On the flipside of the magna cum laude NFL draftees there are those who reach for the stars and end up pulling a muscle. These NFL draftees were eiither taken by teams that had greater needs or that were drafted too highly. Check em' out
1. Eric Ebron
The idea of the Lions drafting more receivers when the rumor was that they’d trade up for Sammy Watkins or Mike Evans. The Lions have three tight ends on their roster that scored nine touchdowns last season and five years ago they drafted Brandon Pettigrew 20th overall. Their quarterback has thrown more balls than Justin Verlander over the past two seasons. Maybe they should scale back the options in the passing game and divert salary cap elsewhere.
Ebron was the nation’s most explosive tight end last season, but he’s more of a burly wide receiver than an all-world tight end. There were a litany of holes in their pass coverage that needed patching up and neither were filled in the first round.
In the second round they chose another pass rusher Kyle Van Noy to get quarterbacks out of their pocket paradise next season. However, one of the league’s worst pass defenses hasn’t addressed its sieve in the secondary.
2. Marcus Smith (Philadelphia Eagles)
Two Louisville players were drafted ahead of Bridgewater. One was highly-rated safety Calvin Pryor and the other was Marcus Smith. Like Bridgewater, Smith arrived at Louisville as a quarterback and left as a tenacious defensive end that was projected as a late-second rounder or early third round pick. Instead, the Eagles nearly tore their rotator cuffs reaching for Smith this high.
Some execs throw caution to the wind and draft based on scheme fit, talent and ignore round projections, but the Eagles unnecessarily actually traded down for this pick. The 86th pick they acquired from Cleveland was used on Oregon receiver, Josh Huff whom Chip Kelly is familiar with. Familiarity is great, but as a reluctant fan of the Spurrier Redskins I’m not a fan of this type of nepotism. Secondly, the Eagles had already drafted Jordan Matthews in the second round. Jordan Matthews plus Josh Huff does not equal Desean Jackson.
3. Xavier S’ua-Filo and Tom Savage (Houston Texans)
Opening up the second day of the NFL Draft, the Texans badly needed a quarterback. With so many passers available as the second round rolled around, O’Brien had his choice of David Carr, Jimmy Garoppolo, and more. Instead he chose a guard in Xavier S’ua-Filo that was projected to be a first rounder during the process. Yet on the value spectrum, a guard and quarterback aren’t on the same level.
What compounded the look was their selection of Tom Savage in the fourth round. Savage was a quarterback who suffered from a five year stretch of Wild Passes Syndrome and transferred twice during his career. The only thing he had going for himself was that he had the look of a prototypical pocket quarterback and before the draft, the New England Patriots were allegedly calling him Tom #2 because they were expected to target him as the successor to Tom Brady.
This is a two-part equation and Su’a-Filo may actually be a Pro Bowl guard down the line. Unfortunately, he’ll be blocking for a ragtag group of quarterbacks.
