Packerrats Draft Grade

[Bretsky]

B

The first round pick had to be made after he slipped that far; I think there was a good chance TT trades down in round one and grabs Hughes and an extra draft pick if Buluga is gone

Look at all the players drafted after Neal; that was truly the pick to trade back with. Trade ten spots back, land an extra fourth......on paper most expected Neal to be around anyways. If he gets nabbed you still can grab a stellar pass rusher and another quality CB in round four with the pick you added. If he's still there you nab him and add a Norwood or D Franks.

Burnett is my favorite pick.

Other than Neal, on paper the draft looks fine.

For me to give out an A I would need to see a pass rush threat better than what we have.

Most of these guys could be good long term players. Burnett perhaps the only starter; other than that we have a bunch of guys that will hopefully be part of a rotation and help in our success

[Freak Out]

If the bikini girls flash some tit at the first home game I'll grade it a B.

[pbmax]

Grade: A

That's awfully positive for you Maxie. How many High Lifes today?

[wist43]

I gave it a C, but only b/c I think there is some talent there...

For team building, I give it a D-

If Bulaga pans out - a big IF - it'll be paltable. I like Burnett... he should help right away.

Everybody else... even if they end up being decent players, are minimal contributors in the short term, and stack already well stocked positions; while the cupboard remains unstocked at other positions.

You win Championships with defense - at least you used to

And outside of Burnett... TT did nothing to help the defense this year. Maybe Neal sees the field as part of a rotation; but so what, we were already halfway decent there to begin with.

Demoralizing draft... maybe in 2013 we'll be talking about how we can let Finley and Jolly walk b/c we have Quarless and Neal ready to step in... then you guys can tell me how the DE and TE we draft in 2013 were good picks b/c they'll help us in 2016

[rbaloha1]

IMO its pre mature to offer a grade.

Like the ball hawk safety (reminds of Sharper) and te (reminds of Keith Jackson.) Plus hopefully 2 future starting o-linemen. On paper looks very good.

[mission]

i gave it a b+ because of the neal value. like the guy but i gotta think we coulda got him later. made up for it with burnett and i like the upside of the rest of the guys.

im a glass half full kind of guy and not even going to give much thought or argument to the fringe thinking here. it is what it is, these are the guys we got, i might as well be happy about it.

[vince]

I'd say this draft passes the "3 future contributor" sniff test. It seems that Bulaga and Burnett are solid. If Neal is solid and as PB says, can add a pass rush, then it's even better. The flyers at the bottom of the draft are all intriguing. Love the added dimension the tight-end could bring.

[packrulz]

Way too early to grade but I gave it a B. This was a deep draft for lineman and TT took advantage of that, obviously he was going after quality over quantity. Loved the Quarless pick, what a steal! Imagine lining him and Finley up with Driver, Jennings, & Nelson, ARod must be stoked!

[SkinBasket]

Way too early to grade

Well, what fucking fun is speculating and guessing and looking like we have no idea what we're talking about because we don't after the fact?

Anyway, I'm going to disagree with Wist again, on the pass rush improvement note. I think adding Neal will improve our DL, quite possibly immediately as a part of the rotation, and will make things easier for Matthews, who looked like he was working alone out there for large portions of last season, and Jones, or whoever wins the starting spot on the other side of the field.

Sometimes improving one aspect of the defense, such as the pass rush, can be accomplished by improving elsewhere to free up our pass rushers instead of just adding another rusher who will get stuck at the line because the line hasn't improved.

[Bretsky]

Way too early to grade

Well, what fucking fun is speculating and guessing and looking like we have no idea what we're talking about because we don't after the fact?

Anyway, I'm going to disagree with Wist again, on the pass rush improvement note. I think adding Neal will improve our DL, quite possibly immediately as a part of the rotation, and will make things easier for Matthews, who looked like he was working alone out there for large portions of last season, and Jones, or whoever wins the starting spot on the other side of the field.

Sometimes improving one aspect of the defense, such as the pass rush, can be accomplished by improving elsewhere to free up our pass rushers instead of just adding another rusher who will get stuck at the line because the line hasn't improved.

Now there is the aggressive Skin I know

I've noted Neal is the one pick I didn't care for so I'll just leave Skin with one thought. Jones started strong at OLB and ended weak. Time will tell how good he is long term. With that being said, I think Bigby and Jones are comparable players as a starter.

[3irty1]

I guess I accepted that this draft would probably not help the pass rush unless we were crazy lucky or grabbed a pass rusher with our first pick, neglecting the OL. I'm high on Brad Jones anyways and I considered the OL our biggest need and Saftey our 2nd biggest need since everything goes to shit when either Clifton or Bigby get hurt. Bulaga is the LT I most wanted, Burnett is the Saftey I most wanted, and I even wanted Newhouse. Its rare that the Packers select even one guy I wanted much less three however I can't give this draft an A because I very much wanted a returner and a Cornerback. Even a pick like underwood last year would make me feel better.

[wist43]

Way too early to grade

Well, what fucking fun is speculating and guessing and looking like we have no idea what we're talking about because we don't after the fact?

Anyway, I'm going to disagree with Wist again, on the pass rush improvement note. I think adding Neal will improve our DL, quite possibly immediately as a part of the rotation, and will make things easier for Matthews, who looked like he was working alone out there for large portions of last season, and Jones, or whoever wins the starting spot on the other side of the field.

Sometimes improving one aspect of the defense, such as the pass rush, can be accomplished by improving elsewhere to free up our pass rushers instead of just adding another rusher who will get stuck at the line because the line hasn't improved.

