Ryan K, I hate Matt Millen, but he’s really got his draft-day stuff together. Last year, I thought Boss Bailey was the best pick of the whole draft. This year it was more of the same.
Anyway, I’m an Eagles fan. I hate the way Andy Reid drafts. He ignores the team’s biggest needs again and again, and again and again the team loses in the postseason because they don’t stop the run and their receivers don’t get open, and don’t catch the ball. The second part was cleared up when TO decided he wanted to be an Eagle. That leaves stopping the run. They’re pretty much set on the d-line, as they have a bunch of playmakers, especially at end. Darwin Walker and Corey Simon are very good players, but neither can really hold up the line to stop the interior running game. That’s not the Eagles style, anyway- the tackles are supposed to get penetration, not clog up the middle.
That means they had to get help at linebacker, or suck against the run again. Last year they were overmatched by good running backs, and then they let Carlos Emmons, the steadiest of their LB’s, go. So they traded up to #16, and I thought, hmm, D.J. Williams? Big, quick, rangy, good hitter, could slide into Emmons’ spot fairly smoothly, maybe that could work. Won’t fix all their problems, but he can make plays against the run.
Instead they drafted Shawn Andrews. I like Shawn Andrews. He’s a giant, sort of immobile run-blocking right tackle. A mauler. The thing is, the Eagles already have a giant immobile right tackle, and they’re paying him a whole lot of money to get chewed up by Michael Strahan twice a year. So Andrews will have to play guard in the NFL, which he hasn’t played much. Makes sense because they shipped John Welbourn out of town for peanuts later on. All this means that the Eagles, who have maybe a year left before the window closes on them, traded up in the first round to tread water at a position that was pretty solid to begin with. To be fair, Welbourn punched his own ticket out of town by running his mouth.
OK, let’s get a 'backer in the second round, and maybe the Andrews pick starts to excite me a bit more. Oh, that’s right, we don’t have one any more, because we used it to get Andrews. Crap.
Third round, I’m looking at Mel’s best available list, and I keep saying to myself- “Matt Ware? Nobody thinks Matt Ware’s worth a third-rounder?” So the Eagles took him. I’ll be damned- this guy is a freaking player. Little raw, yeah, but I like him. I would have preferred that they not need to draft him, because I think Vincent or Taylor, or both, should have been resigned, but I digress. This is about the draft, and I think Ware was an absurd value. Won’t help against the run, though. My gut begins to rumble- end of the first day, still suck against the run.
Round four. Two picks at the bottom, have to grab some value at linebacker with one of them, at least. First pick- J.R. Reed, safety from USF. The rage begins. A second DB? Out of three picks? Good God, are we rebuilding or trying to win the Super Bowl? Unless they draft a miracle somewhere below here, they’ve gotten one starter out of this draft. Not good. Second pick has to be a difference maker. With the 131st pick in the NFL Draft, the Eagles select: Trey Darilek, G, UTEP.
Son of a bitch. Offensive line. Two of them, two DB’s. Did the Eagles secretly swap rosters with the Browns? What the hell is Trey Darilek going to do in the short-run? Back up your first rounder?
At this point, I gave up on this draft. Well, I still watched, but not with the same fervor. Much less fervent. Thomas Tapeh in the fifth, who I like. Sort of an Alstottish tweener, but a better athlete. Possibly the best football body I’ve ever seen. I think he could actually play some this year. Andrew “Just Happy to Be Here” Hall in the sixth, which really put me into a rage. I doubt he’ll be on the roster. Doubt he expected to even get drafted. Dexter Wynn in the sixth, Adrien Clarke in the seventh. I’ll give you two freakin’ guesses what positions they play. CB and guard, respectively, putting the totals at three DB’s, three linemen, zero linebackers. Two picks remaining, but I’m pretty sure Dick Butkus isn’t draft-eligible. I hate to be one of those guys who says he knows better than the professionals, but Jesus. The Patriots and Ravens seem to be making what I consider to be fairly obvious picks, and they’ve both won Super Bowls recently. It’s not that hard, is it? Look at your team, decide what you need, go get it, then take the best available players with the rest of your picks. Reid doesn’t do that, and now it looks like the same old thing. Quick- name a rookie Reid has drafted who paid off immediately. If you said Brian Westbrook, your answer is accepted. Otherwise I can’t think of much.
