One team which absolutely blew it in the NFL Draft was the Jacksonville Jaguars. If I was a betting man – oh wait, I am – I’d say that members of this front office will be looking for work in 2012.
The Jags made a monumental mistake at pick No. 10, regardless of how the rest of their draft turns out, and it could put them back for a while.
I’m not saying that their top pick, DT Tyson Alualu, won’t develop into a good player, he might.
But there’s a right way to draft, and a wrong way, and the Jags chose the latter.
You NEVER draft for need if the player at your pick isn’t worthy of the selection. You either trade back, acquire more picks and then select your guy at the appropriate slot, or take the best player available.
And let’s face it, odds are if you’re drafting in the top 10, you have more than one pressing need.
Jacksonville chose neither of the above and need only look to recent history to see how things turned out for another team that followed this path.
The 2009 Oakland Raiders decided to reach for WR Darrius Heyward-Bey at pick No. 7, rather than trading down, acquiring more draft choices, and then selecting him at a slot more in line with his value, and for the $23.5M in guaranteed money they threw his way, got 9 receptions for 124 yards and 1TD in year one.
He went three slots ahead of the Draft’s top rated receiver, WR Michael Crabtree , who finished with 48 receptions, for 625 yards and 2 TDs.
But back to Jacksonville.
Being without a 2nd round pick, the front office probably panicked, and felt it could not afford to pass on a need, but in the process, they reached for a DT that many experts had pegged for a late 1st round pick, and now must pay him top 10 money.
If you look around the league, you’ll notice that the teams that consistently make post season appearances all draft well, and aren’t afraid to move around in the 1st round – back, forward, or out of it (see Baltimore).
The ability to draft well is crucial because teams aren’t built through Free Agency, they’re built through the NFL Draft.
The former can fill in the missing pieces, but the core comes via the draft, and the teams that don’t do it well, are the ones that find themselves at home come Playoff time.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you the 2010 Jacksonville Jaguars.