Disagree with me??? how can this be???

As I said, I almost never mind front seven picks in general - you can't have enough good defenders at any position; however, in any version of the 3-4, while all seven have to function as a unit, and in the run game no ones job is more or less important than anyone else's, the DE's in any version of the 3-4 are devalued to any of the other positions b/c, by and large, you're not asking them to be your playmakers, i.e. you can stick a plugger out there and get by. You're generally not asking that guy to make the sack or TFL, you're asking him to eat up blockers, hold the point, and control his gap.

Beyond that, and as is obvious, the most critical positions - at least from a skill standpoint - necessarily have to be your LB's. We were decent on the DL last year; we had enough bodies; had a good rotation... conversely, we barely got by at LB.

TT drafted players at a position that was fairly deep and completely ignored a critical position that needed help - how does that make us better??? It makes us deeper on the DL, but if any of the starting LB's goes down, or if a CB goes down - what then??? Are we going to stick Neal at OLB, and Wilson at CB???

If we're fairly close to competing for a championship, and the deficiencies on the roster are easily identifiable, doesn't it make sense to try to fill those holes and make a run??? TT has even said as much in the past, i.e. "if we're close enough, we'll try to fill holes and move up or down to acquire the players we think can fill those holes" (paraphrasing).

What TT did is draft for the planned departure of 1 or 2 already good players on the roster. As I said, best case scenario, this keeps us where we were... and, where we were last time out, was getting butchered for 51 pts in a playoff game.

TT drafted for down the road... and that's the argument - the future is never now with TT. He's been here for 6 years, and we have a good team - all of which I predicted; but, I've also predicted that unless he adapts his philosophy we'll just continue to plod along at a couple games either way of 9-7, but never really be a contender to win it all... I expect we'll be in the playoffs more years than not, but we'll likely be going up against more complete teams - if it meant a SB title, would TT bring in a Darren Sharper?? I doubt it... his standard response??? we like our group of guys - yeah, maybe in a year or 3; but a year or 3 isn't going to win you anything today.

Here we are 6 years after TT arrived - I guarentee we'll be having this same discussion in 2013, and 2016 - sans any championships.

For me, it's all about winning championships... TT couldn't care less about winning it all - for TT is all about developing players, not building a championship team - he's more akin to a minor league development guru than he is a championship calibur NFL GM.

[pbmax]

While I have called for more pass rush since the start of the offseason and even thought it more important than new CBs, I think its clear, after looking at the depth chart from the end of the year, that a good D lineman was a priority as well. Going into the draft we had:

Jenkins, Wynn

Pickett, Raji, Toribio

Jolly, Talley


Harrell cannot be counted on and Montgomery is gone. And Monty was second off the bench at end behind Raji. Its 4 good players and placeholders. Wynn has some pass rush in him, but in limited time it didn't show up much in nickel and dime packages. Toribio might be all you can expect from a third NT, but there is no pass rush there.

Watching the Arizona and Pittsburgh games, the four man line the Packers threw out there in nickel and dime (Matthews/Jenkins/Raji/Jolly) wore out. Only Jenkins and Matthews were making hay late in the game and it wasn't enough. Jolly is athletic and quick, but somehow that doesn't translate to QB pressure. He was subbed out for Corey Williams in 2007 even though he won the job outright in camp.

So I do not think D line was set, and anyone with a pass rush pulse will play on 50% of the snaps. I don't see CB as poorly stocked as most other Rats. It does depend on rehabs though, but I think there are more functional bodies for a nine-man position here than there are for a six or seven man position on DL.

OLB was a mystery and the only explanation is that once Misi and the rest went early in the 2nd, there was no one at that position they thought was better. Kindle may not even have been a consideration given his knee and character.

[Fritz]

First of all, it's friggin' stupid to grade a draft the next day.

I give this draft a B.

Second, not drafting an OLB may indicate that once Misi was gone there wasn't anyone out there worth trading up for whom the team thought was better than Jones and maybe Obiozor.

Third, Newhouse somehow seems like the next Sitton.

[Gunakor]

I gave it a C, but only b/c I think there is some talent there...

For team building, I give it a D-

If Bulaga pans out - a big IF - it'll be paltable. I like Burnett... he should help right away.

Everybody else... even if they end up being decent players, are minimal contributors in the short term, and stack already well stocked positions; while the cupboard remains unstocked at other positions.

You win Championships with defense - at least you used to

And outside of Burnett... TT did nothing to help the defense this year. Maybe Neal sees the field as part of a rotation; but so what, we were already halfway decent there to begin with.

Demoralizing draft... maybe in 2013 we'll be talking about how we can let Finley and Jolly walk b/c we have Quarless and Neal ready to step in... then you guys can tell me how the DE and TE we draft in 2013 were good picks b/c they'll help us in 2016

Dynasty teams draft for the future. I don't want a GM to go all out on one particular season, because even if we win we've done so at the cost of the long term. I want Ted to build a team that will make the playoffs every year. After that throw the records and stats and all the bullshit out the window, because the best team doesn't always win. The team that wins it all does so because they were both talented AND lucky.

New England lost to the Giants you know. And the Saints just beat the Colts.

If Ted builds a roster that is consistently in the playoffs that's all I ask. Once this team is in the playoffs, all the talent in the world doesn't guarantee anything. Making the tournament is all the opportunity this team needs. An opportunity is all I ask of our General Manager. What our players and coaches do with that opportunity, well, that's on our players and coaches. Not Ted Thompson.