Couple of things. I adore our young secondary. It wasn't about not having a potential all pro at cb, it was about from the 16 draft grabbing the guy and either signing an RB, or drafting one later (derick henry perhaps)
As far as Demarco is concerned we let him walk 3 years ago. Obviously you take zeke over him now, but had he not gone to Philly, been put in a scheme that didn't utilize him properly, behind a line that was patchwork at the time, I think things would have played out differently. The following year in Tenn he was tearing it up, they just happened to also draft a young stud back along with him. We could have done that. Could have kept him on what was actually a reasonable amount of money for his value, used him up and then drafted a guy like Henry to either compliment or supplant him. The point wasn't to say which would I rather have now, just that when Demarco was the OPOY and gave us our identity we balked at paying him what we're paying Zeke on a rookie deal. Zeke is worth it, 100 times over, it's just not the best allocation using a first and paying the going rate for him.
And is an RB a different story as far as SB aspirations are concerned? Philly didn't win because of (or with) a great rb, NE didn't win because of a great rb (they did get a historic performance from james white but again not a highly drafted stud) before that cj anderson definitely didn't propel the Broncos. But it's really not the point, it's a distracting sideshow to argue which position is more instrumental in winning a sb because it doesn't have a clear answer and misses the whole point. You build a team by drafting well and adding the right pieces in FA. Drafting an rb high doesn't necessarily preclude that, but in our situation it definitely compounds underlying issues. Jax can burn a 4th on fournette and it be smart because they also have young cheap defenders, and offset it by acquiring impact FA, same with cleveland if they draft barkley. With us we regretted letting Demarco walk and our following season going down the toilet, and they are a knee jerk organization
nice talking to you too