Our Jacksonville blog, Big Cat Country, took a slightly different approach to evaluating their draft; they assigned each pick a series of five criteria, then graded them on whether they were met. And while one might want to be wary of assigning equal value to whether a 6th round pick met fan approval and whether a 1st round pick is expected to start, it at least gives the appearance of doing more than pulling a verdict out of one’s posterior.
Jaguars Blog Letting The Alualu Pick Grow On Them
To that end, the Tyson Alualu pick--despite being called “off the reservation” at the time by Mike Mayock--holds up reasonably well:
Tyson Alualu meets 3 of the 5 criteria. One of the criteria he doesn't meet is fan approval, and that really doesn't matter all that much but in the spirit of giving a grade I count it. I think quite a few fans have let Alualu grow on them over the weekend, but the overall sentiment was that he was a reach and fans were unhappy. Alualu was considered a reach by most major media, the only one who seemed fine with the pick was NFL Networks Mike Mayock. Most people question why Jaguars General Manager Gene Smith didn't slide down the board and pick Alualu later, but there are more reports out that the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, and New England Patriots all had Alualu high on their draft boards.
As for the rest of the draft and the rest of the teams, BCC also took an interesting approach to grading everyone else. We’ll not ruin the surprise here; go read for yourself.
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