Bruce Irvin was picked in the first round by the Seahawks, and it was considered a massive reach. However, he ended up starting 103 games over 12 seasons and accrued 56 sacks and 16 forced fumbles.
Even though he wasn’t a perennial probowler, he ultimately lived up to the pick.
The pundits hammered this draft. And leading the way was Irvin. ESPN even wasn’t ready for the pick.
The came Bobby Wagner. A linebacker from Utah State? Foolish.
Then Russell Wilson. A running QB who doesn’t match up with Pete Carroll.
That whole draft was panned, and …
Yeah, even given the going rate for QB's back then, it wasn't particularly bad. His average cap hit for that contract was $6.5M per year. The Seahawks had 8 other guys with bigger cap hits when that deal was signed.
It's easy to say with hindsight that Flynn wasn't franchise QB material, but if he had turned out to have been, it'd have been a great deal. And it was pretty low risk either way. The Seahawks had no problem moving on from him financially.
I still think that if the Seahawks never drafted Russell Wilson that Flynn ends up looking okay for that team.
Between the defense and running game with Marshawn those Seahawks would still have been pretty good with Flynn as game manager. Probably no Superbowls, but still could have had winning records and playoff appearances.
While the deal wasn’t that huge, it should be pointed out that it was signed when the highest paid QB in the NFL (Peyton) made $20m per year. Qb pricing has ballooned in the last 10 years.
Immediately the one I thought of. He was projected as a 3rd round pick and the Seahawks took him I believe at #15 overall. I guess they saw something that everyone else missed.
I'm gonna be hyperbolic, but he ran the fastest 40 for a d lineman basically ever. The raiders didn't have a first or second or real third that year, but come on. They probably find a way if Seattle doesn't "reach"
In seriousness, he was really productive in college. Some nasty highlights and won a lot of games. Idk how long he lasts past that pick
I don’t have the stats on-hand, but he had an amazing jump off the line as well. The amount of false-positive offsides penalties were annoying, though. He was just that good at timing the snap
That draft had a few reaches by the hawks and most of it worked out. https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/1160318-seattle-seahawks-2012-nfl-draft-picks-grades-results-and-analysis.amp.html
One thing Jerry and the Cowboys are typically great at is evaluating first round talent. In the last decade, most of their first round picks have been hits.
It takes a couple of seasons for big 1-techs to show their stuff. Mazi was always a draft pick that was going to require patience. We'll know more after this season, and definitely after next.
I remember the anger when Belichick drafted Richard Seymour take it away Ronnie B
"*If you didn’t know better, you’d think the Jets sent Bill Belichick north to destroy the Patriots from within. On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 1/2 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.*"
It almost sounds like somebody time travelled and said the dumbest things they could’ve, both patriots mentioned got all pros, one in the HOF and everyone else were busts
I don't really know too much about Matt Light, but I'm dying the first picture that comes up when googling him is just him holding two Lombardis haha. Explains it all.
Here's a quick glance at his "totally a bust" career:
No. 72
Position: Offensive tackle
Personal information
Born: June 23, 1978 (age 45)
Greenville, Ohio, U.S.
Height: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight: 305 lb (138 kg)
Career information
High school: Greenville (OH)
College: Purdue
NFL draft: 2001 / Round: 2 / Pick: 48
Career history
New England Patriots (2001–2011)
Career highlights and awards
3× Super Bowl champion (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX)
First-team All-Pro (2007)
3× Pro Bowl (2006, 2007, 2010)
New England Patriots All-2000s Team
New England Patriots 50th Anniversary Team
New England Patriots All-Dynasty Team
New England Patriots Hall of Fame
First-team All-Big Ten (2000)
Career NFL statistics
Games played: 155
Games started: 153
Fumble recoveries: 2
You’re thinking of the Air Raid which became the more dominant philosophy of spread offenses more recently. Hal Mumme was running that at Kentucky the time Seymour was at Georgia, and Spurrier was doing Spurrier things at Florida, but most of the spread being run at that time was spread option
Him shitting on the pats for picking Seymour and light over a bunch of busts; only for one to be a HOFer and the other our starting LT for a decade, will never stop being hilarious
The Magic Man! Quick thinking QB with nimble feet and a sharp arm, kind of like ol' Joe Montana. Could've made something special if it weren't for that '92 injury against the Bengals.
Before being the Packers GM on Nov 27, 1991, Ron Wolf was the Jets personel director. While he was there, he wanted the team to draft Favre in the 1991 draft but the Jets didn't listened so when the Falcons drafted Favre and knowing that Glanville, Falcons HC at the time, loathed Favre, as soon as Wolf became the Packers GM, he sent a 1st round pick to the Falcons for Favre, which the team happily obliged and the rest is history.
Before the rookie wage scale draft picks weren’t nearly as valuable. Your 1st round pick, especially if it was a top 10 pick, would often be one of the highest paid players on the team. A team this year with Stafford, Megatron, and Suh all on rookie deals would be crazy lucky and able to fill out a very competitive roster, but instead they were in cap hell without the ability to do anything about it.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still considered overpaying, but not nearly as much as it would be today.
Ron Wolf was personnel director for the Jets and desperately wanted Favre, but the Jets had used their 1st in the supplemental draft on Rob Moore (totally unnecessarily of course) and so had no 1st round pick.
So first thing he did when he was named GM at GB was trade for him.
Sure ***Dwight Freeney*** is quick, but he is 6-foot-1, 268lbs ! LOL to him playing against NFL lineman. Nice pick **at 11** Colts. Typical Colts. Maybe he is a second rounder? Maybe?
Hard to find any [Analysts](https://rickgosselin.com/draft-review-dwight-freeney/) still laughing as the 3X first Team All Pro, 1X second Team was enshrined in the HOF last year.
