No, Steelers fans are just rolling out of bed right now.
I am.
I have an air mattress in my trailer. Its all I could afford after I spent my welfare check on a life-sized mannequin of Ben Rothlisberger to sleep next to me and comfort me at night (well, when my sister’s not sharing my mattress).
They’re Steelers fans. It’s both.
But seriously though, the Bengals had a really good draft on paper. I really like the value of the Bolings pick in the 4th and the Sands pick in the 5th round. Green seems like a no-brainer and Dalton, well, we’ll have to see.
I think Green could be special and a fine pick at #4, and it’s a position of need. But I’m not sold on Andy Dalton. I think too many people love his intangibles and forget that he was working from the spread against inferior competition. It’s relatively easy to look like a great QB in the spread against Tennessee Tech, Air Force, and Utah, but when he played Wisconsin he seemed pretty Dilferesque (with more mobility granted) to me. I would be terrified, especially playing in the AFC North, that he’s just another in the long line of middle round QB’s who never developed into anything special and he was overdrafted because of need.
Dontay Moch I really liked as a 3-4 OLB, but for Cincinnati he might be a good situational pass rusher. I don’t know how creative your Def. Coordinator can be, but I’m not sure Moch will ever be an every down backer in the NFL. Boling was good value, but I’m not overly impressed with him enough and he may not fit anywhere in the NFL. I love Sands’ size and speed, but again I don’t know enough about the Bengals defensive plans to say whether he’s a good fit or not. You don’t want him playing man to man at all. He reminds me of the Packers Aaron Rouse. I also think Black and Sash may have been better picks there. I think Whalen is an overacheiver try hard guy who won’t cut it in the NFL. Lindsay is worth a shot, I guess, but he can’t seem to stay healthy when it counts. I do like Finley’s upside, he was pretty productive against pretty good teams, but I don’t think he’s explosive enough.
Overall, I think the Bengals did great in the first round, but beyond that I don’t see much. Again, a lot comes down to the redheaded QB, but I really thought the Bengals needed to get more in the trenches on the D and O lines, but they didn’t seem to. Of course, they know better than I.
Knocking on my draft, are you?
:mad:
Can we just go back to making fun of Steelers fans again?
And from off their sisters, no less.
Dalton went too high because every QB in this draft went too high. He seemed like a 3rd-4th round developmental type who you now may be forced to start, depending on Carson Palmer.
… Myself, I’m hoping to see the electric Jordan Palmer->AJ Green hookup.
Single game interception record by Joe Haden.
It’s very bizarre that the Browns and Bengals had two of my favorite drafts this year. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes… The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Yes it’s true. This man has no dick.
Are you sold on Andy Dalton? It struck me that anytime before this year, he would have been considered a pretty good spread offense college quarterback ala Chase Daniels, Graham Harrell, or Colt Brennan. But for some reason the powers that be anointed him as a NFL ready starting QB. I just didn’t, and still don’t, see it.
I watched Hair tell people that the Bengals had the best draft this year, and I didn’t see it at all. I love me some Dontay Moch, especially with a defensive coordinator who can use him properly, but I also realize he may not cut it against the run to be any more than a situational pass rusher.
As to the Browns, I loved what they did getting all those picks from the Falcons for a guy who wasn’t even the best WR in this draft. They just fucked it up after that by grabbing the wrong guys. If you like Taylor, Sheard, Little, and Cameron it’s a fine draft, but I don’t like those guys. And why the hell use a fourth rounder on a FB when you need help at so many other positions?
We will, of course, see what happens. But I don’t see these drafts improving the teams as much as other talking heads do.
Nah. Dalton is the Colt McCoy of this draft: the guy who’s ready to start tomorrow. He’s never going to have a 40 TD season, but I bet he never has a 20 pick season either.
Dalton, at best, will be an adequate NFL QB. If you have a strong defense and special teams, a good running game, and a nice offensive line that lets him stay in the pocket and go through his progressions without getting touched, he could win you a Super Bowl. Of course the same could be said by pretty much any QB alive, but still, it’s something.
