Assume they're right. Grade your team's (or any other's that catches your eye) draft.
Tampa Bay
1.23 - Marcus McNeil OT | Auburn
2.59 - Cedric Griffin CB | Texas
3.90 - AJ Nicholson OLB | Florida St
All of these are terrible picks. So is the logic.First off, the bucs don't need an overrated tackle with injury problems, much less in the first round. Everyone keeps penciling him in as the pick because he went to school with Cadillac Williams. I fail to see how that qualifies him as the selection.
Secondly, The Bucs aren't going to draft a CB that early when they have bigger needs at UT, SS, SLB and WRZ. They need to replace the guys that can't play now, not replace the guys that will still be performing at a high level for three more years.
Finally, Why would the Bucs draft AJ Nicholson to replace Derrick Brooks when the Bucs defense is built around speed and Nicholson runs something like a 4.8? That's neither fast nor quick. Brooks still runs a 4.4. Big difference, much less all of the other dissimilarities.
1. Sinorice Moss
2. Jonathan Lewis/Jesse Mahelona
3. Whatever good SS prospect falls.
This is a team that is in position to win now and for the next few years. Drafting to replace key veterans rather than supplement them is not how you capitalize on your opening window, it's how you close it.
Look for the Bucs to be filling in holes, not trying to replacing their veterans.
Galloway is bound to slow down very, very soon. Drafting Moss is a great opportunity to keep from a drop-off in talent, and can also contribute in the slot as a WR3.
Lewis/Mahelona can push McFarland for the starting job, and have a good chance of beating him outright, since he's forever a UT/NT 'tweener who can't stop the run too well yet can't make it to the QB with any regularity. A dominating interior lineman might be just the spark this defense needs to go from noe of the best in the NFL to one of the best in NFL History (a la '02). McFarland's contract was restructured so that he will almost definitely be released after this season.
I can almost guarantee you that they target a penetrating under-tackle in the 2nd round (they would in the first, but the value just won't be there).