I think Kiper is a good judge of talent, and of course he misses, everyone does. But I think he was dead on when he said Green was a reach. I remember a few years ago when Kiper said who is Matt Johnson ? Why did the Cowboys take him in the 4th round.... He was right about that one. Don't get me wrong I think the Cowboys have done good in recent drafts, but everyone misses now and then and some people on this board go ape-crap if you don't say every pick was the best pick.
Matt Johnson was a HUGE reach and people questioning that should stop pretending to know anything about football and the draft
It will be tough to find any reputable draft expert who gave Matt Johnson a draftable grade
Matt Johnson did not fail because of a lack of talent. Injuries ruined his career. The Cowboys coaches loved him. He was going to start as a rookie if he had stayed healthy.
People said Hitchens was a reach and that proved to be false. People said Fred was a reach and that proved to be false in a big way.
Kiper's primary focus is on the first round. If you look at Kiper's rankings at the end of the college season and compare them to his ranking right before the draft, it seems obvious that he is not really basing his ranking on his own film study. He has connections to NFL teams and he get's feedback each time he releases a new mock draft. If somebody really based their rankings on intense film study, then only players with character/medical issues should see their ranking vary radically from the end of the college season to the day before the draft.
Ranking all the the players eligible for the draft is a really difficult task and I don't really expect a guy like Kiper to spend all year watching film when the 1st round gets the vast majority of the attention from fans.
I would be concerned if the Cowboys or any NFL team's draft board's exactly matched the draft media rankings. I tend to think that the teams that really dig deep researching prospects, will inevitably find some players that the draft media does not have ranked highly. It is impossible for a media guy to dig as deep and review as much film as an NFL team.
This concept that the draft media rankings are absolutely correct is just silly. We see every year that their rankings don't match what actually happens. There will be players they have ranked highly that fall a long way and those are easy to see and prove. It is the players that get pick earlier than the media rankings that can't really be proven because nobody really know how other teams had those players ranked; however, basic logic would dictate that if the draft media rankings are wrong in one direction, the direction that can be proven, then they are probably also wrong in the other direction, the direction that can't be proven.
