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2008 NFL Draft: Monday Morning Wrap-up!

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Nothing says draft weekend like a morning in LaGuardia airport.  I've been here 15 minutes and my flight is already being pushed backwards.  If the new time is 12:15, would you take the over or under on being wheels up at 1:00?

Let's take a look at how the rest of the world is judging the Jaguars draft, shall we

: I don't give a lot of love to SI's Peter King, though he's done the best job in explaining the impact of trading for Matt Ryan on the rest of the NFL Draft.  He also had this to say about the Jaguars Draft:

(Five things he thinks he might think when he thinks about the best drafts)

5. Jacksonville. I christen this draft the "We Are Desperate To Sack Peyton Manning and Will Sell Our Souls to Do So Draft." The Jags started the weekend with six picks in the top 150 of the draft. They exited the weekend with two players, and both are former SEC defensive ends -- Derrick Harvey of Florida and Quentin Groves of Auburn, picked at eight and 52, respectively. If you're going to pay for quality, you can't be afraid, and Jag GM James Harris was not on Saturday.

This is also funny (still from Peter King):

Jag-warz, announcers. Please. Please! Not Jag-wires. How can you pronounce it Jag-wires? There is no long i sound. There is no i

: Pat Yasinskas of ESPN says the Colts had the best draft in the AFC South, but gives Jacksonville a little attention as well: 

Riskiest move

The Jaguars may have been only two players away from being a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Those two players better be defensive ends Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves, because Jacksonville gave up a lot to get them. The Jaguars started the day with the No. 26 pick, but packaged it with two third-round picks and a fourth-round choice to jump up to No. 8 to grab Harvey, a University of Florida product.

The Jaguars didn't stop there. They swapped second-round picks with Tampa Bay and also parted with a fifth-round choice this year and a seventh-round pick in 2009. Both rookies probably will have to start immediately and the results better come quickly.

It's high risk and high reward, but two thirds and a 4th to move up 18 spots to grab a highly rated player is nowhere near a bad move, that's just foolish reporting.

: Michael Wright of the Florida Times-Union writes a fantastic article about the budding friendship between Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves:

"Great pass-rushers, when I play against them, I always give the high-five, 'what's up, how you doing?' and talk to them for a minute after every game," Groves said. "We did that for two years. I really like his game and I think he respects mine as well."

And:

"We bring a lot of pressure, speed, power," Harvey said. "[Groves] is a good player - explosive, fast, and he had a lot of sacks. We'll just try to use our athleticism to make plays. Coming in, all the players have a winning attitude. I hope we can add to that.

: Mel Kiper, who's about as inconsistent of a drafnik that I've ever seen, rips the Jaguars for giving up too much in order to get Derrick Harvey.  What part of moving 18 picks without trading a single 2009 pick OR a second rounder does he not understand?

Jacksonville Jaguars: GRADE: C-
Not only was defensive end Derrick Harvey a big reach at No. 8 (after trading up with Baltimore), but the Jags gave up three picks in order to draft the Florida defensive end. Quentin Groves will be a good defensive end if he plays like he did as a junior. I do like CB Trae Williams, who could be a factor right away. I thought the Jaguars should have traded for Jason Taylor, a proven pass-rusher who would have been the missing link along the defensive line.

There's a taste of what the journalists have to say about the draft,  What do you think?

-Chris

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MDS gave it a D- on Fanhouse… which I found dreadfully disappointing. Not that I give a flying flip about his opinion (although he does know football slightly better than all the other sports whose coverage he mangles), but someone who writes for FO should know better than to evaluate a draft the day after, don’t you think?

by peachy rex on Apr 28, 2008 11:09 AM EDT   0 recs

MDS

Is spread far too thin to provide any sort of serious opinion about the Jaguars. He’s a quantity over quality guy.

