oldhawkfan
Well-known member
Ever since the 2021 draft, this pick debacle shows up in threads here and there. I was cleaning some stuff out the other day and ran across a ‘21 predraft magazine. Granted, these magazines are not always the best source for NFL prospective talent but they do provide a pretty good sense of of players available.
In the magazine I looked at, Trevor Lawrence was the overall number one pick in their list of top 100 prospects. Humphrey was number 56 and Eskridge didn’t make the top 100.
Eskridge was however, number 28 amongst the available WRs. As I perused the lists generated by position, it occurred to me that after two NFL seasons there aren’t a lot of household names among these guys. There’s the 4-5 QBs starting that outside of Lawrence probably won’t last much past a possible second contract.
This isn’t a post about QBs and their draft viability. What I took out of going through these lists is that there is a strong chance that Creed Humphrey could end up the best pick out of this entire class. Each position lists anywhere from 10(C)-30(CBs) guys as they have them ranked. I counted about 15 guys that could be considered, as of now fairly solid picks. I don’t follow every team closely and don’t really know how a lot of these picks are performing for their teams, but there just aren’t many household names out of this draft two years later.
Not only was picking Eskridge over Humphrey a bad decision, he was not even the best WR they could have gotten.
My thoughts on this draft went back to the Russell Wilson affect on this team. Going into that draft, RW was advocating for help. One could argue that WR help would be right at the top of his list.
Was RW advocating for a center or WR? Part of me thinks the pick could have been a big symbolic middle finger to Wilson. Maybe Pete and John heard Russ telling them he needed more weapons but only because he wanted to do things his way. They knew what they wanted to do and knew he was slowing down and losing that escapability that was such a big part of his game. They knew that a better line would help his game but he didn’t want to play their game.
In retrospect it was such a huge draft miss that something else had to be in play. The o line sucked and needed to be rebuilt. Unless they felt like they could wait until after RW was gone and they just kept bowing to Mr Limited.
The draft in and of itself is a crapshoot. If teams thought Humphrey was going to be as good as he is, why did he last into the second round? The bigger question is who the hell had Eskridge ranked so high?!
In the magazine I looked at, Trevor Lawrence was the overall number one pick in their list of top 100 prospects. Humphrey was number 56 and Eskridge didn’t make the top 100.
Eskridge was however, number 28 amongst the available WRs. As I perused the lists generated by position, it occurred to me that after two NFL seasons there aren’t a lot of household names among these guys. There’s the 4-5 QBs starting that outside of Lawrence probably won’t last much past a possible second contract.
This isn’t a post about QBs and their draft viability. What I took out of going through these lists is that there is a strong chance that Creed Humphrey could end up the best pick out of this entire class. Each position lists anywhere from 10(C)-30(CBs) guys as they have them ranked. I counted about 15 guys that could be considered, as of now fairly solid picks. I don’t follow every team closely and don’t really know how a lot of these picks are performing for their teams, but there just aren’t many household names out of this draft two years later.
Not only was picking Eskridge over Humphrey a bad decision, he was not even the best WR they could have gotten.
My thoughts on this draft went back to the Russell Wilson affect on this team. Going into that draft, RW was advocating for help. One could argue that WR help would be right at the top of his list.
Was RW advocating for a center or WR? Part of me thinks the pick could have been a big symbolic middle finger to Wilson. Maybe Pete and John heard Russ telling them he needed more weapons but only because he wanted to do things his way. They knew what they wanted to do and knew he was slowing down and losing that escapability that was such a big part of his game. They knew that a better line would help his game but he didn’t want to play their game.
In retrospect it was such a huge draft miss that something else had to be in play. The o line sucked and needed to be rebuilt. Unless they felt like they could wait until after RW was gone and they just kept bowing to Mr Limited.
The draft in and of itself is a crapshoot. If teams thought Humphrey was going to be as good as he is, why did he last into the second round? The bigger question is who the hell had Eskridge ranked so high?!
