Revisiting the 2012 draft

[rmcjacket23]

Ignoring the fact that I despise hindsight analysis for its irrelevance, when evaluating a draft, I'd focus on looking what players we could have taken in that range based on a position where we were actually looking to upgrade.

Harrison Smith would seem to be the most logical, given that he would have filled one of the safety roles we lost after we lost Reed and Pollard a year later, and may have led to us not drafting Elam, so pretty much a win win. 

The next handful of picks were Jenkins (a WR who flamed out), Brian Quick (largely irrelevant in this league) and a couple RBs, of which we obviously weren't going to be interested in either given our roster construction at that time. We still had Torrey (just signed a year earlier), Boldin and Pitta, and we obviously weren't taking a RB after we had just signed Rice to a mega deal in 2011. 

So if draft status stayed the same (meaning everybody still took who they took), the only player we really missed out on between 29 and 35 (had we not done the deal) is Harrison Smith. Knowing what we know now, given the Rice and Pitta situations, drafting Doug Martin or Coby Fleener were likely better options, but no possible way to know that at that time.

The kicker (and this one really hurts) is looking at some of the guys we didn't pick at 35. Derek Wolfe was taken at 36, Mitchell Schwartz was at 37, and Janoris Jenkins was at 39 (though he came with a ton of baggage). Can even go down to Cordy Glenn at 41, Jeffery at 45, and the biggest miss of all for me... Bobby Wagner was picked at 47.

What's so interesting about that draft is, frankly, the entire 1st round of the 2012 draft wasn't that great. There's certainly some good players in there, but there's a lot of misses and guys who just haven't lived up to first round production.

The second round, however, has a lot of really good players in it.

 

[flynismo]

On 4/7/2016 at 5:14 PM, ALPHA said:

I thought he fell because the lights were off...

I'll show myself out.

[Gtown Purple]

This draft wasn't as bad as others where we totally whiffed in the first round. Yeah, a few misses but KO and Upshaw are going to help us in the compensatory formula. We also got the better part of the gino trade.

[808Blackbirds]

2004 draft 

[gtalk12]

I thought Kindle fell down a flight of stairs no?

[K-Dog]

12 minutes ago, gtalk12 said:

I thought Kindle fell down a flight of stairs no?

Correct. 

The story as I understand it is he got up in the middle of the night from sleeping.  Opened what he thought was a bathroom door,  was actually a door to the basement stairs.  As you could imagine,  as you are half asleep that first step was a doozey.

[rmcjacket23]

34 minutes ago, 808Blackbirds said:

2004 draft 

And the 2005 draft...

Those two years were quite bad.

[gtalk12]

26 minutes ago, K-Dog said:

Correct. 

The story as I understand it is he got up in the middle of the night from sleeping.  Opened what he thought was a bathroom door,  was actually a door to the basement stairs.  As you could imagine,  as you are half asleep that first step was a doozey.

 

what a shame, I was still too young to remember that much detail. I just know most of the guys on the forums thought very highly of him

[Guest]

On ‎4‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 8:40 PM, ellicottraven said:

Hmmm... that year Ozzie left his midas touch at home perhaps?

You  think it was a one year affliction?  Really?

[RavensDieHard21]

The second round of 2012 was stacked! Which goes to show our 36th selection in round 2 could pan out better than most first round selections if we land the right guy. Please Ozzie, find this year's Josh Norman or Antonio Brown. I want to find those diamonds in the rough!

[Gordo52]

Upshaw will forever be a great pick due to his FF. Idc idc

[Edgar]

We got our money's worth out of this draft even though it was short lived.

Bernard pierce was huge in post season. Some very big plays in the super bowl. He was a big part of that run, no doubt.