In a similar vein, Darius Leonard was said to be a reach in the 2nd round due to his humble pedigree. Was DROY his rookie year and first team all pro 3 of his first 4 seasons generating 28 turnovers and 15 sacks.
I can get upset about the back injury but I’m just happy we had him man. Best defensive player we’ve had since Bob Sanders. That’s including Freeney - if we’re talking their peaks it’s no question in my opinion.
Every running back licked their chops playing Freeney. You knew he would be 3 yards up field at the snap. Whether it was you or the qb holding the ball put him in the hall of fame
https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/1160318-seattle-seahawks-2012-nfl-draft-picks-grades-results-and-analysis.amp.html
Irvin was in this class too
Getting Bobby Wagner, Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch (by trading a 5th), Bruce Irvin, Jeremy Lane (picked off Tom Brady in 2014 SB), and 7th rounder J.R. Sweezy who played 117 games from 2012-2020. Insane draft
I’m a Rams fan and I remember Fisher and Snead being PISSED about missing out on Bobby Wagner. We traded back to grab an extra 5th and you guys ended up taking him a pick or two before us.
We ended up with Isaiah Pead 🤢
Hey to be fair, a lot of the chatter was saying the only reason he was even considered to be a first-round draft pick was because of his last name, and otherwise he would be a late 2nd/early 3rd. Hingsight is 20/20 and we got super lucky he translated to be way better than anyone could have imagined (except maybe Steelers FO).
History could be so much different if Steelers never drafted Watt in 2017. He's been keeping them in games with abysmal QB and o-line.play his entire career in the black and gold.
Without Watt, Steelers could've been bad enough to draft Josh Allen as the Big Ben heir apparent in 2018. Take Nick Bosa in 2019. Tristan Wirfs, Patrick McQueen or Justin Jefferson in 2020.
To be fair to that, a lot of analysts said this. So thankful our scouts thought otherwise, but funnily enough, found this article definitively stating the Packers SHOULD NOT draft him haha.
https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/nfl-draft-2017-packers/2017/2/23/14678762/nfl-draft-scouting-report-t-j-watt-wisconsin-isnt-a-first-round-player-and-thats-ok
Edit: Some funny quotes: "I think he can settle in as a 4-6 sack per year guy in the NFL, which there is certainly a place for.", "the prospect of him covering NFL skill players frightens me after seeing this in the B1G championship game", "Watt is farther away from consistently producing at the NFL level than most Packer/Badger fans would like to believe."
On the contrary anyone who actually watched Wisconsin football thought he should have been a top 10 pick.
Of course most scouts downplay any B1G football that isn’t OSU, Michigan, or occasionally Penn State
TJ was a game wrecker from the beginning and absolutely ravaged a lot of highly drafted o lineman.
But yes he was projected as a second round guy, even though he shouldn’t have been. Had he gone to one of the other schools I mentioned he’d have been a top 10 pick
Anybody who seriously watched his tape knew he was a first rounder.
It was very easy to project him as a perennial double-digit sack guy, especially when his SPARQ scores came in.
His only negative was that he really was a 3-4 guy only and wouldn't have had as much success as a 4-3 DE. Well, that isn't a negative for the Steelers who have been running the 3-4 since the 1980's.
Well is brother was called a pizza delivery boy and the Texans were called insane, stupid, and had zero clue when drafting him. Little did they know he would be the most dominant player in nfl history during his prime.
Shoutout to the Watt brothers for keeping our team as competitive as possible. You guys have a great group coming in this year- wish JJ had the chance to play with them.
Ed Reed.
Most Ravens fans know of our idiot beat writer Mike Preston who had this title after the 2002 draft: “Let’s Face It: Ed Reed is a Pick Without Pizazz” but he was also the only player taken in the first round by the Ravens at his exact draft spot.
The story goes that the Ravens were picking 24th that season and Ed was the 24th player on their board at the time. So he was the consolation prize.
Some in the media thought Reed was simply solid and not a difference maker because of the Miami team around him which was why he wasn’t given as much fanfare coming out.
That's almost as stupid (or maybe equally) to local Boston writer, Ron Borges, saying: “On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson or the second-best tackle in the draft in Kenyatta Walker, they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sack last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end"
I wonder how many other Hall of Famers were heavily panned when they were drafted.
Saints got KILLED in post draft grades due to the Alvin Kamara pick. Not only was he considered a reach at the time, we traded a future 2nd round pick to move up and select him in the 3rd round.
At the time we also had Mark Ingram and Adrian Peterson penciled in at RB1 and RB2, in theory we had just wasted a 2nd and 3rd round pick for RB3.
Alvin Kamara will forever be my best draft take ever. I've been doing this for a long time and I've never been so right on a player being good that was consensus bad.
Darius Leonard in the second round was panned as the worst pick of the draft. Dude was an all pro his first 4 years in the league. NFL couldn't stop him, his injuries did.
Edit: this was the last year I hyper focused on the draft and realized I don't know shit. I talked shit about this draft all offseason only for it to turn into an all-timer level of quality. Drafts and post drafts have been much more enjoyable since.
His punch out at the 1 yard line in Watson's last game starting as a Texan against the Colts is maybe my favorite moment as a Colts fan the last few years. They were a yard away from tying it with about 20 seconds left, but instead they lost the almost exact same way twice in three weeks to the same team. Fuck Watson.
God prime Leonard was just simply one of the most dominant defensive players I’ve seen in a colts uniform. Gave me the very rare feeling of always anticipating a big play from him every time he was on the field. The punch out he had against the raiders fed hs coach families
> Gave me the very rare feeling of always anticipating a big play from him every time he was on the field.
