Why was this year's draft so much better than last's?

[One-If-By-Sea]

Bingo! That took too long to find.13th posting.

Wolf couldn't organize the UDFAs last year because of BB's antiquated system, or because Wolf just sucks at his job?

 

[State]

More and more each day it seems like BB might have been going totally senile during his last few years here

Last few years? That’s far too generous. When Bill took the unathletic Jordan Richards in the second freakin round in 2015, over ruling his scouts because Richards came with the highest character references from his Stanford head coach David Shaw, that was the signal that he had lost it.

I said so at the time. But was dismissed by most posters here whose mantra was In Bill I Trust.

No disrespect to Richards but it was obvious to my eyes watching him get smoked in the 2014 Rose Bowl by Jeremy Langford.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

One important factor is that this year our coachs' network of contacts was way better.

 

[Dec54]

Folks just can't allow that Wolf is an excellent evaluator of talent.

Much of the success goes to Wolf and to listening to the results of his analysis team.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

It's all speculation at this point, of course, but given the weakness of the draft, the fact that the team did a competent job of balancing matching picks to needs with paying reasonable attention to the benefits of "picking [one of?] the best player available," and managing to give due consideration to issues of character without sacrificing on sheer football skills, I think an A- is a reasonable grade at this point; and last year's draft, aside from the obvious choice of Drake May with the first-round pick, certainly grades out significantly lower. The Felgers and Mazz's of the world have to ***** about it, of course, because that is the sort of clickbait in which those angry weirdos compulsively trade, but when every take is unreflectively negative, no actual analysis is really on offer.

One or two of the choices will not likely work out, of course, but that's the nature of the beast. The draft is always a crap shoot, or even more indecipherable than craps, because even after you roll the dice, you still don't really know how you're doing.

As I've noted before, statistically, it is rare for any team even to nail the first three picks in the draft.

 

[Ring 6]

Wolf couldn't organize the UDFAs last year because of BB's antiquated system, or because Wolf just sucks at his job?

BB had more success with UDFAs than anyone ever has

 

[Ring 6]

Folks just can't allow that Wolf is an excellent evaluator of talent.

Much of the success goes to Wolf and to listening to the results of his analysis team.

What success are you referring to?

 

[patman52]

This board was largely happy.

Well it is not hard to be happy when they drafted Maye. I liked Polk but I thought he was going to go even later, "no one" liked Wallace, and few like Robinson.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Well it is not hard to be happy when they drafted Maye. I liked Polk but I thought he was going to go even later, "no one" liked Wallace, and few like Robinson.

The 2024 draft was bad planning, and bad evaluation of existing players like Pop and Onwenu:

1: staying and taking Maye was a great move, no problem there

2: passing on McConkey, then taking Polk, was horrible. I think they passed on Ladd cause he's a slot and we already had Pop, but he's better than Pop which they didn't see. What resulted was as bad as drafting Tyquan. Not taking McConkey was bad in itself, but was compounded by not changing focus to OT instead of taking Polk at 37-40.

3: Wallace wasn't a horrible choice in r3, though we should have moved down. He may become our starting RT in time. But if they'd taken an OT in r2 then we could have gone a different direction in r3.

4: Robinson is extremely physical and a promising RG a-la Shaq Mason. The problem was they were assuming that Onwenu could play a good RT and he couldn't, which is something they should have known prior to the draft. So Robinson was thrown in before he was ready at RG, then Onwenu moved to RG and Robinson to LG cause of injuries, and it was just a cluster. Had they properly slotted Onwenu at RG prior to the draft, they would have drafted more appropriately.

 

[raduray]

Why was this years draft so much better? Was it because Elliot Wolf was able to install his grading system? Was it because of Vrabel (instead of Mayo who probably had no say in the draft)? Was it because Bob Kraft was not meddling? Was it Cowden? Of course they are not going to tell us, so we can only speculate.....

Let's not forget poor coaching led to inability to develop the drafted players. It will ge interesting to see if/how rookies, like Wallace and Polk, who underperformed last year improve under the new regime.

 

[Ring 6]

Folks just can't allow that Wolf is an excellent evaluator of talent.

Much of the success goes to Wolf and to listening to the results of his analysis team.

