We’re in the home stretch with just a handful of picks to go in our 2014 NFL Draft Re-Draft. We’ve been looking through our own personal imaginary wormhole into another dimension over the last week, making the picks that most of these clubs should have made the first time around. That’s not taking into account teams like the Oakland Raiders who get royally screwed in any 2014 re-draft scenario since no one, in any of these pretend draft do-overs on the internet, have the Raiders getting either of the superstar players they nabbed in their original draft (Derek Carr and Khalil Mack).
Let’s take a look at how we got here; 1. Houston Texans – Aaron Donald, 2. St. Louis Rams – Jadeveon Clowney, 3. Jacksonville Jaguars – Khalil Mack, 4. Buffalo Bills – Derek Carr, 5. Oakland Raiders – Teddy Bridgewater, 6. Atlanta Falcons – Odell Beckham, Jr. 7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Mike Evans, 8. Cleveland Browns – Blake Bortles, 9. Minnesota Vikings – Taylor Lewan, 10. Detroit Lions – Devonte Freeman, 11. Tennessee Titans – Zach Martin, 12. New York Giants – Kelvin Benjamin, St. Louis Rams – Jake Matthews, 14. Chicago Bears – C.J. Mosley, 15. Pittsburgh Steelers – Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, 16. Dallas Cowboys – Dee Ford, 17. Baltimore Ravens – Telvin Smith, 18. New York Jets – Deone Bucannon, 19. Miami Dolphins – Jarvis Landry, 20. New Orleans Saints – Sammy Watkins, 21. Green Bay Packers – Ryan Shazier, 22. Cleveland Browns – Brandin Cooks, 23. Kansas City Chiefs – Allen Robinson, 24. Cincinnati Bengals – Kyle Fuller.
If you’d like to read Part 1 you can click here, part two click here, part three click here, part four click here and part 5 click here.
We’re drafting here! We’re drafting here!
25. San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers – Bradley Roby, CB, Ohio State
Original pick: Jason Verrett, CB, TCU
Jason Verrett is a potential star when he’s on the field. The only problem is he’s only been on the field for one full season out of three. Roby, on the other hand, is buried on one of the best cornerback depth charts in the universe. He’s the slot and No. 3 corner behind two of the best in the game, Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. Roby more than makes the most of his time on the field, recording 146 tackles, two sacks, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, 32 passes defended, five interceptions and two defensive touchdowns in his three seasons. And that’s just with a total of 10 starts. On any other team Roby would be the No.1 corner and, unlike Verrett’s time with the Chargers, he’d actually get to line up every Sunday (or Monday …or Thursday)
26. Philadelphia Eagles – Anthony Barr, LB, UCLA
Original pick: Marcus Smith, LB, Louisville
It’s a precipitous fall for Barr, but the man still goes in the first round and everyone ends up with a better player than they originally selected. The Eagles still have a gaping hole at weakside linebacker. Barr would plug that hole with a real NFL talent. Smith, of course, was a huge draft bust for the Eagles. In three years he never started a game and recorded all of 18 tackles and four sacks as a defensive end. He’s still officially on the roster, but the team declined to pick up his fifth-year option.
27. Arizona Cardinals – Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, Eastern Illinois
Original pick: Deone Bucannon, Safety, Washington State
And just like that, I fix the Arizona Cardinals’ biggest problem for the next decade and a half. Sure, Garoppolo has only started two games in the NFL, but he was pretty great in those two games. He won both of them, completed 68.3 percent of his passes for 502 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. Bucannon is a defensive star for Arizona, but he’s off the board. The best guys left are defensive backs and wide receivers, something the Cardinals do not need. What they do need is a quarterback of the future in 2014 and a guy who would be the quarterback of the present in 2017. Carson Palmer is the weak link on this team and he’s only getting weaker. Picking Garoppolo here would have created the Cardinals team everyone likes to pretend exists right now.
28. Carolina Panthers – Jordan Matthews, WR, Vanderbilt
Original pick: Kelvin Benjamin, WR, Florida State
With Benjamin off the board and catching passes from Eli Manning, the Panthers still have a need at wide receiver. The fill it with Jordan Matthews, who jumps up from No. 42 in the original 2014 draft. Matthews was the most prolific wide receiver in the history of the Southeastern Conference, which is why it was such a mystery to me he dropped to the second round to begin with. He’d been getting open against NFL-level cornerbacks his entire collegiate career and done it with scrub Vanderbilt quarterbacks. What else does it take to convince an NFL scout the guy is a first round talent. How about 225 catches for 2,673 yards and 19 touchdowns over his first three years in the league?
29. New England Patriots – Eric Ebron, TE, North Carolina
Original pick: Dominique Easley, DT, Florida
It’s no secret that the Patriots’ offense works better with two pass-catching tight ends. It’s even more true that they need a guy that can step in as the No. 1 tight end if and when Rob Gronkowski goes down with an injury as he often does. Martellus Bennett served that role last year, but in years past the Patriots have struggled to fill that role since… well, you know who was their tight end. It’s taken Ebron three seasons to really show his potential, but that’s with the completely inept Detroit Lions coaching staff working with him. On the Patriots staff, he’d likely be a completely different player and worth something like 50 catches, 700 yards and seven touchdowns a season. Ebron has developed into a solid weapon for Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions. It’s likely he would have started out as one with the Pats.
Easley was heading towards bust-ville until a change of scenery in Los Angeles completely changed his career outlook. Easley had a fanstastic season as a reserve defensive tackle in the Rams 4-3 scheme, recording 35 tackles, 3.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and one pass defense. If he’d put up those kinds of numbers in New England, they would have never cut him. As it is, Easley should actually start this season at defensive end in the Rams’ new 3-4 scheme with defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
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