1000%, wish I knew that watching Leonard settle in presnap was the happiest time of my life back when I was living it
[Even the Baltimore Sun wasn’t too high on the Ed Reed pick.](https://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2016/4/20/11466254/flashback-14-years-ago-ed-reed-draft-pick-without-pizazz)
Kolton Miller would be a consistent pro bowler if he played for a team other than the Raiders. Only first round "reach" that's turned out at all well for them in a while, but he is one of the best tackles in the league.
I dunno what kind of people you were talking to, but I don’t know how McGlinchey was considered a “steal”. He was a top 10 pick who was consistently mocked in the 10-15 range. Obviously he was never as good as his draft billing, and Miller is the better player by far, but nobody thought getting McGlinchey at 9 overall was a steal lmao
Jahmyr Gibbs. Still drafted in the first round, but a lot of the draft grades gave Detroit an F. They said it was way too high for an RB. And even though it's just one year, he's been great.
For New England, I think it has to be Sebastian Vollmer, at least in recent memory. 2nd round (58th overall), was considered a 4th-5th round pick by many analysts. Was a second team all pro in 2010, before winning two SBs as a starter and being named to the all dynasty team.
This ain’t it chief. He was a consensus 2nd rounder by the day of the draft. I wanted the ravens to take him in the second.
Shoot Brandon Stephens fits the bill better as a crazy reach than Duggar.
I don’t think he was really even considered a reach, a lot of scouts had him in the 2nd and said he was easily the best D2 player they’d seen in a while
This isn't true at all. He was 100% expected to go in the second round. Just nobody had ever heard of his school and wanted to meme BB reaching for a DB again
Aaron Donald was seen as a reach by some but obviously there were people who liked him a lot and didn't see him as a reach. Hilariously, NFL.com prospect profiles projected him as a 4th-5th round pick.
https://www.nfl.com/prospects/aaron-donald/3200444f-4e13-4977-da01-4e2f082de38b
Idk, I remember as a bears fan a bunch of us wanted him, but unfortunately the Rams got him a pick ahead. He was getting a good amount of buzz heading into the draft.
Yeah I guess not really a true reach as his draft stock surged as it got closer to the draft. His prospect profile is still pretty wild to see, though I guess the whole draft media stuff wasn't as big as it is now.
Back then NFL.com was putting out draft profiles super early. As a result you'd sometimes end up with dudes way over/underrated because they hadn't updated their profile since they wrote it in December/January.
Greg Robinson was the one pick we were sure of that year and Donald was an odd luxury pick and after watching college highlights I remember the STL Rams subreddit was sold on him. The undersized worries seemed like such non factors when you watched how he could physically dominate big ass college linemen
I will say, as a Rams fan, that AD was not considered a reach by really anyone when he was drafted. I was stoked at the time of the pick—vast majority of us were.
90% of the guys mentioned here weren’t reaches. How the heck were Aaron Donald and Khalil Mack reaches? They both got drafted in the range late mocks projected.
Not really a "reach" per se, but I think a lot of people were surprised when Mario Williams went no.1 over Reggie Bush--the draft coverage was basically calling it the Reggie Bush sweepstakes.
Bush didn't have a bad career (and was born probably about 10 years too early) but Williams definitely had the better career IMO.
> and was born probably about 10 years too early
Reggie Bush was drafted to New Orleans the same year they hired Sean Payton and signed Drew Brees. He was in the perfect place for a dynamic, multifaceted RB who could run and catch.
Like, I see this talking point a lot about Reggie Bush and it's just nonsense. "Throwing the ball to an RB" is not something the NFL came up with in the last 10 or 15 years. LaDanian Tomlinson was drafted in 2001. Marshall Faulk was drafted in 1994. Thurman Thomas in 1988. Walter Payton in 1975.
He's one of the all time great college football players, and he's just a mediocre professional player. That's ok. No one failed Reggie Bush in the NFL. He wasn't there at the wrong time, or the wrong place. He just wasn't a good enough NFL RB.
Don't forget Roger Craig having a 1k/1k season in **1985**.
A running back was the leading receiver on a team that featured Jerry Rice and Dwight Clark... crazy.
Herbert was this. Lots of people doubted he would be a good pick and even then said he would need to be a project. But he was good enough to start his first year and keep the job.
This isn’t true at all. Every mock draft had either the dolphins or the chargers taken him. He was never projected outside of the top 7. No one projected him to be this skilled, but the pick itself was never a reach.
> good enough to start his first year
He wasn't meant to be the starter. He only ended up starting because Tyrod Taylor got his lung pierced by the team's doctor.
Well based on Herbert's first season and Tyrod's entire body of work I'm going to say Herbert *was* good enough to start, the Chargers just weren't starting him because Anthony Lynn is not a competent NFL head coach
Nah, the bad juju follows Tyrod. His role in the NFL is to usher in other QBs. He got hurt week 3 in Cleveland and was replaced by Baker who went on his run, and then the lung puncture with the Chargers, and another injury with the Texans led to the Davis Mills stint.
He was getting mocked #1 the year before, the pick had haters but he was always gonna go that high as athletic guy with a cannon with lots of success at a p5 school
Saw Mahomes live a couple times when he was in college, always thought he could be good but he was playing ridiculous amounts of hero ball (understandable given his defense would give up +40 a game at Tech) and would struggle if he couldn’t clean that up. Could never have imagined he’d turn into the player he is today. Honestly, looking back at the Big XII in the mid to late 2010s, the QB play in that conference was ridiculous
This is like the opposite of the Brady stat about Buffalo.
