SUMMARY: If actions speaks louder than words, Titans GM Floyd Reese feels the 2002 was not a good one for his team. Three recent free agency signings were drafted by other teams in 2002. S Chris Hope was a third-round choice of the Pittsburgh Steelers (94th overall). The Titans drafted a safety a round earlier when they took Tank Williams 45th overall (39 spots before Hope). LB David Thornton was a fourth-round draft choice of the Indianapolis Colts (106th overall) that same year. Once again, the Titans wanted help at that spot and moved a round earlier when they chose Rocky Calmus in the third (77th overall). Finally, there was WR David Givens, who was taken in the seventh round (253rd overall) by the New England Patriots. Once again, the Titans looked for late-round help at that spot and settled on Jake Schifino (fifth round, 151st) and Darrell Hill (seventh round, 225th) when they could have had Givens.
What do you think about this article? Post your comments below.
What do you think about this article? Post your comments below.
Good article but thats the risk of the draft. Who is to say that the players we drafted didnt show more potential or have better stats than the free agents we just drafted coming out of college. In alot of our cases we have to evaluate how our players would have played had they not been injured. Who is to say had he not been injured Calico could have been our go to receiver?
clamus could play, when healthy. the thing is, he didnt have injury problems in college.
What about Carlos Hall, Drew Bennett, and Reynaldo Hill? Are there 31 GM's that are dissapointed because they didnt take them when they had the chance?
i dont know about carlos hall. he had a lot of his career sacks in his first year.
not much to be honest. three of the four guys (tank, calmus and schifino) all had injury problems they didnt have in college.
SEC 330 BIPOLAR said:
I think it says a lot about the "style of draft" he took that year. We were a 7-9 team after the 2001 season, but we were positioning ourselves for a playoff run in 2002. Floyd needed to draft the most "game-ready" players, and get immediate contribution. That's where we seemed to sacrifice "potential" vs. "game-readiness."
Without Tank Williams or Carlos Hall, we may never have been an 11-5 team that went to the AFC Championship. I guess the important thing here is to assess what the objectives were during that year's draft, and to see if they were accomplished.
bigtitan53279 said:
I think he was a good pick for a 7th rounder. Calmus may have never been spectacular, but still solid if ever healthy. He had the instincts.
Just goes to show Reese is not the genius that many on this Board think he is. Sure he's found Runyan, Mason, and Olson on the second day, but he's had his share of stupid picks, just like every other GM, including plenty of first day picks.
In hind sight you can always find better players drafted after your picks.
If we can find one solid starter each draft we are doing well IMO. When you are basically shut out of FA each year those picks become super critical. I'm sure alot of team wished they had drafted Mason before we got him in the 4th round.
One problem I do think Reese has is he focuses too much on need after the 1st round. Drafting groups of guys at the same postion hoping one will work out. IMO you should try to take the BPA with every pick with need being the tie breaker, not the ultimate deciding factor. We have way to much dead weight because of those picks.
If we can find one solid starter each draft we are doing well IMO. When you are basically shut out of FA each year those picks become super critical. I'm sure alot of team wished they had drafted Mason before we got him in the 4th round.
One problem I do think Reese has is he focuses too much on need after the 1st round. Drafting groups of guys at the same postion hoping one will work out. IMO you should try to take the BPA with every pick with need being the tie breaker, not the ultimate deciding factor. We have way to much dead weight because of those picks.
Soxcat said:
I agree about not drafting so many players at the same position in the same year any more. We drafted a whole crew of defensive linemen a couple years back - Laboy, Odom, Starks, Schoebel, Clauss and then last year drafted 3 offensive linemen and 3 WR (Roos, Steward, Loper and Roby, B.Jones, R.Williams). I'd prefer we spread out the picks over different years different positions after we've had time to evaluate what we have, and maybe instead of taking all similar position in one year, mix in more variety over time. It should help the quality of depth (not so many greenies at once) and maybe if after a year we know better whether we need to spend more draft picks on a certain position. Seems like drafting so many at once at one position forces you to keep a lot of youth on the team to let it develop because you only have so many roster spots.
