but also is supposed to be a pretty good player at CB which Carr clearly was not. Wonder what that means for Bowie? Overall I'm pretty happy with our draft. They didn't really shore up major needs but they did go with what appears to be the BPA at many of the positions. McFadden- can't really complain about this pick. Kiffin made a good point that its ridiculous to put Dorsey at NT when we just threw a ton of money at Kelly to play 3 tech Tackle. Another thing I like about getting McFadden; we now have a potential all-league superstar as the centerpiece of our offense. Before we had a bunch of what appear to be complimentary pieces; Jamarcus (obviously hes got potential but for the immediate future its probably safe to say he won't be an all-star guy), Javon you don't know what you're getting from, Bush you don't know what you'll get, Fargas is just a decent journeyman type RB, Zach Miller is another guy who's just very solid. With McFadden you get a guy who is capable of really carrying the offense, hes an insane talent and gives us that big play ability. Ideally, hes the franchise player. I already talked about Tyvon Branch, I think it was a pretty solid pick who will help our special teams and contribute on defense. This Armon Shields guy was a little baffling. We do need depth at WR. This guy seems like a combine beast and did well at Richmond. Hes a big wild card because hes got the tools to be really good but you don't really expect him to do anything. I also like what I'm reading about Trevor Scott. He was a bust for Buffalo at TE but apparently was insane as a DE. They say hes got good speed and a great motor, will need to add weight to do well at DE in the NFL but can easily switch to SLB (he played there in high school) which is another area we could use some improvement. You have to like the motor and versatility of a guy who is big, fast, smart, great motor and has experience and ability yo play DE, LB, and TE. One pick left now in the 7th. We still haven't gotten any help on the O-Line. You wonder what the coaching staff thinks of the guys we've drafted recently; Henderson, McQ, Morris, etc. I have a lot of faith in Cable making it work with guys that did well last year in Cornell Green, Robert Gallery, and Cooper Carlisle plus Kwame Harris and the younger guys who haven't gotten a ton of playing time.
Steelers are stocking up on everything but O-Line and we still got a decent guy there, so hopefully with our last pick we get a DT, CB or OG
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Run BJM @ Apr 27 2008, 02:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>This Armon Shields guy was a little baffling. We do need depth at WR. This guy seems like a combine beast and did well at Richmond. Hes a big wild card because hes got the tools to be really good but you don't really expect him to do anything. I also like what I'm reading about Trevor Scott. He was a bust for Buffalo at TE but apparently was insane as a DE. They say hes got good speed and a great motor, will need to add weight to do well at DE in the NFL but can easily switch to SLB (he played there in high school) which is another area we could use some improvement. You have to like the motor and versatility of a guy who is big, fast, smart, great motor and has experience and ability yo play DE, LB, and TE. One pick left now in the 7th. We still haven't gotten any help on the O-Line. You wonder what the coaching staff thinks of the guys we've drafted recently; Henderson, McQ, Morris, etc. I have a lot of faith in Cable making it work with guys that did well last year in Cornell Green, Robert Gallery, and Cooper Carlisle plus Kwame Harris and the younger guys who haven't gotten a ton of playing time.</div> I'm not sure about Shields. We seem to grab WR's in the late rounds every year. They come and go. Scott makes sense given that we let Tyler Brayton walk. Brayton was a former first rounder just talking up roster space and never really made a difference. His versatility will help fill out the depth chart somewhere. For O-line, we did get a couple guys in free agency. I think we will be seeing our third different starting center in 3 years (John Wade) since Newberry is really injury prone and Grove seems kind of weak. Grove is a smart lineman though, and could easily play either guard or backup center, so he might be worth keeping around. The problem I have had with Grove is his pass protection. He gets bull rushed backwards by good defensive tackles. Kwame Harris is penciled in as the LT for now. On paper, each individual o-line starter looks mediocre at best. However, Tom Cable has improved the entire unit last year, so much so that I have some trust that he will make this year's cast work out for us. The biggest question for our offense is whether or not they will give Jamarcus enough time to throw on third down, and keep defenses from only worrying about defending McFadden. our priority focus in camp should be get better at defending the run, and getting better at pass protection - our two most glaring weaknesses teamwide. If we can improve in those two areas with what we've got, then I look at next season as an overwhealming success.
