PA Season Ticket Holder
05-08-2003, 08:28 PM
Nothing prompts a phone call from a league executive like giving his team a bad draft grade. The conversation usually goes like this:
Team executive: "You were a little harsh on a us, weren't you?"
Few knew at the time Brian Urlacher would become the impact player of the 2000 draft.(AP)
Me: "It's an immediate reaction based on pre-draft ratings."
Team executive: "Yeah, but you still went hard on us."
Me: "In three years we'll know who was right. Until then, it's all speculation."
Team executive: "I guess we'll see in three years. But you still were too hard."
Three years is the true judging point for any draft in these salary-cap days. Three is the magic number now because we can no longer wait five years to decide if a draft is a success as we once did before the salary cap.
Rookies have to play now and be major contributors; no more grooming a kid to take over.
With that in mind, we take a look back at the 2000 draft and regrade it. In doing so, we compare the grade now to the grade SportsLine.com (not me, since I wasn't here then) gave each team immediately following that draft.
It's interesting to see how varied some of those grades were from the actual grades those drafts deserved.
The Cardinals, for example, earned an "A" immediately. Looking back on it now, they get a big "D". That's mainly because they used the seventh overall pick on running back Thomas Jones, who has proved to be a major bust.
Would Emmitt Smith be in Arizona if Jones had been worth that pick? At the time, though, it was thought Jones was the perfect pick.
So here goes a look at the 2000 draft, something we plan to do forthwith.
http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/6356407
Team executive: "You were a little harsh on a us, weren't you?"
Few knew at the time Brian Urlacher would become the impact player of the 2000 draft.(AP)
Me: "It's an immediate reaction based on pre-draft ratings."
Team executive: "Yeah, but you still went hard on us."
Me: "In three years we'll know who was right. Until then, it's all speculation."
Team executive: "I guess we'll see in three years. But you still were too hard."
Three years is the true judging point for any draft in these salary-cap days. Three is the magic number now because we can no longer wait five years to decide if a draft is a success as we once did before the salary cap.
Rookies have to play now and be major contributors; no more grooming a kid to take over.
With that in mind, we take a look back at the 2000 draft and regrade it. In doing so, we compare the grade now to the grade SportsLine.com (not me, since I wasn't here then) gave each team immediately following that draft.
It's interesting to see how varied some of those grades were from the actual grades those drafts deserved.
The Cardinals, for example, earned an "A" immediately. Looking back on it now, they get a big "D". That's mainly because they used the seventh overall pick on running back Thomas Jones, who has proved to be a major bust.
Would Emmitt Smith be in Arizona if Jones had been worth that pick? At the time, though, it was thought Jones was the perfect pick.
So here goes a look at the 2000 draft, something we plan to do forthwith.
http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/6356407