Only because they got an absolute gem of a rookie that happened to play for Abilene Christian. And yet, there are quite a few more productive running backs in the NFL than productive safeties. And good running backs get cut all the time for salary reasons while teams normally hang on to good safeties.
yep... taken in the.......? 2nd round. see? pretty easy to replace. much harder to quantify a S's impact, so i'm not sure this is necessarily true. but if we assume.... ed reed (?) is the best S in football, would you deal LDT for him? in fact, would you trade any top 5 RB for a S?
i'm confused - you mean manning, right? he was taken in the 2nd round last year. of course, i'll freely concede he was udrafted if you prefer - it only strengthens the case against drafting a safety at the top of the draft.
Unless one of those safeties is Kenny Easley or Ronnie Lott, I think we should draft safeties in another round besides 1. Okoye, Okoye, Okoye. I'm telling you. We draft this kid and stack him alongside MW and Weaver and all of a sudden, we've got one of the premier if not the premier emerging defensive lines that will strike fear in all of our opponents. Then get your safeties and corners. Use a 2nd or a 3rd on defensive backfield and bring in a free agent corner and we are in business. You win games on the line. I want to see quality linemen drafted on both sides of the ball. We basically need one more quality offensive line starter and one more quality defensive line starter and our foundation will be set. Sign Michael Lewis and draft a corner in the 2nd or third or possibly get our mits on Samuel or take a flyer on Randall Gay in free agency. A player like Gay should be relatively cheap and he has played on a Super Bowl winner and perennial playoff team in New England. He has to have some skills and a good brain. I think Okoye is going to be a star. Would love to see him teamed up with Mario and Demeco up front getting heat on Mannning.
and you'd still use a top 8 pick on a safety? btw, both of chicago's RBs were first rounders... as is indianapolis' (though rhodes was UD, irrc). they beat two teams (NE and NO) with two first round backs in their backfields, too. in fact, of the 12 playoff teams, 9 had former first round picks starting at RB. good RBs are hard to find.
If Joe Thomas and Adrian Peterson are both available at 8 (which I doubt) I can't see the Texans passing up on Thomas.
Thomas is virtually a lock for the top 5. And recently it has become a popular notion to have Peterson falling to eight, but I hold the opinion that once the combine and proday results are measured and the interveiw process has been gone through that Adrian will go in the top five as well.
quinn's the wildcard. if he goes top 3 (assuming russell and thomas are top 3 locks, and i think they are), the next 4 picks before the texans belong to TB, AZ, WA & MN, and RB isn't a big need for any of those teams. so i do think, even with a great combine, et al, AP could drop to 8th... if quinn solidifies his spot in the top 3.
My desire to pick Landry is not a general statement of the value of a safeties and running backs. (I do think good safeties are more valuable than good running backs, although great running backs may be more valuable than great safeties.) As I see it, there are three players in this draft that are sure-fire, can't-miss future Pro-Bowlers. Those are Joe Thomas, Calvin Johnson, and LaRon Landry. Only one will be available when the Texans draft, and he happens to play at the position of biggest weakness. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I've said before that Landry is the biggest playmaker in the draft, and I don't back down from that.
I'll bite. I thank God every day that the Texans didn't buy into the Reggie Bush hype machine. And while Peterson would be a much better choice, it's irresponsible and terrible management to use a #8 pick on any player who had his best year 3 years ago and has missed more games than he's played since high school.
AD missed 0 games his freshman year, one game his sophomore year and then six games this season. He played in 32 out of 39 possible games.
his per game #s this year were identical to his freshman year. teams usually aren't concerned with sudden injuries that have no long-term ramifications. breaking a collarbone by landing freakishly is just that; a freak play. knees and ankles are the worry, and i know he did his ankle last year, but has showed no signs of it lingering.
I really like AP a lot. Somehow, I don't think he's available when we pick, but if he is available, and Okoye is still on the board, I think we should talk trade and see if we can move down a little bit and still get one or the other. Miami picks right after us, they aren't going after Peterson. Wonder if they would take Okoye. If we could steer down and still get Okoye, I think I'd be for that. However, if AP is there, he's going to be tempting. He's a great player.
The more I see of AP, he is the guy I want. He has excellent vision and balance. He does have a bit of an upright style but from the videos I have seen he will lower his pads at contact. Having said that I would certainly welcome any O or D line we can get because I am a big believer in being able to control the LOS. If we end with Adams, Branch or Okoye in the first and Bush in the second - that would be a good draft as well.
how many were top 10 picks? lt,t jones,bush,j.lewis. how many ran for 80 yds per game which is 1200 yds or so? lt,jones. who were the leading rushers and where were they drafted? lt-5th,lj-21,alexander-21,tiki-4th rd,tjones-7,westbrook-4th rd,jlewis-7th,addia-30th,jjones-2nd rd,dillion-2nd rd,duece-20th,jets rb?. which says that you dont need to have a high rd rb.