You know I’m a big arm strength and size guy. You’ve got to have the tools first and foremost, after that it’s how you use them. It’s not that a player can’t succeed with a average arm and it’s not that you can’t build arm strength through reps and hard work (Aaron Rodgers) but it makes it a hell of a lot tougher and less likely. Dalton is another in a long line of guys with subpar size and arm who played in a system that marginalized it’s importance. Drew Brees, Chad Pennington, Colt McCoy, Colt Brennan etc. The spread seems like it basically normalizes QBs. It takes really good QBs with the potential to develop impressive physical skills and retards that by limiting the number or difficult reads and throws they are challenged with. At the same time, it takes subpar QBs and elevates them by hiding those same issues. So, being a spread QB doesn’t define you, it just makes it a hell of a lot tougher to identify the traits that usually set good and bad QBs apart.
Is Dalton a mediocre QB without an NFL arm who was protected by the spread or is he a NFL ready QB who’s simply never been asked to do the things that NFL QBs are asked to do? I think he’s the former, I think his arm strength will be a liability. I think he’ll float throws in bad weather and he won’t be able to thread the needle in the seam and rip off those 15 yard outs. That said, he looks like he has some room to fill out. He looks like he has more potential to pack on some NFL strength and plays taller than a Colt McCoy does. I wouldn’t be shocked if he filled out like Brady, Brees and Rodgers did but if he stays the way he is he’s toast.
All that said, he was definitely over drafted, but this year every offensive player was. I don’t penalize the Bengals too much for that, some times the market is out of whack and you need to adjust. You can’t say that everyone who overpaid for a house in 2007 was an idiot is they really needed a place to live, it’s the guys who bought second and third houses as investments that are the dummies (Saints!, Falcons!)
Pretty much exactly how I feel about Colt McCoy.
I thought the Marecic was a bit of a reach, FBs are pretty easy to come by. But, Marecic really made Toby Gerhart look like a stud and I think we’re seeing that he was a bit of a mirage. If he can boost Hillis and Hardesty the same way while giving McCoy a reliable safety valve he might justify that value. Cameron is another guy in the same mold, I thought he was less of a reach than Marecic based on the positional scarcity but the Browns needed help at the position and McCoy is going to need a good TE in that west coast system. Holmgren knows what he’s doing and he’s finding the right pieces to give their QB a chance and if McCoy proves to be the liability that I think he will be, their offense will be ready for a veteran to step in next year. Taylor, Sheard and Little were all My Guys™ so needless to say I’m good with those picks.
You can do a lot worse as an offense than to have a huge, athletic WR who can go get the ball and shield defenders on slants, a Gates wannabe TE and a great blocking FB who can catch the dump passes. Paired with a strong O line and a potentially dangerous thunder and lightning backfield McCoy will have no excuses.
With regards to the Bengals, I kinda wish they had taken the offer from Atlanta and taken the picks. But they can get a good grade for this draft with just Green and Boling. Anything else would be gravy.
I love that Cleveland took the trade, but I don’t really know much about any of their guys and I don’t feel very impressed by who they took.
Two teams whose drafts I liked the day after, and two teams I’m a little mixed about now.
I also wanted to mention that there was a recent blog on an Eagles’ fan site about how the Eagles, in the past two years, have drafted nearly enough players to field and entire starting roster (including undrafted rookies) - offense, defense, and special teams. They’re short just a DT (and they have an extra DE to fill in), an OT, and a long snapper. Crazy. And yes, the Eagles have drafted the most players in the last two years by a wide margin.
Another interesting note is that the Eagles selected 13 players in 2010 and not a single one was cut or released. Most stuck on the roster and played in at least one game, and two others were hurt and placed on IR.
We speculated a little on what the drafting of JJ Watt and Brooks Reed meant for the Texans defense and Mario Williams specifically. Now PFT has a article quoting Wade Phillips as saying that he intends to play Williams as a stand up OLB/DE in the same manner he did DeMarcus Ware.
I think this is crazy talk but it’ll be interesting to see. I still think a trade makes the most sense if you can get anything resembling fair value for him.
I think it’s probably foolish to take one of the league’s best DEs and do this sort of experiment. You should mold the system around the players, not vice versa.
What a fucking awful idea. Didn’t work with Aaron Kampman, didn’t work with Jason Taylor, and it sure as hell isn’t going to work with Williams.
Well, here’s to hoping they trade him to Chicago and he’s lining up opposite Peppers.