CaliforniaRaisin

Joe Staley. :( Damn you, 49ers.

New England made a trade with the 49ers and made their pick.

No no. Trade down for the kid from said obscure Southern school who will end up being a Pro Bowler. :)

Quite frankly, I don't want Jarrett or Olsen. I'd rather have Steve Smith and Staley/Grubbs. I was really hoping for Dwayne Bowe to somehow fall. :( Oh, and I'm waiting for the trade down. :)

Geez, they drag this thing soooooo much.

Wow at Jacque against a lefty.

They did a good bit, got 3 defensive starters in FA this year: LB Brian Simmons, CB Jason David, and S Kevin Kaesvaharn. I still think the D is a big weakness. I'm not a fan of KK (glad the Bears didn't pick him up). I don't have a problem with the team strengthening a strength, but I feel the Saints D really could use some help, especially at the expense of another WR.

Ugh. Gotta look at the line for one of those two picks.

Grr, there goes Meachem. The Saints really should address their D.

Darn, disappointing about Bowe going. I like him better than any of the other WR prospects. Honestly, I'm not that interested in Olsen.

I'm a bit late here but that was a brutal trade for Cleveland. Is Bowe gone already?

I agree. The Cubs have spent money on pitchers like Scott Williamson and Wade Miller to come back from serious injuries, you might as well invest a little in a guy that has (had) a world of talent and is still young. Of course, that's assuming Prior would agree to some kind of reasonable contract spread over the next few years. I know the history of Mark Prior in Chicago, but if the Cubs follow the same path as this year (don't count on him and anything at all is a plus) I think re-signing him would be a wise choice. Exactly. They've given chances to Williamson, Miller and Dempster (plus, they technically did with Woody this past offseason too). Hendry sure could do this if he got along with Prior.

And how much of that was due to the talent at LSU? I'm guessing a lot. I'm not saying Russell would have been trash otherwise but he wouldn't be anywhere near the prospect he is if he switched spots with Quinn. The talent at LSU was miles ahead of the talent at Notre Dame the last couple years. Umm, we're comparing JMR to John Navarre of an equally talented Michigan teams. Not talking about ND here. I just used Notre Dame because of Quinn. I could have used any team with substantially less talent than LSU had and the point would still stand. How much of Russell's numbers were based on how much talent he had around him? We're getting to a different subject here - I agree with you that JMR was aided by a good team (but scouts don't look at just how he does against a porous ND defense while LSU has many other NFL caliber offensive players). As I've already said, I'm not the biggest JMR fan. Just stating he didn't come out of nowhere. That doesn't change the fact that JMR was a probable first rounder during the regular college football season and a potential top-10 pick right before the Sugar Bowl. You think he was a top-10 pick before the Sugar Bowl and I don't. Can we agree to disagree and end this debate. Fine by me.

Dammit, I gotta run just as we close in on the Bears' picks.

And how much of that was due to the talent at LSU? I'm guessing a lot. I'm not saying Russell would have been trash otherwise but he wouldn't be anywhere near the prospect he is if he switched spots with Quinn. The talent at LSU was miles ahead of the talent at Notre Dame the last couple years. Umm, we're comparing JMR to John Navarre of an equally talented Michigan teams. Not talking about ND here. I just used Notre Dame because of Quinn. I could have used any team with substantially less talent than LSU had and the point would still stand. How much of Russell's numbers were based on how much talent he had around him? We're getting to a different subject here - I agree with you that JMR was aided by a good team (but scouts don't look at just how he does against a porous ND defense while LSU has many other NFL caliber offensive players). As I've already said, I'm not the biggest JMR fan. Just stating he didn't come out of nowhere. That doesn't change the fact that JMR was a probable first rounder during the regular college football season and a potential top-10 pick right before the Sugar Bowl.

For the Bears, I'm loving that Bowe and Meachem are still available.

