Homotron said:
I never said they were going to be all super stars but this is the most exciting I've been about a draft class since I've been alive. DeCastro is plug and play. Adams doesn't even HAVE to start because I do believe they're still going to bring Starks back in to the fold. No matter what he was a first round talent that fell to the second round. You then add in Spence who is probably the most instinctual lb in the entire draft but fell because of his size and follow it up with Rainey in the 5th who has "Darren Sproles Type back" written all over him. He's also basically the half brother to the Pouncey Brothers having lived with them for several years in high school and then college. I still can't believe we landed DeCastro.
I may have forgotten that the Steelers got Rainey. I agree however with your assessment. Had the Browns retained Hillis to be their "big back", and not gone after TR, Rainey was one of the guys I thought the Browns should think hard about taking as their "scatback", their Darren Sproles type back, as you say. The other was LaMichael James...but I guess we have had our fill of LaWhatever James's around here.
On the DeCastro pick, however, I don't know why you would be so surprised. After all, he is an OG. Despite whatever quality grade he may have had, OG's don't go high. At most I would have thought he would have gone a few picks higher than the 24 he was taken at. I mean, an OG has not been taken in the top 10 of the NFL draft since 1988. In recent years the very top OGs have gone 15-16-17 at the highest.
That being said, if you are going to find a potential HOF type talent at OG, it will probably be in the 1st round of the draft.
The following are the OGs that have been taken in the first round of the draft since 1966 that are now HOFers:
Tom Mack
Gene Upshaw
Joe DeLamelleure
John Hannah
Mike Munchak
Bruce Matthews
Randle McDaniel
The only HOFer OGs who were not first round picks are Larry Little and Russ Grimm. A couple of other first round OGs that might make the HOF are Alan Faneca and Steve Hutchinson.
So, if you were going to get a real catch at OG, it would probably be in the first round.
That said, OGs seem to have become like RBs in the last decade: undervalued perhaps because of the change in the game.
And for all we also know, it may be Kevin Zeitler, OG out of Wisconsin taken at 27 by the Bengals that may be the real find at OG and not DeCastro. For all you know you have another Tom Ricketts on your hand. An OG drafted by the Steelers with the 24th pick in 1989. Played only 2-3 years before being kicked to the corner by the Steelers.