Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

[Ebenezer]

A lot of us are convinced Mike Williams is a bust or at the best a marginal lineman (not even sure of the position he should play). That draft, imo, sucked. If not MW then who? Take a look at the list. Julius Peppers really was the best talent in that draft. I wanted Roy Williams (Mikey82 can confirm). I still say that TD wanted Harrington and then got blindsided by Detroit. Hence the trade for Bledsoe.

There are some hits and some misses. Who was deserving of the 4th overall? I would hazard to say Dwight Freeney or Ed Reed. As it was nobody had either projected in the top 10.

1. 	Houston 	David Carr 	QB 	Fresno State

2. 	Carolina 	Julius Peppers 	DE 	North Carolina

3. 	Detroit 	Joey Harrington 	QB 	Oregon

4. 	Buffalo 	Mike Williams 	OT 	Texas

5. 	San Diego 	Quentin Jammer 	CB 	Texas

6. 	Kansas City (from Dallas) 	Ryan Sims 	DT 	North Carolina

7. 	Minnesota 	Bryant McKinnie 	OT 	Miami (Fla)

8. 	Dallas (from Kansas City) 	Roy Williams 	SS 	Oklahoma

9. 	Jacksonville 	John Henderson 	DT 	Tennessee

10. 	Cincinnati 	Levi Jones 	OT 	Arizona State

11. 	Indianapolis 	Dwight Freeney 	DE 	Syracuse

12. 	Arizona 	Wendell Bryant 	DT 	Wisconsin

13. 	New Orleans 	Donte Stallworth 	WR 	Tennessee

14. 	NY Giants (from Tennessee) 	Jeremy Shockey 	TE 	Miami (Fla)

15. 	Tennessee (from NY Giants) 	Albert Haynesworth 	DT 	Tennessee

16. 	Cleveland 	William Green 	RB 	Boston College

17. 	Oakland (from Atlanta) 	Phillip Buchanon 	CB 	Miami (Fla)

18. 	Atlanta (from Washington through Oakland) 	T.J. Duckett 	RB 	Michigan State

19. 	Denver 	Ashley Lelie 	WR 	Hawaii

20. 	Green Bay (from Seattle) 	Javon Walker 	WR 	Florida State

21. 	New England (from Tampa Bay through Oakland and Washington) 	Daniel Graham 	TE 	Colorado

22. 	NY Jets 	Bryan Thomas 	DE 	Alabama-Birmingham

23. 	Oakland 	Napolean Harris 	OLB 	Northwestern

24. 	Baltimore 	Edward Reed 	S 	Miami (FLA)

25. 	New Orleans (from Miami) 	Charles Grant 	DE 	Georgia

26. 	Philadelphia 	Lito Sheppard 	CB 	Florida

27. 	San Francisco 	Mike Rumph 	CB 	Miami (Fla)

28. 	Seattle (from Green Bay) 	Jerramy Stevens 	TE 	Washington

29. 	Chicago 	Marc Colombo 	OT 	Boston College

30. 	Pittsburgh 	Kendall Simmons 	OG 	Auburn

31. 	St. Louis 	Robert Thomas 	MLB 	UCLA

32. 	Washington (from New England) 	Patrick Ramsey 	QB 	Tulane
							
						

[Novacane]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

I don't even fault TD for that pick. A lot of people thought MW would be a stud and OL was a huge need. In hindsight Levi Jones has turned out to be the best OL but Cinci was ridiculed for taking him at #10 so he was not an option. TO bad we could not have traded down and taken Feeney.

[justasportsfan]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

At 11, Freeney was a steal.

[Novacane]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

At 11, Freeney was a steel.

He would have been a steal at #4. To bad we can't see the future

[FinFan]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

Ed Reed is a BEAST as well. I wish he was a Dolphin.

[Billsouth]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

many people wanted us to take roy williams. now i wish we had.

[Stewie]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

I would take dwight freeny over anyone else and that includes peppers.

[Lexwhat]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

I don't even fault TD for that pick. A lot of people thought MW would be a stud and OL was a huge need. In hindsight Levi Jones has turned out to be the best OL but Cinci was ridiculed for taking him at #10 so he was not an option. TO bad we could not have traded down and taken Feeney.

Exactly! A lot of people are going to whine and complain about the MW pick. But any 10 year old can say "oh we should have gotten this player instead" after seeing that player succeed for so many years.

Freeney was not a consensus top 10 pick. At that time, O-Line was a major need and it was basically between McKinnie and Williams. If you look at history, many top 10 picks do not live up to expectations. That year, it just wasn't our luck.

But TD has generally been successful with 1st round picks during his tenure here.

[Phincinatti Phinz]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

It's nice to wish of going back and making different movies.

How I'd love to take back the Eddie Moore, Jamar Fletcher picks.

Thank god you guys didn't get Freeney or Reed.

[rsmithgi]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

The player to take was clearly McKinnie. He is almost finished with his third full year of starting at LT on an offense that has been pretty good. He played LT in college (unlike Williams who played RT). MW was never going to be quick enough to play LT in the pros. You don't draft a RT at #4.

I don't think anyone anticipated a bust of this magnitude, but IMO there was a better choice sitting there for TD and he blew it.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

I wanted Roy Williams.

That way we could have passed on Milloy later and spent some money somewhere else.

[rsmithgi]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

At 11, Freeney was a steal.

The irony is that Polian should still be the GM of the Bills.

[JWatts]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

The player to take was clearly McKinnie. He is almost finished with his third full year of starting at LT on an offense that has been pretty good. He played LT in college (unlike Williams who played RT). MW was never going to be quick enough to play LT in the pros. You don't draft a RT at #4.
I don't think anyone anticipated a bust of this magnitude, but IMO there was a better choice sitting there for TD and he blew it.

Actually Mike Williams played with Simms who is left handed so he actually played LT being he protected the blind side. But at the time we needed a OT we got who was rated by almost every team at the best one on the board.

[rsmithgi]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

Actually Mike Williams played with Simms who is left handed so he actually played LT being he protected the blind side. But at the time we needed a OT we got who was rated by almost every team at the best one on the board.

It doesn't matter, he was a RT. He had never played the left side of the OL in his college career. I think McKinnie was ranked higher on most draft boards that I saw because he played LT in college.

Look at where they ended up in the pros (at least until MW was demoted to LG), McKinnie at LT and MW at RT.

[Hounds]

Re: Turning the time machine to April 20, 2002 - who to draft? Mike Williams

Jermey Shockey would have been a nice player to have too. I think that teams with top 5 draft picks should trade down because if they are in the top 5 they need more then 1 good player and a mid round first usually is going to still be a good player.