Here I was, thrilled to finally get home and see what the Hawks did in the draft after being out all day with the family. As my last post indicated, my expectations were not high. Folks. I am trying. I really am, but Ruskell is freakin’ killing me this off-season.
We have a team that is realistically beyond any chance to win a Super Bowl. An credible argument can be made that adding one or two impact players at positions of need through free agency, the draft or trade could have put us in position to compete one more year. Instead, we have gotten weaker at almost every spot…okay…that’s hyperbole. Let’s just say we are a weaker team now than we were when the season ended. If someone would like to tell me why they think we are stronger, I’d love to hear it.
A defensive end in the first round. They talk about using this guy as a DT in passing downs. Really? A situational player in the first round? A position where we already have Tapp, Kerney and Atkins? Bite me, Ruskell! Take your undersized, try hard, always have to make the pick that confounds the experts philosophy and take it somewhere else.
I wrote about how people will miss Shaun in a couple of years. That pain will pale in comparison to the loss of Holmgren, and his impact on this organization.
I find it impossible to believe that everyone is more stupid than Ruskell. He must believe that. How else can you explain the fact that he has not picked a player in any of his drafts that was highly coveted by other teams or touted by experts. Seriously, take a look. He has never taken a player at a position where people said, “He got good value there.” Outside of Tatupu, I think it’s hard to argue that his draft philosophy has led to a higher percentage of good picks. There is certainly a low percentage of impact picks.
For a guy that loves adding extra picks in the later rounds, he certainly does not seem to value third rounders much. Maybe the specter of David Greene was haunting him, so he decided to forego the opportunity to pick anyone in that round. We moved up for this kid from ND.
I actually like the sound of him. He appears to have a chance to be a blocker and a receiver. I just wonder if we really needed to give up that much to get a guy that was sinking on most draft boards due to a horrible combine.
Would you have traded John Carlsen and Lawrence Jackson for Jonathan Stewart? How high could we have gone if we traded our 1st and 2nd picks?
Let’s do something crazy and make a reach up the board for once.