Ghosts of Drafts Gone By

[Mel Kiper Jr]

Every year there are players that are sought after by multple teams. Players that are picked right before you were going to pick them, or players that were picked right after you made the agonizing decision to pick the other guy. How does it all end up? Where are they now? I looked at the 2007 draft:

Crap Wichita!! I really wanted the LB. Your killing me. I thought for sure I could get him at the 1-5 slot. He just made a ton of cash. Must have had a great Wonderlic score... Martin was the best player for sure. He would not have lasted past Orlando's pick. I will be comparing him to the CB (Edwards) we took for seasons to come. It will be interesting to see how they do.

How often does an ILB go in the top 5? I was looking to jump back into the first round and get him around 15-20.

ILB [ifl]Wes Martin[/ifl] (1-3) is now rated 73/76 and won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2007. In two seasons he has 278 total tackles and assists. CB [ifl]Duane Edwards[/ifl] (1-5) played well in his rookie season before being sidelined much of last season with multiple serious injuries.

I had Forland above Levine on my board because Vince Young scored higher than Levine did on Young's first Wonderlic! I think Levine will have high potential, but just take forever to develop. I think Forland has pretty good numbers, but will develop much faster than Levine.

[ifl]Victor Levine[/ifl] (6-3) is the third tackle in current ratings from his draft and started 7 games for Pittsburgh last season. [ifl]Dusty Forland[/ifl] (6-12) is out of football.

Nice move.. (Andrews) was on my list... would have been gone had I not traded the 27 to the honorable Cringer.

You didn't dodge a bullet because my gun is shooing blanks! Embarassed I just don't know how I overlooked Andrews ... as I thought he was already taken. Otherwise, he would have been wearing the purple and orange.

DT [ifl]Mel Andrews[/ifl] (4-1) is rated 23/41 and was dropped from his starting position in 2008 after a disappointing 2007 season.

Great pick up in the 5th BOSS, I think Ferguson is going to be a stud. I was going to pick him last round until I saw that he was going to be a huge conflict.

16/45 when drafted, CB [ifl]Neal Ferguson[/ifl] (5-9) has started 30 games with 11 int's and is now rated 59/59, helping Madison reach the Imperial Bowl last seson.

[SteveBsFan]

Great write up!

[Warhammer]

I'm not sad, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

[Matt]

We should count the times Warhammer says 'I knew that guy would boom' :lol:

[Warhammer]

Hey, I did all that during the draft, not post camp or anything, give me some credit. Heck, the only one I had wrong was Forland, and I just screwed the pooch on him.

[Hell Atlantic]

this was an excellent thread. great job.

[dberner30]

wichita is feeling the love...we really like martin a lot and are glad to have hacked off a few of you poachers...

[r00k]

Re: Ghosts of Drafts Gone By

Every year there are players that are sought after by multple teams. Players that are picked right before you were going to pick them, or players that were picked right after you made the agonizing decision to pick the other guy. How does it all end up? Where are they now? I looked at the 2007 draft:

Nice move.. (Andrews) was on my list... would have been gone had I not traded the 27 to the honorable Cringer.

You didn't dodge a bullet because my gun is shooing blanks! Embarassed I just don't know how I overlooked Andrews ... as I thought he was already taken. Otherwise, he would have been wearing the purple and orange.

DT [ifl]Mel Andrews[/ifl] (4-1) is rated 23/41 and was dropped from his starting position in 2008 after a disappointing 2007 season.

The second part of the story is that I did pick another tackle at 3.32 right before Andrews was taken, Karl "Elmo" Austin. Mr. Austin boomed big time but at the time I thought I blundered big time.

Great article!

[kingfc22]

Nice report

[Pirates]

Nice write up. I still wish I had Martin instead of Edwards. I know Edwards is just waiting to get hurt again.

[Mel Kiper Jr]

Anyone know the combined QB rating of Hartford-drafted QB's? Nevermind, I do.

75.3

You also have to look at when these guys were drafted. The highest was [ifl]Mueller[/ifl] with the second pick of the second round. The other guys were all later in the draft, and [ifl]Hickman[/ifl] was in the third round. None of these QBs with the exception of [ifl]Markel[/ifl] has played with top receiving talent or been on a passing team.

The only one that has been a bust was [ifl]Norton[/ifl], and I think he might wind up being a mentor.

The famed Hartford QB picks have had mixed results in the IFL so far, but all of them were selected in the second or third round. How have other owners fared with similar picks? I chose an owner at random, Jeff, and looked at his second and third round picks in every amatuer draft until 2008:

T [ifl]Byron Quiroz[/ifl] 3-18 '04 = 1 GS
RB [ifl]Marty Webber[/ifl] 2-1 '05 = 0 GS
DE [ifl]Carl Shumaker[/ifl] 2-11 '07 = 2 GS
C JR [ifl]Bias[/ifl] 2-17 '07 = 0 GS
QB TJ [ifl]McIver[/ifl] 3-18 '07 = 0 GS

The five players picked in the second and third rounds for Jeff average 0.6 career starts in the IFL. Mueller (38), Hickman (49), Markel (4), and Norton (2) combine for 93 starts, and three of them are slated to be the starting QB for their team in 2009.

[JesterBlaze]

...and three of them are slated to be the starting QB for their team in 2009.

Since a league is the result of it's drafts this is a big stat.

Too often a pick is judged on a scale of 0-100 instead of a scale of 0-"what was available".

[Suicane]

Noice

[sovstar]

har har.. few things here:

a) I've never referred to my team as Quarterback U.
b) Webber was a random bust
c) Bias and Shumaker have IFL careers ahead of them - maybe not as starters
d) McIver is as good as Norton - I'd be fine with him as my #2

[Warhammer]

Norton was a random bust too. Nothing about Norton suggested a bust. He might have been a perennial backup, but his combine scores were top 5 in his class across the board for QBs, he was relatively highly developed, the only knock was his potential was only 55-58 or so when drafted. From what I have picked up from Jim at IHOF that qualifies as a random bust, not a huge one, but still a bust.