If you had to rate these guys in order of who you want the most to the lease Box who would you have 1-10.
What are your thoughts Box? How would you rank these guys and where would we take them?
I'm in the same boat as to where to value them. Ranking them 1-10...I don't really have that degree of certainty in my thinking here. Partly because I don't know how BB intends to run the defense (3-4, 4-3, 4-2, 3-3, do I draft for all or one?) and partly because I know so little about these kids individually.
Suh is #1, just not a realistic target without giving up more value then I like. The others would be grouped, primarily due to not having enough knowledge of the players to grade them to the same degree NE would. If what follows looks like rookboston's old value grouping strategy theory, it's because I think this is a draft class that lends itself to that strategy.
Group one would be along the lines of "classical" 3-4 DE bodies - tall, long arms, strong at the point of attack, capable of penetrating or collapsing the pocket. Carlos Dunlap, Jared Odrick, Cory Wootton, & Alex Carrington all fall in this grouping from late first-early third.
The next group are Jarvis Green/Mike Wright types, a bit shorter, better penatrators, not as effective against the taller OTs or double-teams, but with quickness that can disrupt things inside on passing downs. Tyson Alualu, Mike Neal, Arthur Jones, E. J. Wilson, Corey Peters, Ricardo Mathews, Mitch Unrein, and Sean Lissemore would all loosely group here. Another kid I didn't list before who might fit this group is Nate Collins. Alualu stands out from this crowd, which is why he's projected high second and might go in the late first if a 4-3 team wants him for the 3-tech.
Group three are projects - rawer players, or smaller kids who need bulk, or small school kids who need to develop, or underachievers who need a pilot light: Linval Joseph, Doug Worthington, Vince Oghobaase, Lorenzo Washington, Austen Lane, Clifton Geathers, Jeffrey Fitzgerald, John Fletcher, David Howard, Robert Rose.
The fourth group are more NT than DE, think of the way BB describes Ron Brace: strong enough to play the 0-tech, long enough to play 5-tech. Cam Thomas, Torell Troup, Al Woods, Brandon Deaderick, Travis Ivey, Jay Ross, Charles Alexander, Kade Weston, Joe Joseph.
So when to draft them? Groups one and three have your classic bodies, do you draft Dunlap at #22 and hope you can light his fire? Or do you play it safer and draft Carrington with #53? It's why Odrick has been my pick at #22, more consistency since the light came on his junior year, size, competition, etc. Dunlap is like Meriweather when he came out, I can't get inside his head from what little I've seen, so I take him off my board as too high a risk for the asking price. If he was late second I'd snap him up, but he won't land there.
If you think NE has the leisure to develop a kid, you might trade back a bit and see if you can get Austen Lane or Linval Joseph. If you think you might be using a 40 front more often to rush the passer then take a RB at #22 and target Alualu with #44, if he's gone you can hit on one of the others later. If you want more run stuffing/block eating, draft another Brace (chronic complainers hold your damned water, this is an example and not a draft strategy decision).
If you look at the draft game going on above, you see there's been a heavy run on OT leading up to NE's pick and edge rushers are just warming up. If this were how the real draft fell, I start looking to see who wants to move up for Dunlap or Brandon Graham or one of those disappearing OT and slide into the top of the second round - does Detroit want an OT, does Schwartz want Graham to team with Vandenbosch? Does KC want Golden Tate for their slot receiver? Cleveland wants everything and has the picks to get it. BB is going to own extra picks in rounds Three and Four before its all over and he may have three round one picks next year too.
I'm not in love with any DL in this draft class, NE had scouts at the Pro-Days for each of the kids in Group One, none have been reported to have gotten a private workout. The DL NE has worked out have all been mid-to-late round kids...studying BritPat's contact list, it looks like BB plans to take potluck with the DL and target TE & DB early. :confused2:
