Peter King's Mock Draft

I don’t think we need to draft a CB, but Smith definitely has the talent to be a superstar in this league. However, not with Watt still on the board. Watt is a prototypical 3-4 end and has everything you could ask for both on the field and off the field. No chance the Ravens would pass on Watt if he’s still there. While I see some things that could improve in Watt’s game, I don’t really see any weaknesses. Very rare for someone who is just coming into the NFL.

Peter King is falling into the same trap as every other major writer. He has teams picking purely on need and not on the BPA. He also seems to push his own agenda really really really really hard (If I see him say Dalton will go in the first or second round again, I’m going to explode)

I don’t see many teams moving away from their typical style of drafting escept for the teams that would typically be FA heavy in the first place. That just means that crappy front offices will continue to be unpredictable. I’m going to go on record and say that the Raiders trade every pick in this draft and next years to pick Cam Newton.

Exactly one week left, shit about to go down.

That’s the end quote to King’s assessment of the Ravens picking Smith.

As we all know there are two ways to improve a pass defense: improve the secondary or improve the pass rush. Most of us here (including me) see the lack of pressure the Ravens put on opposing quarterbacks and the fact that while our secondary isn;t the best, it is decent and conclude we need to upgrade the pass rush by picking either another OLB or a 5-technique DE.

All very logical and it definitely may happen. But.

We all saw the Super Bowl, right? We all saw Rodgers shred the Steelers defense and their pass rush is definitely better than ours, right? I mean we are hoping to get a rush as good as Pittsburgh’s right now, right? That’s what all of us are hoping for, right? You’d be lying if you disagreed with me. Now Pittsburgh’s secondary is not as good as the Ravens. But it’s not pants either. It’s not the Texans. Talent wise it is in the same ballpark as the Ravens’ secondary-though not as good. The point is when you are facing a system and QB as good as Rogers, your rush ain’t gonna make the difference in the game: the game is on the secondary and Rogers would have eviscerated Foxworth, Carr, Wilson, and Webb. Even if we had the Steelers’ rush.

So when not just Peter King but a guy like Brian Billick says that we need a read physical corner, I think it is a but presumptuous to disregard their thoughts. Does this mean that we will or should go for Smith? Hell if I know: I, like you, are not that good at talent evaluation. That’s why we are here and not being paid the big bucks by some team.

I guess the point I am making is that we need to improve both the secondary and front seven. Fortunately there are players to be found up to round 5 who could help our D. So the question becomes how big is the drop off in quality between round 1 and later in the front 7 vs the secondary? Maybe we take Smith in round 1 because we may feel that there’s value to be found in rounds 2 and 3 for a 5-technique to develop as Redding’s understudy. Or maybe we can wait a couple of rounds for a rush OLB knowing that JJ will be the day 1 starter anyway and we have time to develop the kid for a year. (Johnson will be a 30 year old free agent next year-not the highest priority for us.)

Maybe the team is high on Mason Foster in round 2. Or instead of trading up in round 1 they trade up in round 2 to pick Reed. And if that were the case, they could trade out of round 1 and possibly still pick up Reed and Smith, or Reed and Foster or Smith and Houston pr some such combo.

To me right now the choices are many and saying that one person’s guess is wrong is like shooting fish in a barrel.