I was just re-reading all the threads and comments right before last years draft. Amazing how different things pan out. I, for one, was so high on Jarvis Jones or Dion Jordan. I wanted one or the other soooo bad. You look back at almost every posters choices and they all wanted Dion Jordan or Jarvis Jones in there. Sheldon Richardson wasn't even much of any talk on here. Crazy how things panned out. Maybe these scouting guys know more than we do :grin: Jarvis Jones has been average at best, Dion Jordan hasn't done much of anything, Ezekiel Ansah has been average, Cordarrelle Patterson had a quiet year, Barkevious Mingo had a terrible year, yet we go out and grab Sheldon Richardson at 13 and hit the jackpot! Kinda makes you excited to see what we can get this year drafting offensively.
I was wrong about Cordarrelle Patterson, I would love to have this guy on our squad. Of course you cannot change the past but man Cordarrelle Patterson is one hell of a play-maker - just watch the game against the Ravens. I would take him over Millner Dion Jordan gets no snaps thank God we didn't draft him.
I have to disagree here. I don't think Patterson has done much of anything. Granted, that could be because of the system he is in and the QB throwing him the ball, but aside from a couple games, he was lost throughout the entire season.
Patterson is a deep threat. No one on the Vikings roster had the ability to get him the ball down the field. He had 9 touchdowns (4 receiving, 3 rushing, 2 kick returns). That is one hell of an all purpose weapon at 6'3. We can agree to disagree, but in an offense league a guy like that could have done wonders for the Jets. Absolutely would have taken Patterson over Millner.
This is why I said that it could be because of the guy throwing him the football. He did only have 400 some odd yards, not much of an impact at receiver. Buy yes, now that we can look back, I would have much rather taken him at 9 over Milliner. You also can't overlook that he is absolutely TERRIBLE at route running which is why toward the end of the season, they had him running reverse plays and screens. He is still a question mark.
He does it all - I was def wrong about him looking back. Geno has a stronger arm then any of the Vikings QBs - who knows. It's all about hindsight though. Millner played well at the end of the year, don't want to hate on the guy - just looking at other options.
I advocated trading down one of our two 1st rounders to the early 20s to select Patterson. I was crucified here for it. Minnesota wanted a CB bad. They had three first rounders that year (Patterson was the last one they selected- they traded up with NE). They might've given up both firsts for our #9. Hindsight I suppose.
Id have gone for Vaccaro instead of Milliner. If that would've happened...... just wow. If Milliner continues to be the same player as he was the final four weeks though, I'll have no complaints in any way
Truth, getting Vaccaro would have made this draft a home run. Although it does amaze me how much we've invested in picks at CB, and it's still a position of need.
Patterson was certainly worth the 1st round pick. Most knew he was "raw" being only a year removed from JUCO. At the end of the season he really started to come on and I have a lot of confidence that he will be a great player in the near future. Im not ready to say Id take him over Milliner though because I do think Milliner will be a very good player.
I wouldn't call it a position of need necessarily. Playing CB is one of the hardest things to do in the NFL. When you put a rooki in there, he is bound to get beat more times than not. TThat's just the nature of the position. Give him some time to develop and I have a feeling he will be a very good pick. With Cro healthy and a nice restructure, we could be fine at CB all dependent on the above mentioned factors.
Not calling Milner a bust, but Cro might not be on this team for too much longer, Milner still hasn't proven much, and Wilson is OK. For a defense predicated on strong CB play, it's a bit worrisome, especially when we have nobodies at safety.
I was a huge Ansah supporter and to say he has been average is kinda silly. He led Detroit with 8 sacks and 2 forced fumbles as a rookie. He may not have been as consistanly good as Richardson, but he had a very good rookie season.
The problem I had with Ansah was his background. There wasn't a lot of real information and he hadn't been playing football for long. That made him very risky as a high draft pick. I believe that he's probably like all those Central American pitchers of indeterminate age that baseball was flooded with a few decades ago. He's also obviously got some talent but who knows when he's going to go over the hill? We don't even know what part of the climb (or slope) he is on.
I watched Ansah terrorize a pretty good Notre Dame offensive line his senior year. After that I was a believer.
He can be very good but what if he's 27 already and nobody knows it? What if he has a real weakness that is going to become apparent on film once people get enough of it to look at? He just didn't have much info to go on coming out of school. BYU has a history of having legitimately older players due to the missionary requirement of the Mormon faith. What are the odds that Ansah looks 27 or 28 and is not 27 or 28?
Just make sure we take all these predictions with a grain of salt. Lots of defenders in the first round standout to me, some guys I'd thought hit didnt do as well and vice versa
I'll toot my own horn and state I was right on the money when I proposed that the Jets draft a D lineman, although admittedly, I was lauding a different player. Most were going "WTF", when Sheldon was drafted while I was doing cartwheels. I'll be doing more cartwheels if they stay the course and get a decent pass rusher the 1st or 2nd round.,........Defense wins championships...
I will admit I didn't like either pick at the time. I kind of wanted Austin but he went the pick ahead of us, based on what was available at the time instead of Milliner I thought either Chance Warmack or Star Lotulelei. At the 13 spot I wanted either Vaccaro or Jarvis Jones. Only now upset that we didn't get Vaccaro...although I would still pick Richardson over Vaccaro, obviously. Not really sure how Warmack did. For the record in the second round I wanted Robert Woods at our spot. He had a decent rookie season. A draft of Richardson, Vaccaro and Woods would look pretty good IMO. Although if Milliner can pick up where he left off last season and Geno can cut down on the insane number of turnovers then it will still look pretty good.
