Kiper and Pasquarelli grade the Texans draft

maybe; we'll see. i just like big, tall WRs; makes your QB work less. and don't forget: gaffney's a redshirt sophomore, so it's not as if he's anywhere near his ceiling. his upside his huge, too.

if everyone lives up to their potential, the later is a no-brainer. pitts would be a fixture anchoring the OL (ala munchak) for 10-12 years.

something's wrong with bryant -- he was too talented to fall that far, and foster's so vastly overrated. if he's not hurt, he's fumbling. maybe he'll turn it around in carolina.... besides, given their relative small career window, RB should be your final piece. plenty of time to find yourself a good one.

 

Same things happened to Mr Moss who the Oilers passed up for a less talented but less risky character (and like 10 teams after the Oilers regret passing on him too).

If the OT comes through and Gaffney has a solid pro career (I think he should) it will all looks good. I never thought of it this way but one of the players Josh most reminds me of is his namesake Andre--who made a long career due to him being very, very tough on all kinds of middle routes and running great after the catch.

 

ric:

Your final piece? Perhaps, but good running backs last at least 5 years or so, in most cases... sometimes much more... and NFL teams can go from terrible to dominant in far less time than that.

Incidentally, why do you think Foster is overrated? I agree he's a dicey pick, but when he's on, he was really dominating. I think people forget how good UCLA looked early this season, before Foster ran into problems.

 

my .02 on fourth round pick RB Jonathan Wells fron Ohio State.

I've caught every game of Wells' career......I would compare him to the Bears' Anthony (A-train) Thomas and Philly's Correll Buckhalter. IMO, they are all similar carrying the ball, but Thomas is by far the best reciever of the three. Wells can do some recieving and he did returned kicks in college. Wells can obviously run between the tackles and is a fairly physical back. He has decent speed for his size, but he won't exactly be streaking down the field like NFL rushing champ Priest Holmes though.
He started his senior year only, not because he struggled but there was players ahead of him. A good pickup in the 4th.
He came to Ohio State from Louisiana.

 

Honestly, I can't help but think that was still a good move in retrospect. Considering how much of the cap he eats, and considering how, despite being the most talented WR in the NFL, he always manages to underacheve, and definately won't offset his poor production with good effort or solid blocking, I wouldn't want him on my team at the price he'd command.

 

i think the average career span of an NFL RB is, iirc, 4 years. don't forget -- a lot of these guys have 1, 2, 3 years of college football under 'em as well. so, by the time they hit their third professional season, it's actually their fifth or sixth as an every down back.

i'd never advocate passing on a guy you think could be dominant because you're waiting to fill the spot, but, at the same time, i wouldn't reach for one, either.

i think you summed it up -- "before Foster ran into problems." i think there's a lot of baggage with him; he's hurt a lot (and coaches have, in the past, questioned his rehabilitation efforts); he fumbles a lot; he's a bit of a headcase... a guy like that slips into round 3... round 4... he's not as overrated. at #33? overrated.

but i agree, he was dominant when on.

iirc, the oilers picked, like... 12-16th in that draft, and moss fell to #20, or so. he was projected to go top 10... so he slid 10-12 slots. bryant was projected to go mid-first round and slid to the end of round 2 -- that's a significant drop.

also, ONE receiver went ahead of moss; 8 or 9 were drafted ahead of bryant. i don't really think moss' fall and bryant's fall are anywhere near the same thing. something's wrong with bryant.

 

Ric-this was also one of the deepest WR drafts in years.
After Stallworth, the clear #1, the rest comprised a group expected to go early 1st to mid-to-late 2nd round. This group included Walker, Reed, Gaffney, Caldwell, Davis, and Bryant.
No one was sure where they would go exactly, but it's not as if Bryant was expected to go in the first round.
If Bryant had been picked second, like Moss, it would have been GB at #20, which would have been a huge reach.
Bryant was generally considered a mid-second round guy, and he slid a little, but not far.

 

i don't agree with that at all. bryant was considered first round good, several mock drafts had him going in the 15-25 range, and most draftniks, scouts and so-called experts had him rated ahead of javon walker, andre davis, reche caldwell... i mean, randle-el, a QB, went ahead of him.

 

"Average career span" is very different from "average career span of a pick who works out." If he doesn't work out, the situation of him retiring is irrelevant anyway. If he does play well, the odds are very good he'll be around longer than 4 years. The average career span for an NFL player is about 4.5 years I believe... but the median span is actually lower than that, which distorts the data.