You aren't following. I'm saying they knew of his as a big-time draft prospect. Which you apparently didn't. How can you exaggerate and use the word literally in a sentence. Think about that for a minute. Quinn being No. 1 before the draft proves that pre-work out draft boards are meaningless. Because Russell wasn't on them at some arbitrary point during the season doesn't mean that scouts were sleeping on him and he just skyrocketed out of nowhere. Exactly. Soul, I can't believe you compared Navarre to JMR. I made the comparison because IMB based his big-time status on those physical attributes. So what? Make a better argument next time for why Russell's a big-time prospect. Russell has done a whole lot more on the field, against much tougher opponents. JMR was on scouts' radars before this season - he was earmarked as a likely first rounder all season. Oh, and for the record, I think Quinn will have a better NFL career and I would have taken Calvin Johnson with the first pick overall. But, JMR didn't just come out of nowhere because of the Sugar Bowl (and he didn't need the workouts to become the top overall pick as you said earlier). Alright. That's why I asked for a definition of big time prospect. To me, players drafted late in the 1st round are generally not big time prospects. And BTW, there's always many more than 32 players who are considered "1st round picks" each year by someone or another. So that just doesn't have a lot of meaning for me. Here's the problem - and the thing IMB! has been harking on for a while now and you just touched on it - it's too early before January. JMR was definitely on the scouts' radars and didn't come from nowhere. By the time the Sugar Bowl had come around, he had definitely become a first round pick...he was still below Quinn, but it wasn't a surprise that he was there. In terms of a "big time prospect" (pretty tough to define), I think a potential first rounder with the skill set of JMR has to be considered a big time prospect because those skills can easily help him move up a lot.

And how much of that was due to the talent at LSU? I'm guessing a lot. I'm not saying Russell would have been trash otherwise but he wouldn't be anywhere near the prospect he is if he switched spots with Quinn. The talent at LSU was miles ahead of the talent at Notre Dame the last couple years. Umm, we're comparing JMR to John Navarre of an equally talented Michigan teams. Not talking about ND here.

I like Harrell as a prospect. Woulda gone higher if he wasn't hurt.

You aren't following. I'm saying they knew of his as a big-time draft prospect. Which you apparently didn't. How can you exaggerate and use the word literally in a sentence. Think about that for a minute. Quinn being No. 1 before the draft proves that pre-work out draft boards are meaningless. Because Russell wasn't on them at some arbitrary point during the season doesn't mean that scouts were sleeping on him and he just skyrocketed out of nowhere. Exactly. Soul, I can't believe you compared Navarre to JMR. I made the comparison because IMB based his big-time status on those physical attributes. So what? Make a better argument next time for why Russell's a big-time prospect. Russell has done a whole lot more on the field, against much tougher opponents. JMR was on scouts' radars before this season - he was earmarked as a likely first rounder all season. Oh, and for the record, I think Quinn will have a better NFL career and I would have taken Calvin Johnson with the first pick overall. But, JMR didn't just come out of nowhere because of the Sugar Bowl (and he didn't need the workouts to become the top overall pick as you said earlier).

You aren't following. I'm saying they knew of his as a big-time draft prospect. Which you apparently didn't. How can you exaggerate and use the word literally in a sentence. Think about that for a minute. Quinn being No. 1 before the draft proves that pre-work out draft boards are meaningless. Because Russell wasn't on them at some arbitrary point during the season doesn't mean that scouts were sleeping on him and he just skyrocketed out of nowhere. Exactly. Soul, I can't believe you compared Navarre to JMR.

I prefer Revis, cover-2 teams definitely would.

JMR didn't become a top pick because of his workout because of his draft, though that solidified it. He became the top QB in the draft because of the Sugar Bowl. Sure, he was rated highly before hand but he was probably a second round pick before the Sugar Bowl. If Russell faces a good defense in the Sugar Bowl like Quinn did rather than a high school defense, he wouldn't be talked about right now as the best quarterback in the draft and would be one of the guys, along with Stanton and Edwards, who would be a good second round pick. I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on this. He was a first rounder all season and had become a top-10 pick before the Sugar Bowl, from what I have read (and had read at the time). These guys don't just go from the second round to #1 overall pick in one game.

Is this the first draft you've ever watched? That's the way these things work, that's the way they're supposed to work. The point remains, you said he was "literally nowhere" before his last couple games, and that's completely false. Anyone who follows college football knew who he was and could see his talent when he stepped on the field his freshman year. That kind of arm doesn't go unnoticed. I like how you've changed your point from "completely nowhere" to "not a top-10 pick" by the way. I like how you keep harping on it, even though I explained what I meant. Plenty of QBs have a 10-ton arm, doesn't mean they're the #1 pick. There will be great players drafted on the 2nd day, that's not even the subject of the discussion. Nothing that you just said has anything to do with our discussion at all. He's been a big time prospect for a long time, of course he wasn't the No. 1 pick before the Sugar Bowl, no one was, these things take time to get decided. You're proving complete ignorance here. Define "Big Time Prospect" then. The second JMR got to college, many had him pegged as a first rounder 3-4 years later. This happens to a lot of the top recruits as they enroll at college, especially a big name college with a good coaching staff.

Wow, that was a steep price.