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Lou Pickney's 2024 NFL Mock Draft


National Football League
Draft King Mailbag

February 4, 2005
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com

Reader feedback is always welcomed here at DraftKing.com. Send your thoughts to me at LouPickney@gmail.com.


From: Canter Family
Sent: Thursday, February 3, 2005 6:38 PM
To: LouPickney@hotmail.com
Subject: the dolphins

ok i beleive you about miami not getting a RB, if they get james or henery, but......maybe since they do have the #2 pick in the 1st round, you ever thought that they could get....i dont know.......... a QB! miami is the team that needs a QB the most feeley and feilder are embarrassing. they lead the league with turnovers and turnovers for TD's, why whould they not get a QB???? they have great WR. the deffence can wait, a offence always starts with a QB, thats the most important postion.

Lou: A free agent veteran QB could make an immediate impact for the Dolphins. Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith, on the other hand, would be FAR less likely to do that. It's very tough for rookies to adjust to the game on the pro level. If they could draft Matt Leinart I might say it'd be worth considering, but that's not even a possibility (not that Leinart would fall pass the 49ers anyway).

The Dolphins traded what turned out to be a high second round pick to obtain A.J. Feeley last off-season. Bad move? Of course. But there will be free agent QBs out there who the Dolphins could bring in and potentially have starting for them in week one. That's what SHOULD have happened in 2004, though of course hindsight is 20/20.

A reality check for Miami is that Patrick Surtain will need to be traded due to his very high salary. The Dolphins defense is the only thing that kept them from being a total embarrassment in 2004, and now's not the time to allow it to start crumbling. While Surtain would be preferable to Antrel Rolle in 2005, you have to also think long-term. That's why, for now, I'm sticking with Rolle.

Don't discount the possibility of Miami using a later draft pick on a QB to use in a developmental role. Maybe not in rounds 1-4, but on down the line there might be a diamond in the rough for Nick Saban and company to find and mold.


From: Scott Keeney
Sent: Thursday, February 3, 2005 9:50 PM
To: LouPickney@hotmail.com
Subject: Draft King mock draft

First, good job with the mock, I know how much work it takes and you can tell you did some homework on this (unlike some other "experts" who, for instance, still insist on giving the Cowboys a CB at 11). Just a few questions:

1. I'm surprised Shawne Merriman, OLB/DE, Maryland, isn't selected anywhere in your first round. A lot of people, myself included, have him going to the Cowboys with the 11th pick. I know others rank him closer to 20th overall - do you really think he falls to the second round?

2. If the Dolphins (especially with their cap issues) don't find a team to trade down with, will they really pay a CB second-pick dollars? If they get stuck with the pick, and they don't want Benson, I think Miami goes after more of a difference-maker, like Mike Williams or Derrick Johnson. The CB position, especially with the new rule emphasis, depends too much on what happens elsewhere on the field.

3. I have a feeling that Erasmus James' injury-history will knock him out of the top 15, possibly out of the top 20, but I haven't read anything specific about that anywhere. He just seems too much of a risk. I know he could be a good pro if healthy, but is the risk-reward ratio really right at the 9 spot?

Lou: Those are some intelligent questions... Let me go through them one-by-one.

Merriman is someone who very well could be a first rounder. At 6'4" 253, he has an NFL frame, and if he can match his 4.6 40 time at the combine his stock should keep going up. What I think might cause him to slip out of the first round is that as a DE/OLB tweener, he will not be an ideal fit in some defensive schemes. But the guy is a tremendous pass rusher and a fantastic athlete, which is a plus. What might be a problem is if a team is trying to choose between him and, say, Matt Roth (Iowa) or David Pollack (Georgia) to fill a DE spot. I could see San Diego at #28 snatching him if they get a receiver at #12, since they have needs at OLB and DE. Merriman is on the cusp of moving up into my first round, but I want to hear a little more first about how his individual workouts are going (since many expect him to excel at those).

As for the Dolphins, I did address their situation above. Paying a CB second pick money is, in my estimation, no worse than paying that to a linebacker. Despite the rule changes, there is still the need for quality CB talent, and if you look at the types of secondaries that Nick Saban had at LSU (especially on that 2003 co-national championship team), I don't think he'll want to scrimp at that position. However, all reports are that the Dolphins want to trade down. If they can find a willing partner who will pay fair market value, I can't say I'd blame them one bit for that.

I expect every team doctor to give Erasmus James' formerly dislocated hip the closest of inspections. You don't want to spend a high pick on damaged goods. But I think that teams will find that James is healthy and won't penalize him for the off-season injury that cost him the entire 2003 season. He did suffer an ankle injury against Purdue this year, but it was nothing serious, and if nothing else the way Purdue was suddenly able to move the ball with him not in there was evidence of how dominant he was from his left DE position.

If Washington opts not to take James at #9, other possibilities lurk right below, including Detroit (#10), Dallas (#11) and San Diego (#12). If he falls beyond that, I'd be surprised, and I think it would take a fresh injury (a la Keneche Udeze last year) to cause him to slip beyond that spot.


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