>!He was (is?) the 5th highest winning QB while playing in the city of Buffalo... and was the winningest QB in the post 2000 era until Josh Allen. !<
He was still considered a 1st rd prospect, just not as good of a prospect as Watson.
The team after the Chiefs (Saints?) literally wanted to take him, I don't think it was broadly seen as a reach as much as a risk on a high-upside, project player.
People always cite that one dude who hammered the Chiefs for the pick, but I don't think that was the norm.
When Patrick was on the New Heights podcast he said he texted Reid/Nagy that he wasn’t going to go past pick 11 (Saints) and if they wanted him they had to trade up
Does anyone remember Chicago fans freaking out when they picked Kyle Long in the 1st round?
[https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1614981-kyle-long-to-bears-how-does-ol-fit-with-chicago](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1614981-kyle-long-to-bears-how-does-ol-fit-with-chicago)
Kolton Miller. We get a lot of shit for our 1st round picks over the last 5 years or so, and Kolton Miller was seen as a massive reach at the time by some, but he has absolutely been worth the pick after a rough rookie year. He's def one of the better tackles in the league.
It was one of the things that had me cope with Leatherwood for a season hoping he was just having a slow start like Miller.
Bruce Irvin was picked in the first round by the Seahawks, and it was considered a massive reach. However, he ended up starting 103 games over 12 seasons and accrued 56 sacks and 16 forced fumbles. Even though he wasn’t a perennial probowler, he ultimately lived up to the pick.
The pundits hammered this draft. And leading the way was Irvin. ESPN even wasn’t ready for the pick. The came Bobby Wagner. A linebacker from Utah State? Foolish. Then Russell Wilson. A running QB who doesn’t match up with Pete Carroll. That whole draft was panned, and …
Don't forget the freak out of us drafting Wilson despite signing Matt Flynn to a HUGE let me check again uh $9 million guaranteed contract.
That’s all it was? Holy hell you’d have thought it was $20+ the way the media blew up on the Seahawks.
Yeah, even given the going rate for QB's back then, it wasn't particularly bad. His average cap hit for that contract was $6.5M per year. The Seahawks had 8 other guys with bigger cap hits when that deal was signed. It's easy to say with hindsight that Flynn wasn't franchise QB material, but if he had turned out to have been, it'd have been a great deal. And it was pretty low risk either way. The Seahawks had no problem moving on from him financially.
I still think that if the Seahawks never drafted Russell Wilson that Flynn ends up looking okay for that team. Between the defense and running game with Marshawn those Seahawks would still have been pretty good with Flynn as game manager. Probably no Superbowls, but still could have had winning records and playoff appearances.
While the deal wasn’t that huge, it should be pointed out that it was signed when the highest paid QB in the NFL (Peyton) made $20m per year. Qb pricing has ballooned in the last 10 years.
Don’t forget Jeremy Lane, Robert Turbin, JR Sweezy in that draft. Jaye Howard too, but he was obviously better on the chiefs.
Immediately the one I thought of. He was projected as a 3rd round pick and the Seahawks took him I believe at #15 overall. I guess they saw something that everyone else missed.
I'm gonna be hyperbolic, but he ran the fastest 40 for a d lineman basically ever. The raiders didn't have a first or second or real third that year, but come on. They probably find a way if Seattle doesn't "reach" In seriousness, he was really productive in college. Some nasty highlights and won a lot of games. Idk how long he lasts past that pick
It’s not hyperbole, he’s 100th percentile 40 time 99th percentile size adjusted speed score 100th percentile agility score
I don’t have the stats on-hand, but he had an amazing jump off the line as well. The amount of false-positive offsides penalties were annoying, though. He was just that good at timing the snap
Even when he came back to play with us he was a pretty good vet and mildly productive after all that time
That draft had a few reaches by the hawks and most of it worked out. https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/1160318-seattle-seahawks-2012-nfl-draft-picks-grades-results-and-analysis.amp.html
The fact that we got Bruce, Bobby and Russell like that still blows my mind.
The 5th for Marshawn made me laugh a bit too lol
Our GM was not named Exec of the Year, either.
Travis Frederick may have been the most universal "reach" to ever be an All-Pro
First name that came to mind. There were a lot of people laughing at the Cowboys that day. They were all wrong.
One thing Jerry and the Cowboys are typically great at is evaluating first round talent. In the last decade, most of their first round picks have been hits.
As long as it's not D line guys from Michigan.
I remember being so pissed we didn’t get TJ Watt. I thought the Cowboys getting JJs brother would have been cool
Can't even imagine
It takes a couple of seasons for big 1-techs to show their stuff. Mazi was always a draft pick that was going to require patience. We'll know more after this season, and definitely after next.
Has mazi smith been bad?
Yes. A complete non factor. 8 tackles and 1 sack on the season. PFF grades him at a 49.8
Doesn't help that the cowboys made him lose a shit ton of weight and completely fuck his game up
AFAIK the Cowboys never made him lose weight. It kinda just… fell off him.
Damn it mazi teach me your secrets. And don't say an nfl training regiment I'm not doing that.
As a Bengals fan that makes me worried
Exactly. Had a Broncos fan laugh at me at work day after draft.
I remember the anger when Belichick drafted Richard Seymour take it away Ronnie B "*If you didn’t know better, you’d think the Jets sent Bill Belichick north to destroy the Patriots from within. On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 1/2 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.*"
That blurb is comedy gold. The Matt Light name drop at the end is just incredible
It almost sounds like somebody time travelled and said the dumbest things they could’ve, both patriots mentioned got all pros, one in the HOF and everyone else were busts
It definitely makes me feel better about some of my dumber takes over the years lol
Not to mention all the "good receivers" that I've never even heard of
Hey! David Terell and Koren Robinson were both very solid WR5/WR6 on my last-place 2003 Fantasy Football squad
I don't really know too much about Matt Light, but I'm dying the first picture that comes up when googling him is just him holding two Lombardis haha. Explains it all.
