Draft Diary Day 2

• Again, let me start off by pointing you back to our mock draft for those who missed that it was back up. I love that you all knocked our server off line looking at it the first time, but it was sort of frustrating to have it down for 24 hours.
• Let’s be clear about yesterday: I have zero doubt that Pollack was a great pick. I didn’t doubt it at the time. Almost immediately we realized that Saturday was a f/a and more likely they don’t trust Charlie “The Human Sieve” Johnson to protect Peyton on RG. Our less than enthusiastic comments had more to do with the anti-climatic nature of the pick than questioning the decision. We lost one starter to free agency, and just replaced him. That’s a good pick.
• Yesterday’s ‘lightning round’ version of the draft might actually make me watch it. Doing two rounds faster than the first round last year means that much less blathering.
• Did anyone notice the Titans AGAIN didn’t take a WR in the first round? I’m telling you, they are the only ones smart enough to know that VY CAN’T THROW.
• I hated ESPN’s coverage of the two bridesmaids (Henne and Brohm). They missed both the Jags trade and pick and the Colts pick yakking about two guys who will be lucky to be Brian Griese. That’s fine and all, but to do that after ALREADY spending all day on them was annoying.
• Kravitz likes the pick. Frankly everyone does. No one is dumb enough to question Bill. As many have rightly said before, “In Bill we trust”. Chappell’s article has some great quotes by Bill who seems to have focused in on Pollak early.
• The Jags still don’t get it.

When the day began, the Jaguars had eight picks, including two in the third round and three in the fifth round. They had no picks in the sixth or seventh rounds. When Saturday ended, the Jaguars had just two fifth-round picks remaining for their Sunday workload.

The easy math is that Harvey and Groves cost the Jaguars half of their ’08 picks and one of their ’09 selections. Unless the Jaguars start trading players for picks, they will end this draft on Sunday with the smallest class in franchise history.

“When you look at it at the end of the day, the players we got are values at need positions, whereas the players at the back end (of the draft) may not have made the team,” personnel boss James Harris said.

There’s a deep message in those words and the message is obvious: The Jaguars have reached the point of such roster strength that having a lot of picks is a waste of time, money and resources. The even deeper message is: This team may have only had one need as it headed into this draft, and that need may have been fully and satisfactorily addressed in the trades that allowed for the selections of Harvey and Groves.

When teams don’t restock their depth with young players, they pay a price down the line. San Diego has no picks till late today. The Pats cut almost their whole class last year. It’s fine to say, “We’re so deep we don’t need rookies”, and it might not matter this year. But very soon you find your roster has gotten old, and you can’t recover on the fly. If San Diego and NE want to try this, that’s their problem, but for the Jags to think they are a Super Bowl contender when they can’t consistently win inside their division is a pipe dream. That team will regress this year, and become very weak in about two more seasons. I love it.

• Day two picks of note: The Pats take another LB. I guess we weren’t the only ones who thought their LBs looked ancient. The Titans take a TE. I’m serious, they are running the McNair offense all over again. Air McNair BARELY threw the ball at all until he had been in the league about 9-10 years.
• Demond weeps as the player he projected for the Colts just went to the Lions who traded up to take him.
• And we scoop up a LB (Phillip Wheeler from GA Tech) in round three. Hagler is free agent after this season, so I think we can all assume that he’ll be gone. The ESPN breakdown says he’s over aggressive. Hopefully that can be coached out of him. I’d say that pretty soon we’ll be making that inevitable run on corners.
• Here’s an article I just found by the Football Scientist that pimps Reggie Wayne as possibly the best WR in the league based on his deep threat production.
• Demond chimes in to let me know his wife thinks Mike Hart is the pick. Who has any idea at this point.
• So KSquared is safe. We go TE in round four to off set the loss of Ben Utech. J
  acob Tamme sounds like a project, but that’s more or less to be expected when you get picked in round 4.
• So if we look at the Colts need board, we’ve covered guard and TE, but we still need an upgrade at back up RB, and backup DE (unless Wheeler gets converted).
• Round 5 pick gives us another LB/DE type. Beautiful. Marcus Howard sounds like he could be a solid backup at end. Word on the street is that he can bring the pressure.
• Fletcher has to be sweating bullets right now as the Colts draft a second TE. I have no info on this guy at all, but I’m better he’s more of a blocker.
• The least sexy draft of all time continues for the Horse as they take another O lineman before ABSOLUTELY NAILING Mike Hart of Michigan. That’s a tremendous pick for the 6th round. BAM!
• So with just one pick remaining, the Colts have basically addressed every key issue on the team. We got rushing depth, receiving depth, O-line depth, a great RB option. In Bill We Trust. Great draft.