Originally Posted by keg in kc
It's a fair point, but I look at it this way: I think last year was a relatively deep draft, as QBs go. There weren't as many as some years, but I think that a number of the ones taken were strong candidates. Using our pick this year (11) as a reference point, we would have picked squarely between the selections of Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. Both of whom were, in my opinion, significantly better prospects than Tannehill, although both of whom were, also in my opinion, taken earlier than I would have preferred. But I would have actually been in favor of making a move for any of them. And I think you could add a third name to that discussion, with Locker at pick 8, although that one was a bit of a head-scratcher to me. But he would have been in range for the 11th pick, had we wanted to make a move. After that, Dalton and Kaepernick were both taken in the early second. I'd consider Tannehill more in their range, as prospects go. And then you had Mallett in the third.
What that means ultimately is that there are more options. We would have been in a position, with the 11th pick, of choosing to go between Locker, Gabbert and Ponder, or waiting until the 2nd round and making a move for Andy Dalton (or Kaepernick, if that's more your style). Beyond that, if we want to use a later pick in the round as an example, we could feasibly have made a move up into that range with the pick we actually had (26), and made a play on any of those QBs.
This year, in comparison, we're talking about one guy. Tannehill. Because there is, literally, nobody else. And frankly I think that's the one and only reason we're talking about him at all.
I think people are just so desperate for a QB that they'll take whatever they can get. Which is why there's so much excitement for a 5th round pick whose ceiling is likely career backup. Desperation. And now everybody's falling in love with a guy who should by all rights be going in the second round.
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