Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:riggofan wrote:Burgundy&GoldForever wrote: the fact that we're back to business as usual in the draft.
Well, we'll see on that. I'm still not personally convinced that SM's two drafts were any better than the one led by Allen and (I assume) Gruden. Can't completely judge them yet, but so far I think fans are overstating that quite a bit. As it stands now I think there's an argument that the 2014 draft was as successful as the combined haul from 2015/2016 - and they didn't even have a first rounder that year.
I will admit, man. I usually love the draft and look forward to it every year. This year I have yet to look at anything at all. Just can't get excited about it. Not sure if its the McCloughan departure or just this godawful offseason in general. They've really sucked a lot of the fun out of following this team though that's for sure.
What continues to frustrate me about the draft is the "we'll get our free safety next year" mentality every year. A decent free safety would make a huge difference to this defense, especially with these corners.
I think sometimes you have to say, "We want X prospect and we're going to do whatever it takes to get him" AND that prospect is something other than a quarterback.
Unless you're the Skins ...

If Malik Hooker or Jamal Adams drop to no.17. Then I would be happy if we drafted one of those two.
However the league has made the saftey position a top priority for most teams. It's likely two safties will be taken in the top 10. It's conceivable that both Adams and Hooker will be gone top 5.
49ers may take either Adams or Hooker at no.2. GM Lynch who was an all pro safety himself knows the importance of a good safety.
Jaguars may also go saftey as well since they lost there starting saftey I believe.
The next best saftey prospect would probably be Jabril Peppers. However he has shown that he has issues in coverage. He has very little interceptions in his career. I believe it's around 5. All though Peppers is a fantastic athlete and tackler. He's the same athletically as Hooker and Adams minus the elite coverage skills in the secondary.
If we had an elite defensive coordinator I could see us drafting Peppers as a near the line of scrimmage type SS. A role similar to how Troy Polamalu use be used in his latter years. But we don't know if our defensive Coordinator has a clue yet. So I think it's a reach at no.17 to draft any safety other then Adams or Hooker. It's arguable that Swearinger and Cravens are similar to Peppers. Peppers would be an upgrade at SS maybe but I don't see a huge upgrade. As Cravens when healthy has shown good coverage skills.
The rest of the saftey prospects are 2nd round prospects. They each have glaring weaknesses and are not as good as Adams and Hooker. Correction on Peppers he has 1 career int.