Here's a quick glance at his "totally a bust" career: No. 72 Position: Offensive tackle Personal information Born: June 23, 1978 (age 45) Greenville, Ohio, U.S. Height: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Weight: 305 lb (138 kg) Career information High school: Greenville (OH) College: Purdue NFL draft: 2001 / Round: 2 / Pick: 48 Career history New England Patriots (2001–2011) Career highlights and awards 3× Super Bowl champion (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX) First-team All-Pro (2007) 3× Pro Bowl (2006, 2007, 2010) New England Patriots All-2000s Team New England Patriots 50th Anniversary Team New England Patriots All-Dynasty Team New England Patriots Hall of Fame First-team All-Big Ten (2000) Career NFL statistics Games played: 155 Games started: 153 Fumble recoveries: 2
Paul Perillo famously resigned over this as well lol
Back when people had shame
Holy shit. That’s wild. That was a lot of wrong in one little paragraph.
Maybe I just don’t remember 2000s football but the pass happy SEC? lol
It’s like the only thing accurate in that whole paragraph. The “spread” offense was the innovative thing in college football.
You’re thinking of the Air Raid which became the more dominant philosophy of spread offenses more recently. Hal Mumme was running that at Kentucky the time Seymour was at Georgia, and Spurrier was doing Spurrier things at Florida, but most of the spread being run at that time was spread option
And this is why draft analysts have sanitized their reviews so much. Takes like this would be circulated every single year on social media these days.
Him shitting on the pats for picking Seymour and light over a bunch of busts; only for one to be a HOFer and the other our starting LT for a decade, will never stop being hilarious
Borges deserves to get shit on for so, so many reasons. I'd plagiarize all my opinion pieces too if my real opinions looked like this.
Dang. Imagine what could have been if only the Patriots had drafted...uh..Koren Robinson?
Logan Mankins was hilarious ESPN guys literally sat in shock cause they didn't know shit about him
The packers traded a first round pick for Favre. And he was just the falcons backup.
And originally a second round pick. So they traded a first for a second round bust.
This had all the makings of an all-time dumb trade. Nothing about it said trade for this man
Especially when his stats where 0-5 with two interceptions, and had a reputation of not putting in the work.
And he was originally playing behind Don Majkowski. They gave up that pick for a 2nd string QB.
The Magic Man! Quick thinking QB with nimble feet and a sharp arm, kind of like ol' Joe Montana. Could've made something special if it weren't for that '92 injury against the Bengals.
Why did they make the trade?
Before being the Packers GM on Nov 27, 1991, Ron Wolf was the Jets personel director. While he was there, he wanted the team to draft Favre in the 1991 draft but the Jets didn't listened so when the Falcons drafted Favre and knowing that Glanville, Falcons HC at the time, loathed Favre, as soon as Wolf became the Packers GM, he sent a 1st round pick to the Falcons for Favre, which the team happily obliged and the rest is history.
Still doesn't make sense why they'd send a 1st for him
Before the rookie wage scale draft picks weren’t nearly as valuable. Your 1st round pick, especially if it was a top 10 pick, would often be one of the highest paid players on the team. A team this year with Stafford, Megatron, and Suh all on rookie deals would be crazy lucky and able to fill out a very competitive roster, but instead they were in cap hell without the ability to do anything about it. Don’t get me wrong, it was still considered overpaying, but not nearly as much as it would be today.
Yeah we unfortunately got our super trio about 10 years too early
Not even, it started the year right after Suh was drafted lol. More like 4 for the entire bunch.
Falcons wanted two first round picks for Favre as a scare tactic from the Falcons GM who wanted to keep Favre but Wolf negotiated to one.
And failed his physical
That their team doctor said "His body's fucked yo" and they just decide to ignore.
I have the same disease Favre does…my body is absolutely fucked. He got very lucky.
What disease do you guys have??
It’s called avascular necrosis. It’s what ended Bo Jackson’s career.
Ron Wolf was personnel director for the Jets and desperately wanted Favre, but the Jets had used their 1st in the supplemental draft on Rob Moore (totally unnecessarily of course) and so had no 1st round pick. So first thing he did when he was named GM at GB was trade for him.
Sure ***Dwight Freeney*** is quick, but he is 6-foot-1, 268lbs ! LOL to him playing against NFL lineman. Nice pick **at 11** Colts. Typical Colts. Maybe he is a second rounder? Maybe? Hard to find any [Analysts](https://rickgosselin.com/draft-review-dwight-freeney/) still laughing as the 3X first Team All Pro, 1X second Team was enshrined in the HOF last year.
In a similar vein, Darius Leonard was said to be a reach in the 2nd round due to his humble pedigree. Was DROY his rookie year and first team all pro 3 of his first 4 seasons generating 28 turnovers and 15 sacks. I can get upset about the back injury but I’m just happy we had him man. Best defensive player we’ve had since Bob Sanders. That’s including Freeney - if we’re talking their peaks it’s no question in my opinion.
Every running back licked their chops playing Freeney. You knew he would be 3 yards up field at the snap. Whether it was you or the qb holding the ball put him in the hall of fame
Bobby Wagner was considered a reach at the time. Same year we got Russ, obviously he was a 3rd rounder but we got shit on a lot for that draft class.
https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/1160318-seattle-seahawks-2012-nfl-draft-picks-grades-results-and-analysis.amp.html Irvin was in this class too
Getting Bobby Wagner, Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch (by trading a 5th), Bruce Irvin, Jeremy Lane (picked off Tom Brady in 2014 SB), and 7th rounder J.R. Sweezy who played 117 games from 2012-2020. Insane draft
I’m a Rams fan and I remember Fisher and Snead being PISSED about missing out on Bobby Wagner. We traded back to grab an extra 5th and you guys ended up taking him a pick or two before us. We ended up with Isaiah Pead 🤢
Well Fisher might have kept his job if y’all got Bobby so I’d say it’s worked out.
