Sunday, April 29, 2007

That was one hell of a puzzling draft

Well, I come home from my sister-in-law's wedding up in Bemidji (4.5 hrs north) and I had very, very little access to the draft (no internet and only ESPN in a restaurant where I could not hear anything). Needless to say, I just about refused to finish my prime rib when I saw who the first 2 picks were in the draft for the Packers.

Justin Harrell? Seriously? I know that with Jenkins move to DE there leaves something of a hole in the middle, but that was what Corey Williams is for. OK, I get that he's a very good player and all, and that in workouts he was outstanding. But he missed virtually all last year with an injury and there really is no hard game-day evidence on him. Do you really want to take a guy like this in the first round? Let alone with the #16 pick? Wow. Just stunned.

The second round pick is also a bit, how you say, interesting. I get that we got screwed by MN when they traded up for Rice. I have to begrudingly give them props. But again, the Packers picked another guy with very little production to go off of in RB Brandon Jackson. I think this is clearly a pick to do a RB-by-committee by TT. He is not expected to carry the load but to simply be a part time back. Odd to say the least for a 2nd rd pick, but at least they traded down to get him.

The rest of the picks look good though. I particularly like the Crosby pick in the 7th. Actually a bargain there. With Rouse, TT is trying to recreate the Michael Boulware pick and position switch he did in Seattle.

As initially underwhelming and yes, dissappointing as this draft is, everyone always says that it takes 3 years to truly judge a draft class. It seems that we are going to need that full 3 years for this one. Here's hoping that this class will surprise early.

2 comments:

John Burzynski said...

Ya, with your 1st pick taking a DT who has a long injury history isn't too smart in my opinion...the Pack just don't seem to draft well as of late, but you are right, time will tell.

Anonymous said...

I thought the Packer faithful were going to riot when Harrell's name was announced. Then someone said, let's get another beer, and a melee was averted.

So when is your next post on the border battle going up? Minny has quickly closed the gap and could sweep the final events (ok. Gopher softballers might let us down, but Bucky should be docked for not even fielding a men's baseball team).