Those of you who are frequenting the ESPN SportsNation mock draft may have noticed that people all across our great nation decided that the Falcons would pick Darren McFadden at #3. Never mind that we just signed Michael Turner, already have Jerious Norwood and need to fill several other positions more urgently. Because people in East Fartpost, Wyoming can't expect to know or care about that, I can definitely let the collective opinion of SportsNation slide. Even if it is goddamn ridiculous.
Jeremy Green, however, has earned my undying scorn.
The idea of "taking the best player available" has long been an infuriating one for me. Yes, it may be hard to pass up a phenomenal talent if it's clear he's going to be a game changer immediately. McFadden might even be that guy. But why people feel the need to assign motives to the chronically struggling Falcons without doing any homework at all just completely friggin' baffles me. Even worse, Todd McShay lists our top three needs as QB, OT and DT, before dipping into RB again at #4.
Listen to me very carefully.
For those non-Falcons fans visiting this site, please be wary of knuckle-dragging troglodytes who bang out a quick list or paragraph on their computer. These people may well be experts in a number of subjects, but the Atlanta Falcons are not always among them. Our new general manager, Tom Dimitroff, has stressed building the entire team through the draft and clearly signed Michael Turner to fill the void at RB so he can concentrate on more critical positions. Yeah, Turner could end up as the latest in a long line of Falcons free agents who pull a Najeh Davenport and poop in a hamper as soon as they get a big contract. For this season, at least, he's going to be the starter. The Falcons would have to be Grade-A retarded to draft McFadden at #3 overall, best player available be good goddamned. Darren McFadden doesn't even come close to filling a need on this team, unless he can also play QB, OT, DT and S at the same time. If he can, then Jeremy Green is a genius and humanitarian who deserves the Nobel Prize presented by a pair of Playboy bunnies. Put me down for skeptical on this one.
The point here, I guess, is that in the haste to come up with a different spin on the draft, experts and casual fans alike sometimes come up with things that are just plain stupid. I may not like Matt Ryan being projected at the #3 spot, but at least it's defensible. Not so much with McFadden. The other point is that the Falcons have a really good chance to head down a winning path and ease the seemingly Sisyphian suffering we've all lived through as fans of this often god-awful team. If that strategy turns to "the best player available," then I'm afraid we're boned once again.