My take on yesterday

[Cbus cardsfan]

I wasn't around to much to post but here's how i came away thinking about the picks.

1-Levi Brown, i knew this would be our pick. It's hard to pass on a guy like AP and i was disappointed. But, a coaching buddy of mine told me last year that the Cards have gone about building a winning team in reverse. They built from the outside in. Whiz has said he was going to build the trenches and he's been true to his word. I don't dislike or like this pick. I'm just kind of, eh, on it. For some reason, i think Brown is going to turn out to be a pretty good player and, another thing, he's a smart player which is something the Cards OL has needed.

2-Alan Branch- how can you not love this pick? THe Cards named him as one of the potential superstars,in their minds, and got him in round 2. Who cares that we gave up a 4th round pick. You get to acquire the top DT,to me, in round 2, you do it. The guy is a phenomenel athlete.He even returned punts in high school. We got a John Henderson, Richard Seymour clone in round 2 . People want to say that he was overweight. Big deal. These guys all tend to put a bit of weight on after the season is over. He'll be in shape. JaMarcus Russell, Troy Smith, and a bunch of smaller guys all put on weight after the season. This is a big ,ole DT. Of course he's going to put on a couple pounds. For the people who don't like this pick, think of it this way. The Cards could have traded down to,say 12th, in round 1,acquired an extra pick, and selected Branch at 12. Most people would have been very happy. We got a guy who would've made people happy at 12 at number 33. This was a great move by the Cards.

3-Buster Davis- another very solid pick by the Cards.Like Buster said himself, if he was 6'0, he'd be a top 20 pick. Mike Singletary, Sam Mills, Ray Lewis, Jonathon Vilma,to name a few, were all undersized LB's that excelled in the NFL. The fact is that this guy brings it and brings it with nasty intentions. He outplayed Lawrence Timmons but since Timmons is 6'0(no monster in my book) he goes #15. I'll bet if you ask FSU fans they'll say Davis was the better player.

 

[CtCardinals78]

2-Alan Branch- how can you not love this pick? THe Cards named him as one of the potential superstars,in their minds, and got him in round 2. Who cares that we gave up a 4th round pick. You get to acquire the top DT,to me, in round 2, you do it. The guy is a phenomenel athlete.He even returned punts in high school. We got a John Henderson, Richard Seymour clone in round 2 . People want to say that he was overweight. Big deal. These guys all tend to put a bit of weight on after the season is over. He'll be in shape. JaMarcus Russell, Troy Smith, and a bunch of smaller guys all put on weight after the season. This is a big ,ole DT. Of course he's going to put on a couple pounds. For the people who don't like this pick, think of it this way. The Cards could have traded down to,say 12th, in round 1,acquired an extra pick, and selected Branch at 12. Most people would have been very happy. We got a guy who would've made people happy at 12 at number 33. This was a great move by the Cards.

.

When I woke up this morning I was kind of like eh about the Levi Brown pick. I really like the Buster Davis. I hope we can still get a good player today but not having that fourth round pick is really going to come back and bite us in the butt I think. However when I woke up this morning I was still upset about this pick. If we drafted him at 12 I would be even more ripped. Yesterday at the end of the first round I said we needed to stay away from two players Alan Branch and Chris Houston.


I hate this pick. When the season comes and he's good then I'll like it. When a guy projected to go at 6 drops to 33 because of his effort, weight, injuries are called into question that scares me. I think we could have gone another route. The last thing this team needs is another project. There is a reason he fell 27 spots. Even Gil Brandt says this is a boom or a bust pick. I agree there is no in between with this guy. I just hope we didn't lose out on a player we could have used with our fourth round like Michael Bush.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

I think it's stupid that players use dropping in the draft as motivation,as they should be motivated anyway, but him dropping will probably light a fire under him. I think he gets a bad rap for taking plays off. For one, it's hard for big guys to have the energy to look like they're playing at 100% every play. I'm sure they try every play but get worn down and then the taking plays off label comes on. It's even harder when you are getting doubled about every play. I think a DT rotation of Branch, Watson, Dockett, and Clancy is going to be pretty stout. Just think back a couple years ago and we had a DT rotation of Russell Davis,Wendell Bryant, Barron Tanner, and Ross K.

Plus, two of the better coaches in college(Carroll and Tressel) gave high marks to Branch as a player who could do alot of damage. I guess Branch could turn into an un-motivated slob like Bryant did, but being a second round pick makes that lack of motivation less likely than the big money that comes with being a first round selection would.

 

[CtCardinals78]

Yeah I don't know I also Tivo'd NFL Networks coverage and ESPN. I was listening to Sirius when me made the trade/pick and I was like oh crap because I knew it was coming. But when I came home and watched the coverage they showed tape of him. He is really only a bull rush type of player. He gets too upright and tends to get blown off the play. Like I said if he turns out to live up to his top 10 potential I'll be happy but as for right now I think we gave up way too much for him and took an unneccessary gamble on this kid. I hated it yesterday, hate it today and I hope I still don't hate it in September. As of now we traded Zach Miller and possibly Michael Bush for Alan Branch hope it works out.

 

[HardBall]

I actually like the Branch pick better than Brown. And, I love the Buster pick. IF (big if) these guys play to their potential, this will be a great draft. I fully agree that we can't be dealing with project players. But, I don't think Whis and Grimm are going to be taking any BS from lazy guys. That is evident in the dismissal of Big.

 

[Goldfield]

Branch = Buster Davis running wild.

 

[ryanshaug]

eek

I'm still on the fence about Branch, but if we would have traded down to get him at 12th I would have been pretty upset. I think where we got him is OK, and he could turn out to be OK, but I'm not that excited about the pick I guess. I'm more excited than most about Brown, after watching video of him - and I personally think he will be a better tackle than Thomas or Staley, all video I've seen on those guys spells out "bust".