I agree, I do not see Boone as a DE. That is one of the things that bothers me as we head towards the minicamps. Hali will be fine at one end. What else do we have? Turk really needs to step up. We also need a third DE to rotate in. Who is that going to be? It is hard to look at a 7th round pick and expect him to contribute. We really could use another solid DE.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback Merlin, I think most will be pretty pleased with this season if we keep in mind that we are in phase 2 of a 3 stage rebuild.

I really like our draft to and I hope the draftees will grow into the players we want.

This is why I proposed updating the framework 2 or 3 times as more factual info becomes available. I just like the framework for analysis and have no problem with viewing the 1st pass as a “working draft”. Odds are, you are both right in at least some respects.

I’d revise dorsey as an 86, given a top five pick should start and perform well in his role. As for DL picks that did well as rookies, there have been several, they aren’t always top picks though, point taken.

I’m sticking to my guns on Albert, and only time will tell, but I expect him to be a solid starter, he may not be Joe Thomas, but I doubt he’s far off. He could have been our pick at 5, thats how much we thought of him.

Again with Flowers, time will tell, but I don’t feel I was off my rocker on this, he’s a cover 2 guy, coming into a cover 2 scheme. He’ll get beat sometimes but I don’t feel like placing him at the low end of “solid starter” is overly optimistic.

Cottam could go either way, so I’ll give you this one, but I didn’t take health into account for this particular post.

Morgan I’ll just concede, I really like the guy, and think he’ll take a spot, but he could flop just as easily.

I said I wasn’t rating Merritt on being a pass catcher, given the enormous praise from Herm as a blocker, that is what I rated him on. I don’t remember the exact word, but it was something like phenomenal or unbelievable. Many here believe he’s an O-line project, so I don’t feel bad rating him that. As a pure tight end, given he only caught 17 balls in his career, I’d rate him much lower. For perspective, in his prime, I would have rated Jason Dunn a 95, he didn’t catch much but he was the best blocking TE in the game. I don’t think its that hard to comprehend the logic in rating a blocking TE as a blocker.

As for the O-line, we’re talking about replacing the likes of Turley, Welbourn, Svitek (although maybe he’ll have improved and take a spot) I have no problem calling it for 2008, we have several guys competing for the job, last year they just assumed the guys they had would be ok. If there’s anything I’m confident about its that we will be better on O-line.

I still think the overall point is that we are better now than last year. Even if you call the O-line incomplete. Frankly, I think you’re nitpicking, I could easily be way off, and I said that, it was just a conversation starter.

You said “I’ll try to be conservative on the ratings, and its just for arguments sake, I’m no scout”

Well, let’s break down your conservative ratings of our draft class.

1] Dorsey: 90. Near superstar in his first year in the NFL? How many D-lineman were at that level in their first year? Not many.

2] Albert: 85. Transitioning from elite college guard to NFL left tackle results in a solid starter rating? Maybe, but a conservative rating it is not.

3] Flowers 83. This is close, but still a bit optimistic.

4] Cottam 80. Maybe. Can he stay healthy?

5] Morgan 85 Pretty high rating for a rookie. You expect alot out of him.

I’ll pass on going through the rest, with a mention of Merritt being rated an 83. This is a 7th round pick! Your logic on this one really escapes me. In essence, you argue that Merritt can only do half what Cottam can do, so you are rating him higher.

I am so glad you didn’t get optimistic with your ratings. If you did, we would be sending half this class to the pro bowl.

Another point. How can you leave two spots open on the O-line and still call it for the 2008 squad? Fairness would dictate that you call that comparison incomplete.

I think your projections are optimistic and is a best case scenario for these draftees as they enter their 2009 season, not 2008. I think most of us would be happy with that.

And I’m absolutely stoked about having him on the team. I think he is Herm’s kind of player, and will be given every chance to get to full strength, and succeed. I guarantee Herm will find someway to keep him around.

Did you know that Berry, Dingle’s former teammate, will be a sophomore this year? If he comes out after this season year, maybe he’ll fall to us and get a spot on the bench.