Soxcat said:
Me and my brother went through the 1999 draft in the Athlon book and we think around 4 or 5 times actually had a good draft that year. There wouldnt be too many around from that year.
I don't think this article really says anything at all because:
1) Every FA who gets signed COULD have been drafted by us.
(unless came from AFL, CFL)
2) So what. We couldn't have kept them any cheaper if we had originally drafted them.
I think this is a stupid article. The GM's who drafted each of those had their share of busts during that year also. If anything, it says more about our player development in that we had few "stars" come out.
1) Every FA who gets signed COULD have been drafted by us.
(unless came from AFL, CFL)
2) So what. We couldn't have kept them any cheaper if we had originally drafted them.
I think this is a stupid article. The GM's who drafted each of those had their share of busts during that year also. If anything, it says more about our player development in that we had few "stars" come out.
There's not a GM in the league that doesn't miss on a pick or two every year. Look at guys like Volek, Bennett, Priest Holmes, Rod Smith, etc....nobody drafted them.
Now, granted, Floyd had a stretch of bad years, and got very little return on investment from the 2001 & 2002 drafts, and the 2003 draftees certainly have not lived up to their billing as yet. However, the 2004 draft has been quite productive, and the 2005 draft may very well turn out to be one of the best in franchise history...I'd hate to pull the rug out from under him just as he's hitting his stride again.
I'm not making excuses for the guy...after all, Floyd was the one who was responsible the screwed up cap situation. But in the last year or two, we have seen progress that makes me think perhaps Floyd has learned from his past mistakes, which should prevent similar mistakes in the future. Far too many teams are looking for the quick fix, and will clean house after two or three bad years. This approach may satsify the fans' sense of blood lust after a couple losing seasons, but it certainly doesn't promote any sense of stability within the organization....and how successful can an organization be if they're starting from scratch every 3-5 years?
It seems that a number of people prefer to villify Reese for mistakes that he made four or five years ago, and ignore the promising results from his moves in the last two years. With the talent they acquired in the last couple drafts, and some very shrewd moves in free agency, we're finally starting to see things get turned around, and we're ever so close to being out of the woods....the least we can do is give Floyd the benefit of the doubt until we see the results of his latest actions. The hard part is already over... given the overall direction we've seen thus far, I think he's righted the ship in a big way.
Now, granted, Floyd had a stretch of bad years, and got very little return on investment from the 2001 & 2002 drafts, and the 2003 draftees certainly have not lived up to their billing as yet. However, the 2004 draft has been quite productive, and the 2005 draft may very well turn out to be one of the best in franchise history...I'd hate to pull the rug out from under him just as he's hitting his stride again.
I'm not making excuses for the guy...after all, Floyd was the one who was responsible the screwed up cap situation. But in the last year or two, we have seen progress that makes me think perhaps Floyd has learned from his past mistakes, which should prevent similar mistakes in the future. Far too many teams are looking for the quick fix, and will clean house after two or three bad years. This approach may satsify the fans' sense of blood lust after a couple losing seasons, but it certainly doesn't promote any sense of stability within the organization....and how successful can an organization be if they're starting from scratch every 3-5 years?
It seems that a number of people prefer to villify Reese for mistakes that he made four or five years ago, and ignore the promising results from his moves in the last two years. With the talent they acquired in the last couple drafts, and some very shrewd moves in free agency, we're finally starting to see things get turned around, and we're ever so close to being out of the woods....the least we can do is give Floyd the benefit of the doubt until we see the results of his latest actions. The hard part is already over... given the overall direction we've seen thus far, I think he's righted the ship in a big way.
There is no way to know how good the class of '02 would have been if they could have stayed healthy.
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