Four Downs with Stock & Doc
by Ben Stockwell and Paul Hopkins
1/5/2008
 
The best pick in the draft was
 
DOC – GLENN DORSEY – Arguably the best football player in the draft at #5 in a position of need? No wonder it didn't take them their full allocated ten minutes to make this choice. After the Raiders grabbed their new golden boy, much to my own surprise, Dorsey simply fell into their lap. Considering the level of supposed interest that he was getting, to sit tight and have to do nothing is tremendous.
 
STOCK – GLENN DORSEY – I really can't disagree with you or even find another pick in this draft that is on a similar level in terms of value to this pick of Dorsey for the Chiefs. He doesn't fill an overwhelming need for the Chiefs (he's an upgrade no doubt but they were weaker in other areas) but to find arguably the best player in the draft at the #5 selection, someone who can come in and make an immediate impact, I don't think you can get better value than that. No need to move from #5 for the best player in the draft? It was a win-win situation for them; they either got the best player in the draft or a 2nd king's ransom of the off-season, this time from the Saints. You can have too much of a good thing and they made the right choice taking Dorsey over another shed load of draft choices.
 
The worst pick in the draft was
 
DOC – JOE FLACCO – What on earth was that all about? The second best QB in this draft? Worth trading back into the middle of round one for? Ozzie Newsome has been proven on many occasions to be a shrewd mover on draft day but I think he rolled the dice and got it wrong this time. Trading out of #8 made sense, and even the value of the trade back into #17 was fine. But did they need to move in then for Flacco? Was he that highly thought of? I can't see where anyone else would picked him in round one; somewhat backed up by where Chad Henne was drafted. And the way the draft was going, Flacco would probably have still been there in round 2 when the Ravens picked. Strange gamble, particularly as he'll now be paid to start and he is just a project QB by the very definition of the term. Not a good move.
 
STOCK – SAM BAKER – Baker had a very, very ordinary workout on campus at USC (and that might be generous if some reports are to be believed) that had seemingly dropped him to a second round pick (though that's according to the media, so who knows in reality). Now not only did the Falcons take him in round one, they moved up into round one to get him. For a player with such an average workout (albeit with an outstanding body of work in college) combined with a wingspan that to some onlookers made him a marginal prospect as a tackle this seems a very, very questionable pick. Now the presence of Duane Brown in round 1 suggests that the rating of these zone blocking tackles by the media was off. However, Brown is a sure tackle prospect with big upside, Baker with his wing span and other limitations may project to be a guard in the NFL in a zone blocking scheme, he might work out, he might not, but to me this was an excessive move for a marginal prospect when there was an abundance of zone scheme tackles in this draft.
 
The team who had the best draft weekend was
 
DOC – PITTSBURGH STEELERS – With an honourable shout out to the Chiefs for their picks following the trading of Jared Allen. The Steelers arguably, without doing a thing in the first two rounds got who many people felt were the best players on the board at both RB and WR in Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed. They then took a flyer on a QB who I believe could add so much to them in Dennis Dixon. Chuck in another Longhorn in Tony Hills, with the ability to start in the league at tackle if he manages to stay injury-free and they had a great draft.
 
STOCK – USC TROJANS – Yeah I thought I'd throw a curveball out there on this question, sure some NFL teams had some great weekends but can any team really be as proud of their efforts as Pete Carroll and his assemblage of coaches in Los Angeles? Ten players drafted, seven of them on the first day (even with the abridged version of day one), three of those in the first round and two of those in the top ten of the draft. The Trojans continue to churn out masses of NFL talent and the fact that a backup linebacker was drafted this year when standout starters like Erin Henderson, Ali Highsmith and Wesley Woodyard went undrafted is a testament to this outstanding program. Combining the success they've had with churning out masses of talent for the NFL is a rare mix and Pete Carroll and his staff deserve great credit for another tremendous draft weekend.
 
The team who had the worst draft weekend was
 
DOC – TENNESSEE – Hello, YOU NEED A WIDE RECEIVER!!! But yet, they passed over every WR in the draft to take another running back. They have a very strong defence, which they made some astute additions to, most notably James Jones. But they would have gotten further into the playoffs with an offence. That game against the Chargers, they would have won with a credible receiving threat, so to pass over everyone at least once, and some of them twice is sheer madness. They may as well just line up 300lb linemen at the WR position as they're only going to be used for blocking from now on.
 
STOCK – PATRIOTS – It's tough to make this argument because it's obvious that one of the following about the Patriots, they either 1) don't play the draft game or 2) don't care about the draft anymore. As with almost every draft this year, if you look at the players in isolation, they got a group of talented football player, but in the grand scheme of things there's a lot of reaches in this draft class that just don't fit into a good “grade”. Last year the Patriots had an appalling draft that saw all bare one or two players cut during camp, this year's draft may make more impact, but the value was again poor. They seem to have transitioned form shocking everyone and getting impact from late round players, to thumbing their noses at the entire league and just reaching for the players they want ahead of “value”. Will everyone else in the league follow the Patriots' lead and make draftniks and their “value” across the web redundant?