I think that this year the depth of quality talent on the interior defensive line made it more of a pick your flavor kind of thing in the draft at that position. It is highly likely that lower drafted defensive interior players will outperform their higher drafted counterparts, even more than usual. I think we got a great player in Tapper as well, at a discount due in large part to how he was miscast in college.
I'm not really throwing you under the bus about your post, I am just saying it isn't like we just picked up a couple of free agent signings and hoped for the best. We have put some significant, premium picks in play over the past two years to help shore up the defense. One would expect something out of those picks to bear fruit, along with getting rid of the Golden Cock ,and replacing him with someone who can actually play at a reasonably high level.
I do agree that it is plausible that we could have selected a player who might contribute more in the second round than our second round pick this year, because there is a significant chance he won't play at all this year. But if he truly is a top 5 talent, then it was probably a reasonable risk to take him.
I like both Maliek Collins and Charles Tapper, for the record. I like Elliott a lot as a player, too. I just think it was a bad strategic direction to take with that high pick.
Here's the thing about the defensive investments, though (and I'd agree with you that we've spent resources there in recent years that are in the process of developing). Next season, we could realistically be replacing Barry Church, JJ Wilcox (I don't think he even makes it out of camp this year), Brandon Carr, and Mo Claiborne. Randy Gregory is our only blue-chip player at rush end (I agree we've got some rotational guys with potential, but there's a shortage of pedigree there), and not only was his season disappointing last year after the HAS, he's a puff away from being off the roster himself. That in itself isn't the end of the world, but he's a huge risk. So you either give the guy snaps and develop him with the expectation of extending him if he develops, or you cut bait. However you look at it, it's a high-risk/high-reward move.
Now, you add to that a similar high-risk/high-reward move with Jaylon Smith. That's a lot of risk for a team that needs defensive help to take advantage of the closing Romo window. We passed up on the DB help this year. If these players don't hit, it means overspending in FA, drafting for need, or hoping to get by at some key positions again with value free agents. At that point, Tony's 36, will be 37 next season, and you're also seriously looking at bundling picks to get in position for his replacement (something we could have done this year with our 2nd and 3rd, btw). Add in the likely departure of Williams as WR2, and that's a whole lot of holes in my book just to have the (admittedly) best all around RB in recent drafts in the roster and a lottery ticket at MLB that might or might not pay off.
It would have been much smarter to just take a good safe defensive player in the 2nd round each of the last two years. Or to have moved back this year from 34 and gotten 2 top-100 players with that pick. Or we could have filled the QB2 position with Lynch this year and saved those future picks for a QB to bolster the defense on the fly where we're going to need it. Instead, we've got no legit QB2 prospect (I like Dak, but he needs to develop a year before I'll consider him a candidate for QB1 someday), and a lottery ticket on Gregory and a lottery ticket on Smith. If there's a plan for the secondary going forward beyond making starters out of 6th round draft picks, they're keeping it under careful wraps.
I'm generally an optimistic person, and I definitely give the team the benefit of the doubt if they have a plan that seems workable on the surface, even if it's risky. My problem this offseason is that this really doesn't look like a plan to me at all. It looks like we're wildcatting that we'll turn a troubled player into our pass rush, that we'll turn an injured Mike into our next great linebacker, and that we'll turn an NFL longshot with a great head and a small arm into a legitimate backup QB for the next few seasons. Beyond that, the plan to replace Tony looks really, really thin. To me, this means that our highest offseason priorities have been either completely neglected or addressed with relative long-shots (Mayowa, Prescott). That is not the smart process-oriented football I expect from Garrett. It looks more like crazy-Jerry getting into the hen house again at a time where we really can't afford it.