You’re dead on about Football Outsiders, though MDS is hardly of their caliper to belong with them…

Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!

by River City Rage on Apr 28, 2008 11:35 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

FO does excellent statistical work, but their analysis is inconsistent. Teams that have high exposure or are followed by individual writers on the staff are generally well-covered, but their work on the others tends to be strictly conventional. And I don’t mean ‘conventional’ in any complimentary sense – I mean it in the ‘I can get this crap from ESPN’ sense. (Their remarks on the Stroud trade are a nice case in point; the national media’s perception of him is about two years behind the times, as anyone with reasonably detailed knowledge of the situation would have known. And in fact lots of people with that knowledge popped up on the comments thread…)

by peachy rex on Apr 28, 2008 12:25 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

You can't win if you don't try

JDR was ripped in the press for moving on David to replace Byron. Why? Because he tok a chance at success. In this draft, JDR and Shack took another gamble knowing top line DE don’t suddenly emerge from the lower rounds. They come in rounds 1 and 2, rarely lower. Not every draft choice works out, in fact being better than 1 good player for every 3 selected is good drafting. We can only watch and see what happens, but this was the best play possible to ensure long term strength at the ends. I agree with Vic, this was a lucky draft.

by Tkopa on Apr 28, 2008 11:17 AM EDT   0 recs

Jack's a gambler...

It’s high risk/high reward. Worst case is that we field the same defense as last year which was good enough to get us to the playoffs.

Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!

by River City Rage on Apr 28, 2008 11:36 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

The guy writing at Yahoo sports gave it a C-. His issue isn’t with the quality of the players selected – instead, he argues that, as a team looking to contend in the immediate future, Jax should have invested some part of those picks in trading for Jason Taylor, asserting that Taylor could easily have more sacks in the next two seasons than Harvey and Groves combined.

It’s an interesting position, but I see two problems. First, I’m not convinced Taylor has one – let alone two – more seasons as an every-downs player. Second, as Vic pointed out today, pass-rushing is the easiest thing a rookie can be asked to do, because of the relative lack of schematic complexity involved (“There’s the quarterback, son. Go git ‘em.”) He lists Brackens, Ware, Merriman and Allen as players who were successful in that role right from the start. (You might add a third – even if Taylor were brilliant, in another year or two we’d be back in the same damn place.)

by peachy rex on Apr 28, 2008 1:29 PM EDT   0 recs

good points

i saw that on ask vic as well. running back and defensive end are def the easiest things to pick up. it seems like people are being completely nonsensical when it comes to this jason taylor stuff. he is def a proven commodity, which is great, but the dude has 3 years left, at the most. harvey is a decade younger, and a great player. i’ve been watching him for three years now at UF, and he guy is certainly an every down DE. he plays much better against the run than people realize, and he has the frame to add another 15-20 pounds.

by abeaugh on Apr 28, 2008 2:18 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

One of my five favourite Gator memories is watching Moss and Harvey run down Troy Smith. Over and over and over. (Although the helmetless tackle was the single coolest play of the entire game.) It’s really too bad the rest of the line wasn’t up to his standard last year… although Pouncey may have discovered a new calling in life – has to be more fun to be the one pounding on the QB than the one trying to prevent it, right?

by peachy rex on Apr 28, 2008 2:28 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Tommy Blake

I’m still waiting for this guy to be signed. It’s not possible that nobody will take a chance on him. If I’m JDR I would.

by ryebreadraz on Apr 28, 2008 4:20 PM EDT   0 recs

Lito Shepard possible Jag?

Can’t seem to think this trade goes through, but oh man what a secondary we would have. What would you guys be willing to give up in next years draft? I say no more than a fourth rounder for this guy.

by keef on Apr 28, 2008 5:38 PM EDT   0 recs

UPSET then HAPPY

When I first saw how many picks we gave up to get Harvey, I was actually pretty upset. Do not get me wrong, I love the pickup of Harvey. He is a hell of player but I was really hoping that we were going to get Jason Taylor. So to me it was like, geez there goes our chance to get Taylor and half of our draft picks for a rookie.

However…

Once we got Groves with our 2nd pick, I started thinking about the idea of these guys as a tandem and it got me pumped up. I am alot more excited now to see what kind of havic these two can bestow together then if it were just Harvey alone.

thats my 2 cents. Go Jags.

by espntheocho on Apr 28, 2008 8:26 PM EDT   0 recs

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