What is your evidence that Wolf evaluates talent well?
Can we discuss last years free agency?
Can we discus his public comments last year that the OL was talented and would be fine?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

What is your evidence that Wolf evaluates talent well?
Can we discuss last years free agency?
Can we discus his public comments last year that the OL was talented and would be fine?

What was he supposed to say, "we failed and hope to get better players next year"?

 

[Ring 6]

What was he supposed to say, "we failed and hope to get better players next year"?

If he thought they sucked he could have talked about his draft picjs, about making progress, even if slow.
If he didn’t believe they were talented and would be fine, he wouldn’t have said so.
Besides, it was the team he build with a boat load of cap space. He did a crappy job of evaluating them up front and appeared to not realize it after they sucked in camp.
Even if you believe he was lying he still put the unit together. H o w long it took him to realize he did a bad job isn’t really the point.

 

[State]

Robinson is extremely physical and a promising RG a-la Shaq Mason. The problem was they were assuming that Onwenu could play a good RT and he couldn't, which is something they should have known prior to the draft.

Onwenu was overweight and out of shape last year when he reported to TC. He was too fat to handle outside zone plays.

He had already proven to be a decent RT—as long as he isn’t 70 pounds too heavy.

This is the reason he fell so far in the draft after starting three years at Michigan and being very good.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

This is the reason he fell so far in the draft after starting three years at Michigan and being very good.

This is correct. Onwenu, pronounced "On Menu", loves to eat.

 

[dliverey44]

A lot of people liked the Polk pick (they may be in witness protection now though) and the Wallace pick. Robinson was a “sleeper.” Bell was a “steal”.

I liked Polk just wish it had been a later pick. I still have hope for the draft class last year because with better coaching we can actually see what they are. They might not live up to expectations but I am kind of viewing them as rookies again. I really do not understand how we can say that so and so should be cut because last year was a JV squad.

 

[patman52]

What is your evidence that Wolf evaluates talent well?
Can we discuss last years free agency?
Can we discus his public comments last year that the OL was talented and would be fine?

they must have been happy with his board last year, or I think Vrabel would have been adamant that he left before taking the job. I'm pretty sure Vrabel has the browns board, Cowden had the giants board. williams the Lions board etc. If wolf's was widely different it would be known.
't

 

[Ring 6]

they must have been happy with his board last year, or I think Vrabel would have been adamant that he left before taking the job. I'm pretty sure Vrabel has the browns board, Cowden had the giants board. williams the Lions board etc. If wolf's was widely different it would be known.
't

Huh? Wolfs draft last year was terrible. His free agency was terrible. His ability to evaluate talent is a huge concern.
I dont buy that not fired means you are great.
I doubt Vrabel had the ability to demand wolf be fired. Bringing in cowden speaks volumes though. If they love wolf why bring in cowden.

I don’t think “not fired after sucking” is proof of being a great talent evaluator.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Huh? Wolfs draft last year was terrible. His free agency was terrible. His ability to evaluate talent is a huge concern.
I dont buy that not fired means you are great.
I doubt Vrabel had the ability to demand wolf be fired. Bringing in cowden speaks volumes though. If they love wolf why bring in cowden.

I don’t think “not fired after sucking” is proof of being a great talent evaluator.

I think he redeemed himself recently, and it demonstrates that a front office needs a good team that works well together, which is what we appear to finally have.

 

[Ian]

What is your evidence that Wolf evaluates talent well?
Can we discuss last years free agency?
Can we discus his public comments last year that the OL was talented and would be fine?

LOL, we already have - and save for paying Okorafor, I don't blame free agency on him last year. You can already see the difference having a quality QB and, more importantly, a competent and reputable coach makes. The difference in who they were able to sign this year as opposed to last year is obviously striking, and it shows you just how bad things were here heading into last March.

And on the public comments, the more I thought about it, the more I realized - what else was he going to say? "They suck, but it's the best we could get?" It's the job of any personnel guy to instill confidence in the players they have. He basically said what you would have expected him to, albeit, I think he put too much faith in Okorafor which - as I've mentioned - was probably the #1 thing I'd fault him for and hopefully he's learned from it.

Okorafor had a rep going into last offseason, and if I recall, I believe he also talked up his own ability to play left tackle. So it feels like that was discussed, and he wasn't exactly blindsided with it. Instead, he made it seem like he was being asked to do something he didn't want to and then quit. Which obviously screwed them for the season.