I am not drinking kool aid. I think Will McClays history at drafting earns some level of respect. I think MMs resume as an NFL HC earns some respect that he knows the pro game and knows what he is doing.

You can ride McClay’s nuts all you want. I won’t do that. I haven’t forgotten Trysten Hill or Kelvin Joseph or Nashon Wright or a hundred other guys he took for whatever inscrutable reasons despite it being completely obvious they weren’t NFL prospects. I measure draft classes on wins and losses in the playoffs, because that’s all I care about. Pet picks and coach’s projects aren’t my cup of tea.

Mike McCarthy’s best offenses in his career had Jermichael Finley or Jared Cook at TE. He grew to love the Andrew Quarless/Richard Rodgers type bums TEs- which is where he’s at based on who this team drafts- but he was better when he had that movable chess piece type.

Your comments that “this selection was a mistake” and the fact that you commented multiple times throughout this post show that you find your analysis of the situation to be more educated than those two guys who are paid millions of dollars to pick players for Dallas, despite being recognized as some of the best in the business at doing so. That to me is a red flag when it comes to respecting your opinion.

It is. I have maintained time and time again that the draft and scouting process isn’t secret knowledge. Anyone can acquire the ability to ID good players and avoid the bad ones with enough work and a clear mind. In my case, it is simple common sense- I’m also not getting a bunch of scouts or assistant coaches up my ass about this guy they like or that guy they saw, either. I operate free of their own limitations. Of course I trust my own thinking more than a pair of guys who haven’t won a damn thing here.

In regards to college production, that isn’t always the tell of the tape. Translating college production to NFL potential is not an exact science, as you can see from the many Heisman winners who put up elite stats and struggled in the NFL. Michigan has a physical offense that doesn’t spread out and run up passing stats. Daron Bland had 2 picks in college. He has 12 in the pro’s and was a 5th round draft pick. Tom Brady was a 6th rounder out of Michigan and is the all time greatest QB to ever live. So all the stats and metrics are only a piece of the puzzle of projecting a player.

Playing DB isn’t about production. It is about traits. That is something Nashon Wright lacked when he was picked, for example. If you can’t be productive or good in college, you won’t be good in the NFL and those rare exceptions are seldom taken with a top-60 pick with the expectations that are connected to that draft status. If your argument consists of defaulting to Tom Brady, the biggest exception in NFL history, then your premise is perhaps weak.

I don’t try to say that LS is going to be an elite playmaker and pro bowler. I just see a guy who can block, is athletic enough to get open and has potential to be a contributor on a winning team. He is already doing that and will only get better. I concede that he probably won’t see a second contract here since Dallas doesn’t seem to want to spend big on even Schultz who played very well here and was a solid playmaker, and security blanket for Dak. They chose to replace that production on a rookie deal and will likely do so again in 4-5 years.

Let’s hope that they don’t take someone in a nursing home with that replacement pick.