These wasted draft picks really stand out after games like that

[BPNAZ]

wasting 1st rounder on Danny Watkins

taking a 3rd string QB with a 4th round pick in 2013

and then Marcus Smith is another bust

sure would be nice to have a guy like Deone Buchanon in secondary

how many more times is this franchise going to be afforded to waste golden opportunies to add talent on defense

 

[Taz]

I think you didn't state enough the entire 2011 draft class except Jason Kelce. 4th round on Barkley I don't think that hurt as much as some of the others. Too early to tell on Smith, but it's leading in the direction of bust

 

[deerpathdave]

So it only takes a one game road losing streak to draw out the haters. . This team is 7-3 and in first place in their division.

People put way too much stock on first round draft picks. Do you really care where your starters come from? Good teams get talent from every possible source. Sanchez was a street Free Agent. Trent Cole was a late round pick. Thorton, Mathis, Kelce, Logan, Celek, Jenkins, Barwin....All pulled either from late draft picks or Free Agency.

And they don't do terribly with earlier picks either. Maclin, McCoy, Johnson for example. Trades worked well with Peters and Sproles.

The point is there is rarely a first round draft pick that changes everything. The bad teams get the better draft picks. And are normally still bad teams. The good teams, try to find potential with all 90 roster spots and invest in bottom of the roster guys. Why are the special teams so good this year? The Eagles went out and got good players. Why is this team still contending after losing their starting QB? They spent money on a good player.

Good teams rarely plan on draft picks playing right away. The Eagles don't need Smith to be a player this year. He is there for when Cole gets old and Graham leaves.

 

[old duke]

Yeah, but Smith can't even contribute on special teams. So, Yes, so far he is a bust, until he can at least contribute. I don't blame Howie, who is a target for many, but he relies on his scouts and coaches for their inputs. I hope that smith becomes a good player, but the word is that he doesn't even practice very well, and can't learn the defense. This is not promising to say the least.

 

[WIZ]

I mean all those other teams that are 90-100% in the draft and all...

But hey let's come out of the woodwork for losing one at Lambeau.

 

[Los Eagles]

So it only takes a one game road losing streak to draw out the haters. . This team is 7-3 and in first place in their division.

People put way too much stock on first round draft picks. Do you really care where your starters come from? Good teams get talent from every possible source. Sanchez was a street Free Agent. Trent Cole was a late round pick. Thorton, Mathis, Kelce, Logan, Celek, Jenkins, Barwin....All pulled either from late draft picks or Free Agency.

And they don't do terribly with earlier picks either. Maclin, McCoy, Johnson for example. Trades worked well with Peters and Sproles.

The point is there is rarely a first round draft pick that changes everything. The bad teams get the better draft picks. And are normally still bad teams. The good teams, try to find potential with all 90 roster spots and invest in bottom of the roster guys. Why are the special teams so good this year? The Eagles went out and got good players. Why is this team still contending after losing their starting QB? They spent money on a good player.

Good teams rarely plan on draft picks playing right away. The Eagles don't need Smith to be a player this year. He is there for when Cole gets old and Graham leaves.

Totally disagree with many points. A first round pick (with few exceptions like maybe grooming a QB) doesn't have to change everything but should be able to contribute in some way or fashion. Good teams rarely plan on draft picks playing right away? Huh? Had guys like Bradley Roby or even Dennard been drafted, not only would they be expected to play but the would be. Even great teams get contribution from their draft classes. Teams try to draft good players to help them win period. Even the best teams have holes and try to fill them via the draft.

The Eagles do need Smith to be a player and most certainly could use help at linebacker. Smith has done nothing. Prospects as raw as Smith have no business in the first round. But I guess that's what you get when you reach for a need position.

 

[Speedy]

I think rosemond gave chip too much leeway into which players Howie drafted.

No way should huff, smith, barkley or reynolds' name been on our draft cards.

Even youtube guys saw that smith was never a pass rusher, watching his film he literally had no moves, no hand fighting, no body lean, no aggressiveness at impact and seemed extremely lucky more than good.

We may have done well with mathews and allen. But you MUST get at least DOME contributions from your first round picks.

As far as first rounders not being important... ill let that stand on its own.

A first round pick, is the most important addition to a franchise than any other by far, 1 stud hit first rounder is worth 5 free agents.

 

[deerpathdave]

Even if Smith was performing better in practice, he still may not be playing much. Barwin, Cole and Graham are tearing it up at OLB. And the Eagles picked up a bunch of real good specialists for their special teams. The Eagles never planned on needing Smith this year and as a result are really not missing his lack of contribution.

Smith is needed for next year when Graham gets paid by another team. He has a whole additional off season to improve his game.

If a worse team had drafted Smith, they would have no one better to throw out there and Smith would be playing and the team would be losing. And some of you would be counting it as a success as he would be a starter. Bad teams start players who aren't ready. Good teams structure their roster so that they aren't dependent on rookies.

By many accounts, the Eagles could have drafted Matthews with their first pick and still gotten Smith with their second. If it had played out that way, many would be happier with the job they did. But does it really matter? They got the same two players.

 

[Deano]

Barkley is now our backup QB so I'm not so sure you can call it a wasted pick.

Watkins wasn't this coaching staff so get over it.

Smith gets a year or two to prove himself. It took Graham several years to turn into the part time player he is now.

I get your point but you can't alwas pick studs.

 

[Wamu]

As a lifelong Browns fan I know all about bad draft day decision. Just look at the pieces of shit they have drafted since their return in '99.

