Listen, I for one don't think Kyle Wilson had a good rookie season. But the above bolded statement is a textbook argumentative fallacy. There's a middle ground between "play like a champion from the get-go" and "hit the practice squad for three years."
No, I hear you- those guys sucked. It's still impressive that a rookie who held out of camp was still our best cb from game #1, regardless of who he beats out. I'm just tired of everyone making excuses for these draft picks. The "wait 3 years before judging" is bull shit. It typically takes 3 years to reach the full potential, yes. The average NFL career is also 3 years. There is a learning curve that should be obvious to even the most casual fan. For a first round pick, Kyle Wilson was behind that curve last year, and still is. Based on what we've seen so far, I would think he's going to be a decent #2 corner in a year or two. I doubt his ceiling is much higher, but hopefully I'm wrong. That doesn't mean he's a bum, or that he should be cut. It just means he's not where you'd like a 1st rounder to be at this point. Same goes for Vlad and Joe McKnight- they are not where they should be. (Joe runs well, but fumbles)
I'm fine with draft picks that don't turn out well since it happens to every team. Hundreds of players get drafted each season, so a good majority of them never pan out, and that includes many first rounders. So what? At the end of the day, it's all a crap shoot. You get winners (Revis, Mangold, Brick), you get busts (Gholston, DRob), and you get those that aren't quite as awesome as you hope they would be. It happens. If all Wilson becomes is a servicable CB, then so be it. I'm not going to go all up and arms about it.
Drob was at least serviceable for a short period of time, especially when playing next to "turd." I'm fine with draft picks that don't turn out- especially 7th rounders. I start to get pissed off when we don't see some return on 1st and 2nd rounders, especially after a full season, only to have them labeled as "projects" or "works in progress."
It certainly has not. When the "shining star" of your class is a 5th round FB, that's pretty telling.
Yeah, I get disappointed for sure. I also hate when people call Vlad a "project". Who drafts a project in the second round? Wilson had a bad rookie season, and he has no excuses this year especially with a full year under his belt and hanging around two top-notch CBs for a year and a half.
Absolutely. Many on here have said that our expectations are so high because of Revis, Brick, Mangold that we expect all picks to be studs. I think it's the opposite. I think because of past draft success, there are people here who refuse to believe that a player may not work out. Now they make excuses for a guy, and say he "can't be judged yet" If injury free, most times, you can predict how good a guy is going in be in his first year, or maybe two- QB's excluded. There are plenty of guys who develop late, but those guys are very much in the minority, and are typically buried on a deep team.
i agree with you and KOZ, however i feel the strength of that draft is in depth. i realize how obvious that is. and i'm not trying to be stupid.... but really the guys we went after are depth positions. its just that conner is the only one to really stand out, bc he's not depth this year.
I still think Wilson is fine. Sure he had some struggles last year but he has shown signs of improving and I don't think you can count him as even a project at this point. Our system needs alot of quality corners, so being #3 or #4 is not the knock on his performance that it is on other teams. I don't agree with other people's faith in Vlad. I think he is dangerous to the players around him and if he gets on the field we are in trouble. So IMO we have two guys from last years draft. I would like more but it could be worse.
Do I really? I don't think that's close to the truth at all. I do think that we shouldn't expect nearly as quick a start from a corner drafted in bottom of the first round as we got from the best cornerback drafted in the NFL in the past 20 years. I think that's pretty reasonable, especially considering that smart teams have been focusing on the middle of the field, as I detailed above. Here's the second part of my post, which you conveniently ignored: Do you think week 8 2011 is far too long a time to give a guy who has had a rookie training camp (one in which he was moved from the spot he was drafted for - nickelback - and moved outside the hashmarks in absence of Revis during the holdout) and not much else to get up to speed on the pro game? I don't.
If Wilson was going to be a #1, he would've showed it by now either in practice, games, or in the preseason, like Revis did his rookie season. Our pursuit of Nnamdi and signing of Cro was a clear sign that the CS doesn't think he's equipped for that role. Before we go labeling him a bust, however, we need to see if he can be a serviceable CB in nickel situations and when pressed into duty by injury. At this point, I'd be happy if he met that challenge.
He was drafted to be a nickel. Rex said that multiple times last year. Their pursuit of Nnamdi has nothing to do with the FO's belief in Wilson's progress.
Yes, Rex stated right after the draft that Wilson would play nickel right away, but I have a hard time believing that his nickel role was intended to be permanent. One would hope a CB taken in the first round would eventually become a starter on defense.
Nickel basically is a starter on defense now. He has the skills to play outside but why would it have made sense to let a good player like Cromartie walk just to stick him outside?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ If he had shown enough (McGourty, anyone?) my money says that Cro wouldn't have been invited back.