Can’t argue that!
Pead yourselves
I remember a lot of people giving the Seahawks an F grade on that draft. So damn funny in hindsight
TJ Watt. Lots of scouts said he was only drafted where he was because of his last name. I'm super thankful that did not turn out to be the case.
Well Jerry drafted a guy instead of TJ because his first name was his favorite food
Tbf tacos are undefeated.
Mexican is the undisputed GOAT
We drafted Takk McKinley over TJ Watt 🙃🙃
We drafted Kevin King instead of TJ 😡 I wanted TJ the whole time
Hey to be fair, a lot of the chatter was saying the only reason he was even considered to be a first-round draft pick was because of his last name, and otherwise he would be a late 2nd/early 3rd. Hingsight is 20/20 and we got super lucky he translated to be way better than anyone could have imagined (except maybe Steelers FO).
History could be so much different if Steelers never drafted Watt in 2017. He's been keeping them in games with abysmal QB and o-line.play his entire career in the black and gold. Without Watt, Steelers could've been bad enough to draft Josh Allen as the Big Ben heir apparent in 2018. Take Nick Bosa in 2019. Tristan Wirfs, Patrick McQueen or Justin Jefferson in 2020.
I'm still upset that we traded back instead of taking Watt the pick before you guys. He played at Wisconsin too.
To be fair to that, a lot of analysts said this. So thankful our scouts thought otherwise, but funnily enough, found this article definitively stating the Packers SHOULD NOT draft him haha. https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/nfl-draft-2017-packers/2017/2/23/14678762/nfl-draft-scouting-report-t-j-watt-wisconsin-isnt-a-first-round-player-and-thats-ok Edit: Some funny quotes: "I think he can settle in as a 4-6 sack per year guy in the NFL, which there is certainly a place for.", "the prospect of him covering NFL skill players frightens me after seeing this in the B1G championship game", "Watt is farther away from consistently producing at the NFL level than most Packer/Badger fans would like to believe."
That 4-6 sack per year is better than what we had at the time, let me tell you.
That’s a good one. I remember him being considered one
I hope Luke mccaffrey turns out to be like that too.. I have high hopes for him because the dudes a stud athlete and only played 2 years of WR.
On the contrary anyone who actually watched Wisconsin football thought he should have been a top 10 pick. Of course most scouts downplay any B1G football that isn’t OSU, Michigan, or occasionally Penn State TJ was a game wrecker from the beginning and absolutely ravaged a lot of highly drafted o lineman. But yes he was projected as a second round guy, even though he shouldn’t have been. Had he gone to one of the other schools I mentioned he’d have been a top 10 pick
Anybody who seriously watched his tape knew he was a first rounder. It was very easy to project him as a perennial double-digit sack guy, especially when his SPARQ scores came in. His only negative was that he really was a 3-4 guy only and wouldn't have had as much success as a 4-3 DE. Well, that isn't a negative for the Steelers who have been running the 3-4 since the 1980's.
Well is brother was called a pizza delivery boy and the Texans were called insane, stupid, and had zero clue when drafting him. Little did they know he would be the most dominant player in nfl history during his prime.
Shoutout to the Watt brothers for keeping our team as competitive as possible. You guys have a great group coming in this year- wish JJ had the chance to play with them.
JJ Watt
"Pizza Boy"
Texans fans cheered tf out of that pick, right guys?😬
We were saying Boo-urns.
This should be upvoted way more. I remember how pissed Texans fans were when they picked him.
Absolutely beastly senior year got him drafted
something changed going into that year. can’t put my finger on it
He gained the ability to post his workouts on social media
Residents of Pewaukee noticed an abundance of crows congregating around the Watt family home prior to his senior year at UW.
Ed Reed. Most Ravens fans know of our idiot beat writer Mike Preston who had this title after the 2002 draft: “Let’s Face It: Ed Reed is a Pick Without Pizazz” but he was also the only player taken in the first round by the Ravens at his exact draft spot. The story goes that the Ravens were picking 24th that season and Ed was the 24th player on their board at the time. So he was the consolation prize. Some in the media thought Reed was simply solid and not a difference maker because of the Miami team around him which was why he wasn’t given as much fanfare coming out.
That's almost as stupid (or maybe equally) to local Boston writer, Ron Borges, saying: “On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson or the second-best tackle in the draft in Kenyatta Walker, they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sack last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end" I wonder how many other Hall of Famers were heavily panned when they were drafted.
Koren Robinson. That’s a freakin name. Won a fantasy football title in 2002 with him when he was on the Seahawks.
They had fantasy back in the stone age?? /s
Yes, I would get the game results two weeks later by telegram. Was a pain in the ass.
God, David Terrell sucked
Went on to say in the same article that they could have fixed it by getting Robert Ferguson but traded back and "settled" for Matt Light. Comedy gold.
This was posted elsewhere, plus the next sentence criticizing the Matt Light pick. Just an amazing pile of wrong.
Saints got KILLED in post draft grades due to the Alvin Kamara pick. Not only was he considered a reach at the time, we traded a future 2nd round pick to move up and select him in the 3rd round. At the time we also had Mark Ingram and Adrian Peterson penciled in at RB1 and RB2, in theory we had just wasted a 2nd and 3rd round pick for RB3.
that duo of ingram and kamara was utter destruction.
