Chargers "came up one pick short" in drafting Brown [San Diego Union-Tribune]

[Keith]

Wow... it's not 100% clear that the Chargers would have taken Duane Brown at #27, but they seemed to be very, very interested in doing so nonetheless.

Funny that the Chargers finally got a tackle with their final pick. They had been stymied from starting off the draft with one when an unprecedented eight tackles were selected before they picked at No. 27.

“We came up one pick short,” said Turner, who along with the rest of the Chargers brass watched Houston trade into the 26th spot and take tackle Duane Brown of Virginia Tech.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...8chargers.html

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by Keith

Wow... it's not 100% clear that the Chargers would have taken Duane Brown at #27, but they seemed to be very, very interested in doing so nonetheless.



http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...8chargers.html

This is the revelation that shut me up (heard this on NFLn a day or so back). We got lucky getting Brown. If we had tried to get cute, we would have lost our chance at a stud.

[cadams]

yeah, given the run on LTs it makes sense that he wouldn't have been there later than our pick. as i have said, i will reserve judgment on all of the draftees until they get on the field and play, but the current regime has given me no reason to doubt them on talent evaluation to date (as far as the draft goes that is).

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by painekiller

We got lucky getting Brown. If we had tried to get cute, we would have lost our chance at a stud.

I dunno, but I think we (Smith that is) were part lucky and part cute. The thing is, Smith finessed it a bit when he moved back to get the extra picks and he was also lucky it wasn't the 'Bolts jumping ahead of us to grab Brown instead of the Cowboys doing so to grab the CB.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

I dunno, but I think we (Smith that is) were part lucky and part cute. The thing is, Smith finessed it a bit when he moved back to get the extra picks and he was also lucky it wasn't the 'Bolts jumping ahead of us to grab Brown instead of the Cowboys doing so to grab the CB.

I think most teams had us going CB in the first due to their idea of need. Might be the reason the bolts stayed put.

[Roy P]

Originally Posted by Keith

Wow... it's not 100% clear that the Chargers would have taken Duane Brown at #27, but they seemed to be very, very interested in doing so nonetheless.

Before we dislocate our shoulders patting ourselves on the back, remember, the Patriots or some other team was going to trade up and select Jason Babin if we didn't take him in the 1st round.

Let's see how Brown plays this year before we jump to conclusions about this being a good/bad pick in the 1st round.

[NickO]

Originally Posted by Roy P

Before we dislocate our shoulders patting ourselves on the back, remember, the Patriots or some other team was going to trade up and select Jason Babin if we didn't take him in the 1st round.

Let's see how Brown plays this year before we jump to conclusions about this being a good/bad pick in the 1st round.

I think this is more of a response to the Todd McShay's and other draft geniuses hammering the Texans for "reaching" on Brown, who everyone thought was a mid-2nd at best.

Whether Brown turns out to be a good or bad pick remains to be seen, but the idea that the Texans could've traded back again and still gotten Brown seems to be killed by Turner's statement.

[nunusguy]

If a Draft pick fails, does that mean he was a reach or a bust ?
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, so was Robert Gallery a reach or a bust or
a failure or just a disappointment. Or maybe all of those things ?
To me its like this: you got 8 cars on a car lot and in a short time interval you've gone from 8 or maybe 9 buyers to dozen buyers for those 8 cars.
What happens to the price of those cars ? Of course the price of each car
goes up. Same with Duane Brown: his price went up from a mid or late second-rounder to late first-rounder because there was more teams wanting to Draft high-upside OLTs than the number of tackles on the lot, I mean in the Draft. Its just the very basic economics of supply & demand.

[Roy P]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

If a Draft pick fails, does that mean he was a reach or a bust ?
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, so was Robert Gallery a reach or a bust or
a failure or just a disappointment.

If a draft pick fails, he's a bust.

A reach has nothing to do with hindsight and all about projections. The term "reach" was created by draftniks and fans who want to grade the draft immediately following the selection of Mr. Irrelevant. When 90% of all mock drafts have play "X" as a 2nd or 3rd round pick and player "X" is drafted at #20, then the "Reach" label is applied. Now, player "X" can prove everyone wrong by performing up to expectations of the slot in which he was selected.

Exhibit A: Jason Babin.
Babin was a "reach" because most draft gurus said he would last until the 2nd round. When he failed to perform up to the standards of a 1st round selection, then he earned the additional label of "bust" by everyone around the NFL.

Exhibit B: Robert Gallery.
Nobody in their right mind at the time of the draft and the months preceding thought this guy was anything other than a top 5 pick. So, he was not a reach in any estimation. However, because he has not done anything as of yet, he is a "bust", just like Babin.

Exhibit C: Logan Mankins.
The Patriots can get away with just about anything. Mankins was never mentioned as a 1st round pick. The Patriots were given the benefit of the doubt because they picked at the bottom of the 1st round and they are the Patriots. In all honesty, Mankins was a reach, by definition (a player selected earlier than the consensus thought he'd be). However, he has done a formidable job on a Super Bowl caliber team, thus avoiding the "bust" label. Hopefully, Duane Brown can fall into this catagory.

[Joshua]

While I haven't done the math, my guess is that virtually every year 50-60% of 1st round picks fail to live up to expectations and a good 30-40% qualify as busts. With that said, if you can avoid having your 1st round pick fall into either of these categories, it was a good pick. Period. All this talk about "reaches" is somewhat silly to me, aside from the possibility of being able to trade back (and get more picks) and still get your guy. It completely discounts the extremely high percentage of picks which fail. Just get your pick right. It doesn't matter where in the draft you do it.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Roy P

Exhibit C: Logan Mankins.
The Patriots can get away with just about anything. Mankins was never mentioned as a 1st round pick. The Patriots were given the benefit of the doubt because they picked at the bottom of the 1st round and they are the Patriots. In all honesty, Mankins was a reach, by definition (a player selected earlier than the consensus thought he'd be). However, he has done a formidable job on a Super Bowl caliber team, thus avoiding the "bust" label. Hopefully, Duane Brown can fall into this catagory.

"The consensus" being collectively the mock-drafters, who clearly are semi-professional at best. That's generous I think if you're comparing Mel Kiper's knowledge to Bill Billichecks. 'Cause we don't know what "the consensus" of the NFL Boards were on Mankins ?
How about a year later when the Jets took center Nick Mangold, right at the end of the 1st round (29th). He's by all accounts had a successful NFL career up to this point, but he was taken by the Jets
and not the 'Pats so of course he's not been in a SB or the Pro Bowl IIRC ? And as we know it's unusual to take interior Olineman in the first round, so sounds like the former Buckeye is even more obviously a reach than Mankins ?