I won't squawk about anything John Dorsey does at one and four in this draft. A man's got to know his limitations. John Dorsey has been doing this job for awhile now, with good results, so a rational non-GM needs to defer to him...for awhile.
I will wait three years before I remind you of what I said about Baker Mayfield being the hands-down best quarterback in this draft, or of other opinions I've expressed here which may or may not contradict what Dorsey will have done here.
I used to bash Mel Kiper a lot, but that was emotional and unfair of me. He's actually not that bad. But he's not as objective as he should be.
I'm not at all satisfied that Mel answers questions about Josh Allen's low completion percentage by comparing him to Matthew Stafford "case closed" what?
I think Mike Mayock is better than Kiper, but when he says that because Dorsey (then with the Chiefs) drafted Matthew Mahomes, he would draft Josh Allen, purely because Mahomes had the strongest arm in his draft, ergo Dorsey just wants the strongest arm he can find.
These guys get paid to do this, and this is what they come up with?
But I digress: Joel Cade (Dawgpound Dailey) makes his case against Saquon Barkley at one or four, and I heard him. I heard some of what Joel said before on NFL Radio, but Joel was an offensive lineman, and then an Oline Coach, and has some real insight on this topic.
Joel stipulates the obvious: Barkley is an athletic freak with great instincts and receiving skills. He has a very bright future in the NFL.
But even before getting into his X's and O's, Joel reminds us that running backs have the shortest "life expectancy" of any position in the NFL. Always a good point.
Then, Joel shows us how much of the stuff Barkley did in college won't fly in the NFL.
NFL defenders won't take bad angles, and he can't bounce outside as often as he did in college either. He's too "greedy", so he ran sideways too often, instead of blasting through the line vertically for shorter gains.
This bugged this former offensive lineman, because he knows that in the NFL, the linebackers and secondary will converge on Barkley, and he will lose yardage as he tries to outsmart everybody.
Barkley is a very powerful 233 lbs and highly intelligent, so I'm pretty sure that he will adapt to NFL defensive talent once he starts losing yardage (and here I think Joel Cade sold the kid short...he can and will "take what's there", and break tackles, and fall foreward. He's been compared to Barry Sanders. That's rediculous. Sanders was a tiny little shrimp. He had no choice but to run around and sometimes get swarmed in the backfield. Nor was Sanders a blocker, or receiver, but I digress):
Jeez I damn near talked myself into drafting Barkley for the fifth or sixth time again but no...
First, the Browns now have Carlos Hyde, and second, in the second round of this draft are a BUNCH of first-round calibre running backs. Third (as Joel points out), a "committee" backfield has won the last several Superbowls.
Cade was wrong to label Barkley a "project", and to ignore his potential to line up at any wide receiver slot, and to suggest TJ Ward with Minkah Fitzpatrick and Bradley Chubb as alternatives, but this was still yet another great article by him.
TJ Ward might indeed be the best cornerback in this draft, but cornerback is as deep as running back here, and John Dorsey has already upgraded that position extensively with young free agents.
Minkah is "all that", and certainly in play here for Gregg Williams, but the Bradley Chubb addresses the biggest known need here, and would take defensive line off the table for a long time.
Yep! Chubb makes the most sense here.
Oh! More corrections for Joel Cade: Myles Garrett was NOT "raw" when he was drafted. He was actually pretty advanced, with a bunch of moves. This topped off his freakish athleticism, and is why he was worthy of being drafted first overall.
Damn! I just realized I'm smarter than everybody else!
Another cross to bear.
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