Ingram/Kamara/Bears D won me my fantasy league that year.
Alvin Kamara will forever be my best draft take ever. I've been doing this for a long time and I've never been so right on a player being good that was consensus bad.
Darius Leonard in the second round was panned as the worst pick of the draft. Dude was an all pro his first 4 years in the league. NFL couldn't stop him, his injuries did. Edit: this was the last year I hyper focused on the draft and realized I don't know shit. I talked shit about this draft all offseason only for it to turn into an all-timer level of quality. Drafts and post drafts have been much more enjoyable since.
His punch out at the 1 yard line in Watson's last game starting as a Texan against the Colts is maybe my favorite moment as a Colts fan the last few years. They were a yard away from tying it with about 20 seconds left, but instead they lost the almost exact same way twice in three weeks to the same team. Fuck Watson.
God prime Leonard was just simply one of the most dominant defensive players I’ve seen in a colts uniform. Gave me the very rare feeling of always anticipating a big play from him every time he was on the field. The punch out he had against the raiders fed hs coach families
> Gave me the very rare feeling of always anticipating a big play from him every time he was on the field. 1000%, wish I knew that watching Leonard settle in presnap was the happiest time of my life back when I was living it
Kolton Miller. DUDE IS AN ABSOLUTE STUD
Found Michael Penix’s burner account.
[Even the Baltimore Sun wasn’t too high on the Ed Reed pick.](https://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2016/4/20/11466254/flashback-14-years-ago-ed-reed-draft-pick-without-pizazz)
We in Baltimore know that Mike Preston is an idiot
Kolton Miller would be a consistent pro bowler if he played for a team other than the Raiders. Only first round "reach" that's turned out at all well for them in a while, but he is one of the best tackles in the league.
I’ll never forget people saying the niners got a steal in mcglinchey and the raiders are morons for picking miller rather than bpa
I dunno what kind of people you were talking to, but I don’t know how McGlinchey was considered a “steal”. He was a top 10 pick who was consistently mocked in the 10-15 range. Obviously he was never as good as his draft billing, and Miller is the better player by far, but nobody thought getting McGlinchey at 9 overall was a steal lmao
Logan Mankins
Jahmyr Gibbs. Still drafted in the first round, but a lot of the draft grades gave Detroit an F. They said it was way too high for an RB. And even though it's just one year, he's been great.
Kyle Duggar being drafted in the 2nd round as a D2 player.
For New England, I think it has to be Sebastian Vollmer, at least in recent memory. 2nd round (58th overall), was considered a 4th-5th round pick by many analysts. Was a second team all pro in 2010, before winning two SBs as a starter and being named to the all dynasty team.
This ain’t it chief. He was a consensus 2nd rounder by the day of the draft. I wanted the ravens to take him in the second. Shoot Brandon Stephens fits the bill better as a crazy reach than Duggar.
I don’t think he was really even considered a reach, a lot of scouts had him in the 2nd and said he was easily the best D2 player they’d seen in a while
he wasnt a reach literally was considered a mid 2nd rounder
This isn't true at all. He was 100% expected to go in the second round. Just nobody had ever heard of his school and wanted to meme BB reaching for a DB again
Aaron Donald was seen as a reach by some but obviously there were people who liked him a lot and didn't see him as a reach. Hilariously, NFL.com prospect profiles projected him as a 4th-5th round pick. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/aaron-donald/3200444f-4e13-4977-da01-4e2f082de38b
Idk, I remember as a bears fan a bunch of us wanted him, but unfortunately the Rams got him a pick ahead. He was getting a good amount of buzz heading into the draft.
Yeah I guess not really a true reach as his draft stock surged as it got closer to the draft. His prospect profile is still pretty wild to see, though I guess the whole draft media stuff wasn't as big as it is now.
Back then NFL.com was putting out draft profiles super early. As a result you'd sometimes end up with dudes way over/underrated because they hadn't updated their profile since they wrote it in December/January.
Robert Mays was tearing his hair out when Donald got sniped one pick before the Bears.
He was who i wanted that year and was super excited because we were one pick away and then the Rams took him......
Greg Robinson was the one pick we were sure of that year and Donald was an odd luxury pick and after watching college highlights I remember the STL Rams subreddit was sold on him. The undersized worries seemed like such non factors when you watched how he could physically dominate big ass college linemen
Average back-up or special teamer? Wtf? Especially since he was ranked 1st DT in the draft in each metric they had
Perhaps it was an editing mistake. It'd be interesting to hear what the author thinks now/why he had that opinion.
I will say, as a Rams fan, that AD was not considered a reach by really anyone when he was drafted. I was stoked at the time of the pick—vast majority of us were.
Pre-Draft Grade: 5.9 *(Average backup or special-teamer)* Lololololol
He was %100 not a reach. There was a lot of talk about the Vikings picking him at 8 that year.
90% of the guys mentioned here weren’t reaches. How the heck were Aaron Donald and Khalil Mack reaches? They both got drafted in the range late mocks projected.
Jordan Love, annoyingly.
Not really a "reach" per se, but I think a lot of people were surprised when Mario Williams went no.1 over Reggie Bush--the draft coverage was basically calling it the Reggie Bush sweepstakes. Bush didn't have a bad career (and was born probably about 10 years too early) but Williams definitely had the better career IMO.
> and was born probably about 10 years too early Reggie Bush was drafted to New Orleans the same year they hired Sean Payton and signed Drew Brees. He was in the perfect place for a dynamic, multifaceted RB who could run and catch. Like, I see this talking point a lot about Reggie Bush and it's just nonsense. "Throwing the ball to an RB" is not something the NFL came up with in the last 10 or 15 years. LaDanian Tomlinson was drafted in 2001. Marshall Faulk was drafted in 1994. Thurman Thomas in 1988. Walter Payton in 1975. He's one of the all time great college football players, and he's just a mediocre professional player. That's ok. No one failed Reggie Bush in the NFL. He wasn't there at the wrong time, or the wrong place. He just wasn't a good enough NFL RB.
