Interesting observations on Goose's redraft. First off, he definitely has Kareem Jackson not being taken in the first round But worst of all, he has a guy that was sitting on the board when the Texans drafted at number 20 who happens to play CB as well (Devin McCourty) going 4th overall to the 'Skins. To think, we had the choice of Kareem Jackson, Kyle Wilson, and Devin McCourty, and we pick the most "ready" guy and he turns out to be not as ready as the guy that went seven picks later. Also, Gosselin has us taking Colt McCoy (I don't buy it!) with our first pick. If the draft unfolds like he thinks it would on the redo, you'd be dumb not to take the other McCoy, right?!? More reason that Kubiak, if he stays, should be stripped of whatever GM responsibilities he has.
Considering there's no basis in reality, I'm pretty sure his re-draft only focused on what player should go in what slot, not team needs.
This obviously is mistake on his part. He even says the BROWNS have their next Bernie Kosar. Nate Allen or Verner look to have been the better options in his alternate universe.
I think the main thing to take away from the article is our whiff on the most "NFL ready" CB in the draft. On the results alone, it looks like McCourty was the right player to take at 20, not Jackson. That being said, do we have a problem in talent evaluation or player development? Maybe Jackson was the better corner coming out of college, but our coaches haven't "coached him up." That's what strikes me as comment-worthy about this article. Where does the blame fall?!? Scouting or coaching/development or BOTH?
Jackson would be doing what McCourtney and Wilson is doin if we didnt draft him...Our scheme is terrible....It wouldnt matter if we drafted all 3 of em, they still would be gettin toasted while in a Texan uniform
So to my earlier post, that would be an indictment on the coaches and not the players or scouting department. Is that the overall consensus of the board?
Note - Wilson didn't make the cut, either. I don't watch college football closely and I certainly don't count myself among the throngs of fans who pretend they have any insight into the scouting and/or drafting process. But on paper or better: in theory, IMO - and this is discounting any scouting input of any kind - I like them targeting a starting CB on an SEC school that won a national championship over two starting CBs from much lesser schools and therefore much lesser competition. Again, I don't scout players or pretend to know who's who or what; but I certainly support the *idea* behind Jackson and what they may have used to separate him from the other two CBs. This team has wasted too many valuable picks on projects.
The contrarian view to your point, Ric is that the SEC is mainly a running conference whereas some of the other guys play in a more wide-open conference where teams throw the ball around a lot more often than in the SEC. I know that was one of the factors that goes in favor of Wilson. Not sure what the Big East (Rutgers) is like from an offensive philosophy standpoint.
Sure, the scheme is bad but with all the CB's we have had during Bush's crappy tenure, nobody got destroyed as much or as badly as Jackson. Not only did he fall and make dumb decisions, but even on routes where it was just the receiver running straight up and Jackson doing the right thing, he was getting torched. I was horrified in the Washington game when he could not come close to keeping up with a 39 year old Joey Galloway. No tricks, no jukes, just pure running. Also, it is a testament to it not just being the scheme when he is now getting beat out by a guy off the street. Wilson has struggled a bit in NJ, but he has often been the #3 CB and the main reason he has struggled has been understanding Ryan's complex and aggressive defense. When he fails it is not because of physical limitations but mental. True, he might just be an idiot and never "get it" but physically he can play. Jackson hasn't shown that yet...is he going to get faster as he ages? Unless he can move to safety where blazing speed isn't as essential, I really wonder how he can overcome his physical issues, let alone mental.
And on camera shots where he KJ is burnt, he can't make up ground on a running receiver/ballcarrier either. Corners need catchup speed too.
Totally need to fire the equipment manager and the guy who is in charge of the field at Reliant. All of our guys are falling over themselves; the two biggest culprits are KJ and freaking Arian Foster who somehow manages to slip and fall on screen passes almost every single time I talked about KJ's physical limitations a while back. He was supposed to be a good bump-and-run corner, but watching him this year, even if he executes the bump correctly (sometimes he whiffs on this), he hasn't shown the ability to flip his hips and stay with the WR yet. Here's a draft profile on him from CBSSportsline. McShay echoed a lot of the comments from the quote above. <object width="384" height="216" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="ESPN_VIDEO" data="http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all"><param name="movie" value="http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="opaque"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="flashVars" value="id=5121855"/></object> From those two overviews, I'd have to say the player we're seeing this year isn't the player that the draft experts (and draftniks) followed at Alabama. He hasn't shown that good read and recognition, hasn't been good in man or zone coverage, and has failed to execute the bump-and-run technique. He has picked off a couple of passes, so maybe with a year in an NFL strength and conditioning program and a year of NFL experience he will bounce back and have a good Sophomore year. His Rookie year has been one to forget.
