Kelvin Joseph was not the best consensus CB available at our selection, had questions after his LSU stint where he violated team rules and was suspended, and then proceeded to quit on Kentucky. He was not the best consensus CB available at our 2nd round pick. His stats so far are - one fight started, one ejection? What else positive?
Why exactly did we draft him? Because he’s tall? Has good athletic traits? Why not draft the better player?
With Joseph, we didn't draft the best player available at the time of the draft. We drafted best player for our new scheme projected into the future. That's arguably the right way to draft. It's about more than this year, it's about the long term return on the pick.
The downside of that strategy is the increased uncertainty about what that value will be. And arguably we're just been bad at this strategy, missing on pick after pick after pick in the second round on defense for years.
I would add LVE to the "upside" defenders we've whiffed on. That's a sad one. He projected as a perennial pro bowler in 2018. And then, not. We've been wrong on injury risk again and again.
Diggs was more of a player who dropped than a developmental project with risk, and he's the one who has panned out so far, though it's still not clear on him. Big plays plus and minus. Mike Jenkins looked like a hit for a year, then flamed out. Let us hope Diggs marked a turning point, because we had whiff after whiff for years. Hill, LVE, Taco were all big whiffs. Gregory and Jones are ok returns on investment that never hit their perceived upside.
You have to go back to Lawrence for one of the 1st/2nd round development projects that really panned out. He was a forced pick reach, IMO. He was best DE available when we needed a starter, but not best prospect available. If he wasn't named DeMarcus, I bet we don't pick him. He worked out, though I think his two big seasons were largely illusions created by some huge games early in 2018 when the league likely believed he was a JAG based on the previous year's nothing production. Once the league figured out he could play, he had some early big games in 2019, but not much since.
5 sacks in the last 14 games of 2018, including playoffs.
And once we paid him, it's gotten worse.
5 sacks in 16 games in 2019.
6.5 sacks in 16 games in 2020.
1 game in 2021.
Best pick of these. Bad resigning. Should have let him go.
Gregory and Jones in 2015. Lawrence in 2014. We stunk it up from 2016 to 2019. Diggs in 2020 looks like we may have turned the corner with the ejection of Marinelli. We'll see on both Diggs and Joseph. To early to really call either one.