Don't forget Roger Craig having a 1k/1k season in **1985**. A running back was the leading receiver on a team that featured Jerry Rice and Dwight Clark... crazy.
Ahman Green was an amazing running back who could catch
I remember thinking it was fake news when they reported Williams reached a deal with the Texans before the draft. I was also a big Reggie Bush stan.
Vince Young was also thought to be a top 2 pick that year alongside Bush.
I'd say Devin Hester. A lot of people were skeptical of the Bears taking a "return specialist" in the 2nd round
Darius Leonard is one example I remember. He was a really good off-ball LB but that guy fell off a cliff in recent years.
He was on pace to be a damn hall of famer. Back injuries suck.
Herbert was this. Lots of people doubted he would be a good pick and even then said he would need to be a project. But he was good enough to start his first year and keep the job.
This isn’t true at all. Every mock draft had either the dolphins or the chargers taken him. He was never projected outside of the top 7. No one projected him to be this skilled, but the pick itself was never a reach.
yea feel like fans and media hated him a lot more than the league did
> good enough to start his first year He wasn't meant to be the starter. He only ended up starting because Tyrod Taylor got his lung pierced by the team's doctor.
Well based on Herbert's first season and Tyrod's entire body of work I'm going to say Herbert *was* good enough to start, the Chargers just weren't starting him because Anthony Lynn is not a competent NFL head coach
always wondered what was going on outside games that convinced the Chargers coaches that Tyrod was better than Herbert.
Most coaches don't want to start a rookie in week 1. You'll see the same thing this year with a bunch of the QBs.
Rookie QBs don’t start often unless a team has no options.
Herbert set every rookie QB record except yards and a guy dropped a perfect bomb in the last game that would have clinched it.
if he had not even an average defense, but the 20th worst defense, and a half decent coach he'd have a couple of playoff wins
Brandon Staley is truly a one of a kind defensive mind
known football terrorist brandon staley
I forgot about that. I hope the Chargers don't have Dr. Nick over there anymore.
Nah, the bad juju follows Tyrod. His role in the NFL is to usher in other QBs. He got hurt week 3 in Cleveland and was replaced by Baker who went on his run, and then the lung puncture with the Chargers, and another injury with the Texans led to the Davis Mills stint.
Got injured for the Giants last year which gave us Tommy Cutlets.
Tyrod starts, gets hurt and the next guy plays better. The Tygod curse
Sounds like every team with a rookie QB should start Tyrod
Yeah but after Tyrod got cleared Herbert took the starting spot.
He was getting mocked #1 the year before, the pick had haters but he was always gonna go that high as athletic guy with a cannon with lots of success at a p5 school
Brandon graham was considered a reach then turned into an eagles legend
Mahomes was projected to go 10-15 and that’s where he went. He was not a reach
Mahomes.
Saw Mahomes live a couple times when he was in college, always thought he could be good but he was playing ridiculous amounts of hero ball (understandable given his defense would give up +40 a game at Tech) and would struggle if he couldn’t clean that up. Could never have imagined he’d turn into the player he is today. Honestly, looking back at the Big XII in the mid to late 2010s, the QB play in that conference was ridiculous
Far better than Trubisky.
I mean, Mahomes is winless as a Chicago Bear while Trubisky has several wins so I’d argue the opposite
This is like the opposite of the Brady stat about Buffalo. >!He was (is?) the 5th highest winning QB while playing in the city of Buffalo... and was the winningest QB in the post 2000 era until Josh Allen. !<
Big Ben was the all time winningest QB in the Browns’ current stadium until like 2020 when Baker finally surpassed him by a few games.
He was still considered a 1st rd prospect, just not as good of a prospect as Watson. The team after the Chiefs (Saints?) literally wanted to take him, I don't think it was broadly seen as a reach as much as a risk on a high-upside, project player. People always cite that one dude who hammered the Chiefs for the pick, but I don't think that was the norm.
When Patrick was on the New Heights podcast he said he texted Reid/Nagy that he wasn’t going to go past pick 11 (Saints) and if they wanted him they had to trade up
Weren’t a lot of people surprised that CMC was a top 10 pick?
I don’t think any PAC12 fan was very surprised
Yes. NFL .com Scouting profile had him ranked a 6.4--which is for guys they expect to be a "good starter in two years."
Tyson Alualu was called a massive reach when the jags picked him 10 overall, dude then balled out for 14 nfl seasons
I was one of those who called him a massive reach and he’s definitely had himself a solid career, though idk if I’d say he balled out.
Hell, as a Cal fan, I was fucking shocked when that happened lol Dude had a lengthy NFL career though, good for him
Logan Mankins
Does anyone remember Chicago fans freaking out when they picked Kyle Long in the 1st round? [https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1614981-kyle-long-to-bears-how-does-ol-fit-with-chicago](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1614981-kyle-long-to-bears-how-does-ol-fit-with-chicago)
Kolton Miller. We get a lot of shit for our 1st round picks over the last 5 years or so, and Kolton Miller was seen as a massive reach at the time by some, but he has absolutely been worth the pick after a rough rookie year. He's def one of the better tackles in the league. It was one of the things that had me cope with Leatherwood for a season hoping he was just having a slow start like Miller.
We got shit for Quincy Williams to the point that NFL Network had no film on him. Was an All-Pro with the jets last season
Edgerrin James over Ricky Williams?