2012 mocks

[barrett]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

The Painted Lady (Babin) didn't blossom until he left Houston but he's turned out to be a solid low-first-round pick. Was he worth what we gave up for him? Probably not but at least he's not the bust that Travis Johnson or Amobi Okoye were.

He had almost 20 sacks this season. That is worth what we gave up.

I think the bad coaching/bad drafting argument is chicken and egg, but does anyone think that last year's DC would have made Rick Smith look like executive of the year or would last year's defense have made Jonathon Joseph, Manning, Watt, and Reed look terrible.

So I am sure Casserly and Capers made each other look bad.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by barrett

So I am sure Casserly and Capers made each other look bad.

Oh, I do not mean to insulate Capers and staff from culpability, at all. But every single draft from 2002-2005 was a near disaster or a full-on disaster. I can't even credit that imbecile for Andre Johnson because Casserly had his sights set on McGahee until he got hurt.

In light of that it is especially curious then that the expansion draft was, with the Boselli injury excepted, an unqualified success.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by chuck

In light of that it is especially curious then that the expansion draft was, with the Boselli injury excepted, an unqualified success.

Other than Boselli, Casserly played the expansion draft like a chess master - in part because teams were just beginning to realize what cap hell was like (they've adjusted) and Casserly was able to make pre-draft deals with the Jets, Jaguars and Ravens to expose players for us to take so that they could keep other players in the fold. It was a far better outcome than the way the Browns went about it.

Weary and Pitts were quality selections and Dominick Davis was a steal before he was injured. Faggins was a nice pick and the two safeties (Earl and Brown) were good for where they were drafted. The Henson ploy was worth trying.

OTOH, there were definite reaches like Seth Wand.

I'm not totally down on the early drafts. In retrospect, 2002 was a sucky draft year for the whole NFL. Very few good players emerged from that draft.

[barrett]

And 2006 was a Casserly draft sans Capers. That was our best draft ever and the kind of class that makes a GMs career (if you haven't preceded it with the 2002-2005 stretch).

I just think that our organization was broken for the first decade or so, and it made it tough to evaluate what kind of players we actually had. When Kubiak came along you could fairly evaluate the offensive talent and Wade's arrival means you can judge the defensive guys. But I honestly believe we would have made Julius Peppers look bad if we drafted him instead of Carr. We were just a terrible, terrible franchise.