 

[Los Eagles]

Even if Smith was performing better in practice, he still may not be playing much. Barwin, Cole and Graham are tearing it up at OLB. And the Eagles picked up a bunch of real good specialists for their special teams. The Eagles never planned on needing Smith this year and as a result are really not missing his lack of contribution.

Smith is needed for next year when Graham gets paid by another team. He has a whole additional off season to improve his game.

If a worse team had drafted Smith, they would have no one better to throw out there and Smith would be playing and the team would be losing. And some of you would be counting it as a success as he would be a starter. Bad teams start players who aren't ready. Good teams structure their roster so that they aren't dependent on rookies.

By many accounts, the Eagles could have drafted Matthews with their first pick and still gotten Smith with their second. If it had played out that way, many would be happier with the job they did. But does it really matter? They got the same two players.

Denver needed and drafted Roby and expected contributions. Denver is a great team. EVERY team depends on their draft! Grab a magazine before the season begins and you'll see which draft pick did what. Your first paragraph supports the Eagles never should have even drafted Smith in the first round to begin with. We needed a corner bad and there is no way we should have ended up with Smith over players we had a chance at selecting like Roby or Dennard. Everything from rankings, to draft experts opinions, to you name it, had other players easily ranked higher than Smith. First round is not the round to reach.

The draft being a total crapshoot sounds like a pretty lame excuse for obvious draft blunders. The draft is not a total crapshoot. It doesn't always pan out for too many reasons to list but for the most part, teams have some sort of idea what they are getting. That's why they put so much into the draft process to begin with.

 

[NDIrishGuy]

Why do people continue to feed this troll? Just because he has the Phillies and Eagles listed as teams he likes doesn't make him something more than a troll (has he ever written a single positive thing about the teams he supposedly likes?). I look at anything he writes as if a Cowboys fan wrote it and summarily ignore it from that point forward, I would recommend everyone else doing the same.

Fighting with a troll is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. After a few hours you realize the pig likes it.

 

[deerpathdave]

Denver needed and drafted Roby and expected contributions. Denver is a great team. EVERY team depends on their draft! Grab a magazine before the season begins and you'll see which draft pick did what. Your first paragraph supports the Eagles never should have even drafted Smith in the first round to begin with. We needed a corner bad and there is no way we should have ended up with Smith over players we had a chance at selecting like Roby or Dennard. Everything from rankings, to draft experts opinions, to you name it, had other players easily ranked higher than Smith. First round is not the round to reach.

The draft being a total crapshoot sounds like a pretty lame excuse for obvious draft blunders. The draft is not a total crapshoot. It doesn't always pan out for too many reasons to list but for the most part, teams have some sort of idea what they are getting. That's why they put so much into the draft process to begin with.

Roby is 2nd string in Denver. Denver drafted for the future as well.

 

[TheSnowdog]

Why do people continue to feed this troll? Just because he has the Phillies and Eagles listed as teams he likes doesn't make him something more than a troll (has he ever written a single positive thing about the teams he supposedly likes?). I look at anything he writes as if a Cowboys fan wrote it and summarily ignore it from that point forward, I would recommend everyone else doing the same.

Fighting with a troll is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. After a few hours you realize the pig likes it.

This post - When a Philadelphia team is losing I always watch with interest the boards to see when this troll makes his appearance

And then with equal interest I watch how fast he stops posting when that team starts winning

He vanishes like a fart in the wind

 

[tbone]

We arent gonna hit on most of our picks each year. I dont get too pissed off over the drafts really. We seemed to have hit on some decent later round players for the last decade...and thats kinda lucky. The one thing we do seem to do EVERY year is reach really far on atleast one of our picks in the in rounds 1-2-3. High risk...high reward. It seems if we would have taken some safer picks we would have been better off. It is what it is. Sure id like to have hit and personally i would have taken different players in some situations but hey it is what it is. I dont think we are in the top of the league as far as draft skills. We are probably in the top of the lower 1/3 tho. Its all a crapshoot. And its an area that needs some improvement but hindsight is always 20/20

 

[Wings]

Roby is 2nd string in Denver. Denver drafted for the future as well.

LOL dude Roby is damn good and a major contributor for Denver, he has won Defensive rookie of the week and is being talked about for defensive rookie of the year.

 

[deerpathdave]

LOL dude Roby is damn good and a major contributor for Denver, he has won Defensive rookie of the week and is being talked about for defensive rookie of the year.

I didn't say he wasn't doing well, just that he wasn't starting. The Broncos are a quality organization and while they are pleased Roby is doing well, they didn't setup their team to rely on a rookie to start. Good teams don't do that. They give themselves multiple options for starters and plan on easing their rookies into the lineup. Most 1st round rookies don't play full time immediately. Generally only the top 5 to 10 picks have the sort of talent where its reasonable to expect an immediate impact.

The point of the comparison is the Eagles plan for Marcus Smith was always to not have him play much this year. They look down the road a year or two and they know that next year Graham is probably a goner and Cole is another year older. Smith isn't playing largely because the top 3 OLBs are playing really well. The Eagles don't need him to play this year. Hopefully with a year in the system, he comes in next year ready to contribute. Its way too early to call the guy a bust.

 

[Iggloo]

The Packers have blown plenty of draft picks in recent years, especially on the offensive line. Right now, this draft looks like the worst Philly has had in several years. But it's really too early to judge. You see signs that a few guys--Matthews, Allen--are future starters. The question is whether one or two other guys--Smith, Watkins, Huff--develop into role players or starters. If they do, then it was a solid draft.