Was 2009 a good draft or did we just have so many needs that whomever was selected was going to play regardless of quality due to his loyalty to them?

2009: 9 Players picked all 9 are still with the squad.

2010: 6 players picked 5 are still with the squad.

Are these the best picks available or a mechanical selection for a team that is desperate for any young blood.

Gene seems to draft for need and by the numbers in the first four or five rounds anyway. He seems to go for our biggest perceived need first (twice)  then second biggest hole etc.

He also likes to draft in consecutive pairs - probably to manufacture some competition or perhaps possibly because he doesn't know what he's doing and can't tell the difference between players???

2009: We need in order 2 X tackles - tick that box.  3X wide receivers - tick that box.
2010: We need2 X DTs - tick that box. 2X DE tick that box.

Also he doesn't move about the draft ala Belichick or his disciple McDaniels (who is possibly horrible at selecting but great at getting picks). Getting Alualu at 10 was a reach. He could have been gotten at 20-40.

We had high picks both years for a reason but we didn't trade down and didn't address our woeful secondary leaving that for Peyton Manning  and Matt Schaub to do. 

Case in point, 2009 was the year for the wide receiver. We drafted three (Thomas, Dillard, Underwood). None are setting the world alight - all are on the small side and we missed the boat big time.  Knighton was a find but he may have fallen a lot further. Time will tell with our tackles but the stats aren't overwhelming.

Retrospective draft 2009 assuming we don' t shift picks which is our modus operandi anyway.

8: DE/OLB B. Orakpo, DT Raji, LB B. Cushing, C. Matthews, QB J. Freeman, WR P. Harvin

39: OT P. Loadholt, S. Vollmer, 

72: DT T. Knighton

73: CB L. Webb, WR M. Wallace, B. Hartline, B. Tate

107; WR A. Collie, J  Knox,  S G. Quinn

144 WR J. Dillard

180 TE Z. Miller LB B. Jones, CB J. McCourty, C. Munnerlyn

250 RB R. Jennings,

253 WR T. Underwood

The talent dries up after the fourth round but it could have been a lot different. Sure this is easy in retrospect but is it too easy? Have the talent scouts, staff and GM done the best they could with 9 picks (4 top 100)?

I don't believe they have unless Monroe, Britton, Knighton and one of the wide receivers end up pro-bowlers it's an average draft at best.