Does Philly need another CB?
NFL Draft Mailbag
December 14, 2004
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
Reader feedback is always welcomed here at DraftKing.com. Send your thoughts to me at LouPickney@gmail.com.
From: Smartass4lfe@***.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 12:12 AM
To: Lou Pickney
Subject: Your Eagles Pick
Having the eagles take a CB in the first round is what we call stupid. First of all the guy named Lito Sheppard is going to the Pro Bowl (thats where they send the best players in the position) and Sheldon Brown has also had a very good season on the other side. And incase you didnt know. The eagles took this CB named Matt Ware in the 3rd round last year, a pick that EVERY Mock draft site said was the "steal of the draft" he was injured early and has not been able to play much this season. The eagles are also High on Rod Hood and Dexter Wynn (who they drafted last year) to think that they'll waste a First round pick on a career backup is stupid.
Also dont bother replacing him with a Runningback because Andy Reid has said many times. HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TAKING A RUNNINGBACK EARLY. Because You can find good runningbacks in the later rounds (hmmm Brian Westbrook late 3rd) Also the Runningback they draft will NEVER start over Westbrook who is one of the best Runningbacks in the NFL. How about throw someone like Elton Brown for the eagles? That is a Pick that makes sense. Or a LB/DT. Also the eagles will Trade up in this draft. After Comp picks the eagles will have up to 14 draft picks and maybe only 6 or 7 open spots on the team. So they'll trade up a couple times they have 5 first day picks.
Lou: My original response to this was accidentally deleted. So let's try this again.
Lito Sheppard is an excellent CB, no argument here. And while I agree that Matt Ware was a steal in the third round of the 2004 Draft, he's also an unproven commodity to date. Moreover, his CB/S experience could allow him to shift to safety as needed. Rod Hood, while young, has not done anything yet to overly impress, and Dexter Wynn was taken in the 6th round out of Colorado State with good reason: he wasn't a shooting star coming out of college.
In particular, the second half of the first round is one of those situations where teams often take the "best player available" (in their estimation) versus one that may or may not fit their need. Look at the Bills with Willis McGahee in 2003, the Cardinals with Larry Fitzgerald last year, etc. The Eagles though have the good fortune of being a good team with most of their positions strong, so they have the luxury of taking who they think will help them the most, which may in fact be a corner (particularly with many teams going with high-octane passing games that force defenses to put dime corner situations out on the field.)
We do agree though about the RB situation. Brian Westbrook is a solid RB, and taking a RB in the first round would be foolhearty by the Eagles. Grabbing a value backup later in the draft is not a bad idea, but there's no reason to act like Cincinnati in the 2004 Draft, which took Chris Perry and ended up pissing off Perry, Rudi Johnson, and Cincy fans who wanted some defensive help, not a backup RB, with the team's first round pick.
