If you want to argue about defensive line depth and what we drafted the argument isn't we didn't have enough depth, the argument is that we ignored our board entirely and passed up someone that had an very high grade on the board. After a scope one would assume Spencer should have been healthy. After almost a year off for a hernia one should assume that Ratliff should be healthy. Crawford and Bass are what amounts to depth in this NFL, and they both got hurt early in camp. So find any team that has the depth to soak up 2 starters and the top two backups at a position group go down all at once. It's like saying that we should have enough depth on the offensive line to have Smith, Leary, Parnell and Weems all go down at once. The salary cap NFL team can't have that happen, unless they are phenomenally lucky, and survive it. The fact that the coaching staff found guys like Hayden and Selvie should be enough to prove at least a bit that they know what a DL for their scheme looked like. Supposedly they didn't want Floyd, I'll give the benefit of a doubt.
Same thing with Warford. I had heard a good number of draft shows talk about him very well. I would have liked us to draft him. Our offensive coaches didn't like what they figured he would bring inside our current scheme, at least for where most in this thread were wanting him drafted. After seeing what they did with the line this year and the center they drafted, wouldn't you say they should get some benefit of a doubt also?
What it comes down to for me is this, the team has actually drafted pretty well the last three years. I think they tend to go best player available when they come up. That tends to annoy a good portion of the fan base and a lot of the national analysts because they grade a draft based on their board/need charts. IIRC we drafted Dez when we didn't really need a stud WR because we thought he was the best talent on the board. We drafted Smith pretty quick after giving Free a big deal coming off of a good year, probably not a dire need for a RT at where we were picking. When you go into the draft with the mindset of I must get a DE that's where you wind up drafting guys like Eb Ekuban. The only position where I think you might let need trump pure talent a little bit is at QB. But people wanting to draft a QB and set them for 2-3 years right now have forgotten about how the new CBA works. You have to have a very good answer about your 1st round QB by the end of season three, because you have to make a guaranteed option decision then.
