Rain, rain, go away. That's what all my haters say.
Now that Dave is convinced a storm's a-brewing with Thunder and Tiny Thunder, perhaps I should point out that the only thing we're lacking is rain, and I think now it's safe to say we're going to be raining touchdowns with Matty, Roddy, and Juli...o.
(You know, we should just make everyone on the team end with the "ie" sound. We could have Matty, Roddy, Jenkie, Juli, Dougie, Turnie, Quizzie....Okay, maybe not.)
First and foremost, the UFL is trying desperately to scoop up premium college talent since the NFL can't. I can't blame them. Players like Locke and Herzlich certainly add to the pedigree of the fledgling league. However, NFL teams can still pluck the players from their respective UFL teams if they choose to do so. I believe the opposite could also be true, but I don't know the ins-and-outs of the business.
Anywho, it's not a big deal, but it's something that should be pointed out. It's obvious more than just our front office has been licking their chops at players such as Locke and Herzlich. Whoever lands them in the NFL might be pretty fortunate, indeed.
But now, back to the topic at hand. I've had a few days to chill out from the "Holy Julio Jones, Batman! We just made it rain draft picks!" trade, and I've also stepped back and taken a look at some of the other picks we made.
Join me after the jump and I'll offer an brief opinion on each one.
Julio Jones: Holy smokes. Everybody and their mother is talking about how much we gave up for him. Yeah, we don't know if he'll be great or not (but everyone was pretty sure about Calvin Johnson, too!) but I think it's safe to say he'll be worth all of that eventually. I don't think draft pundits could fully understand just how much was added to our offense by adding someone like JJ.
As far as the picks go, I pretty much believed that it would take our 1st and 2nd rounder from this year and our 1st from next year to move way up the board. I was close. We tossed in a few 4th rounders for good measure. I feel like the 4th rounder this year really hurt us. This draft was exceptionally deep and, as I'll point out in a moment, we could've landed some good talent.
However, I'm convinced now that we'll be losing Clabo to free agency, and possibly Nicholas and Snelling as well. Clabo will likely net us a 3rd round compensation pick, since he was a pro bowler and whatnot. I think those 4th rounders were thrown in with the expectation that this would happen. Yeah, the lack of a 4th hurt this year, but I think it was a calculated risk that will lessen the sting of it next year.
Akeem Dent: As a UGA fan, I was able to witness Dent play, though I didn't do a whole lot of watching him particularly at the time since I was unaware we had any interest in him. I can tell you that his name was probably being called more than any other name on the Georgia defense. He just always seemed to be where the ball was.
Scouts say he's more of a run stopper and marginal at best in pass coverage. However, he was still improving even into his last year of college, so that might suggest that he's actually a better player than his stats show.
Jacquizz Rodgers: Let me go on record by saying I love this pick. I hadn't looked him up at all when I was doing my RB research, opting instead to look for the home run hitters such as Murray, Locke, Devine, et al. I'd heard his name before, if only because he made some noise in college and I believe he played against UGA a time or two.
Watching his highlights, the guy reminds me of a cat. He has such a low center of gravity, it's a wonder he manages to stay on his feet. Despite his short stature (5'6") he's almost 200 pounds (196). That's freight train status. At the combine, he ran a relatively tame 4.64 40, however he improved it to 4.47 at his pro day. For someone that short, that is rolling. That should also calm some of your "lacks top-end speed" worries. You don't run a 4.47 by being slow. If his name wasn't so awesome, I'd nominate Jason's "Tiny Thunder" nickname.
Matt Bosher: At first, I was like "What the world?" with this pick. However, someone (I fail with remembering names/quotes) mentioned that Koenen is a free agent this year and will likely make way more than someone like Bosher would. Bosher is likely just as capable of doing punts and kickoffs as Koenen was and will command a significantly smaller amount of money.
Bosher is a good directional punter, or so they say. That should fare well in a conference with people like Devin Hester. He could also kick field goals in a pinch if Bryant goes down. Bryant was so icy cold last year, I think we're obligated to resign him.
Andrew Jackson: Seriously, what better thing to do than to draft an offensive linemen who was just unearthed after not moving for a few hundred years? If he hasn't moved since then, it's unlikely anyone could move him now.
But in all seriousness, he'll probably just be another body on the offensive line depth chart. It would be really neat that if offensive line coach Paul Boudreau was so good at coaching up players that we just constantly rotated new linemen in every few years after they wanted bigger contracts.
Cliff Matthews: Our own C. Matthews hails from the same college as our own John Abraham. He had some decent numbers, but he wasn't anything spectacular. I don't know much about him, personally, but I wouldn't consider him to be much more than a project. However, I really like the pick because he's a DE that could potentially turn into something down the road, and we could've just cheesed it up with our last pick like some teams do. I like it.
Overall, since the grade thing is going on, I'd give this draft an A-. The price for Julio doesn't bother me, and I don't really think we could've drafted much better with the picks we had. The only thing keeping it from an A+ in my mind is that we didn't have more picks.
I have no complaints about this draft, personally.