Kiper gives Colts draft grade D +

[Warhorse]

Taking a player at a certain round really is in the eye of the beholder, There have been reaches that have not worked out and some reaches that have, What analysts may consider a reach Grigson may not consider a reach, What I consider a reach Grigson may or may not

This should be read by everyone. ^^^^

 

1) Any opinion about ranking, slotting or value by anyone who hasn't worked in this field at the pro level is just an opinion. Repeating that opinion as fact is an impetus for wasted arguments that determine absolutely nothing.

 

2) Declaring a pick as wasted or invalid in any fashion based on their 1st or sometimes 2nd year production is uninformed.

 

3) Drafting now to fill current holes as starters (other than the top few picks) is a practice that failing teams do. Draft depth with potential to start in the future. Fill immediate holes through FA with experience.

[mvbighead]

 

 

 

The WR won't see the field this year much.

The inside linebacker is weak in coverage. 

The DE is undersized and will struggle to crack the roster.

 

I still see us trading away Whalen or Brazil, and I imagine Moncrief will add depth and develop over year one.  In all likelihood, we let Nicks walk and Moncrief steps in as his replacement in year 2.  An excellent plan, and given Nicks injury history (along with Wayne's age and recent injury), there is very little reason to believe that Moncrief won't have some chances this year.

 

I'd seen some videos of him playing fairly decent in coverage.  All in all, run stopping is our biggest problem, and he seems quite good in that ball park.  His coverage will be necessary from time to time, but it's hardly a reason to be concerned.  He won't be the guy covering Gronkowski one on one.

 

The DE is an OLB in this scheme, and is hardly undersized for that. 6-3 250 is a fairly common size for that position.

 

See what I did there?  I took every one of your negatives and looked at the sunny side.  You can either be negative about the draft process or you can look at the actual thought behind it.

[GoPats]

I didn't read all six pages of this thread but has anyone ever actually looked into Kiper's track record after-the-fact? Honest question. I'm curious to know if, say three years after he does his thing with the draft each year, he looks more like a prophet or more like a fool. My guess is the later but I'd love to see some kind of audit on his predictions/scouting reports. 

 

Answered my own question here a little. Interesting.

 

http://deadspin.com/infographic-youre-better-off-guessing-than-listening-480958913/1573510998/+kylenw

 

When you think about it, Kiper and his fellow crew of draftniks are at least partially responsible for just about every bust the NFL has seen. They rate these guys highly and they end up flaming out. On the other side of that, they totally whiff on other guys who are taken late or undrafted and end up being stars. Yet they get to give out the grades? 

[Flash7]

Answered my own question here a little. Interesting.

 

http://deadspin.com/infographic-youre-better-off-guessing-than-listening-480958913/1573510998/+kylenw

 

When you think about it, Kiper and his fellow crew of draftniks are at least partially responsible for just about every bust the NFL has seen. They rate these guys highly and they end up flaming out. On the other side of that, they totally whiff on other guys who are taken late or undrafted and end up being stars. Yet they get to give out the grades? 

I get what you are saying, GoPAts. Kiper and McShay consistently miss on their grades.

 

I would argue, however, that no matter who you have providing their analysis, they would miss at nearly the same rate. It's very difficult to evaluate every player, their situation, their fit within their college team or the team that drafts them; each players determination and their desire to get better; and most importantly, you can't know for sure which team will draft which player. This is important because some teams (Browns, Raiders) are so dysfunctional, it almost doesn't matter who they draft. They will ruin that player's career.

[ThatOneColtFan]

Surprised people still care about draft grades. 

[CopenhagenColt]

Are you saying that we have a ton of quality at WR?

Can you explain how that is?

If we had a ton of quality, why didn't we beat the Patriots? Why did Andrew Luck throw 7 interceptions in the postseason if our passing game is such high quality?

I'm just trying to understand how you see a WR core that features:

-Aging Veteran coming off a serious injury

-Veteran who's been injured the past few years constantly

-One proven WR who can be very explosive but can disappear out of the game at times

-A poor man's Austin Collie who while is very good at moving the chains, can easily be replaced

- A WR who barely touches the field despite being here since Grigson got here

- And last but not least, a very raw WR who has the potential to be a good #1 but hasn't tapped into that potential yet

So explain to me how that's a high quality WR core?

The "aging veteran coming off an injury", was still one of the best WRs in the league last season.

"The disappearing WR" I assume is T.Y. - Like most players, he has has ups and downs, but he's still one of the biggest playmakers in the game and his stats show that.

 

Sure we can all find a bunch of "if's" and "but's", but Reggie, T.Y., Nicks, Rogers, Brazill and Whalen is still a very solid group of WRs, well above average. Sure it's not Megatron, Julio Jones, A.J. Green, Demaryius Thomas, Victor Cruz and Wes Welker, but that group of WRs is still high quality. Now other parts of our team could need a lift in quality, significantly more than our WRs and, personal opinion coming up, would rather have used that pick on other areas of our team where we will look paperthin really fast with an injury to a starting player. If we have an injury to Reggie or Nicks, we'll still be able to field players who can move the chains and put points on the board.

I'm fully aware that Reggie won't last forever, but there will be other drafts and other FA periods, so getting someone able to catch the football for the future could have been postponed for a year.

 

Why we didn't beat the Patriots? Do you really think we lost that game because of our WRs?

How about not being able to stop a mediocre RB from walking all over us?

We lost because the Patriots were the better team, and they showed that all night.

Is Andrew Lucks interceptions all about the WRs? How about Andrew Luck, doesn't he carry some of the blame? How about the O-line in that matter, no part of the responsibility there? It's really all down to the WRs simply sucking?

[BlueCollarColts]

Lets not forget all of our WR's were extremely young last season, and with the additions of Moncrief and Nicks, I believe we have the best receiving core in the league.

[Poster X]

The people that "love" this draft must have rose-colored glasses on. Now I will hold off a year or 2 before "grading it" but don't expect good grades from analysts this week.

I personally think we had one of the worst drafts this year. I was in shock of the picks that we made, except for Moncrief. But we don't even need a WR, like at all. We do however need CB/S (depth at least). I'm scared of our secondary, they have been ignored all offseason(except for re-signing Vontae) and it's going to come back to bite us.

I'm about ready for a new GM or at least new draft scouts because these guys have been TERRIBLE in early rounds the past 2 years. Late round picks are fine with me this year, look like they have great potential but really think drafting a CB or a safety could've made this draft look a lot better. We are not the 49ers, we can't just draft BPA everytime without addressing some key needs on this football team.

Kiper is that you?

[rsrobinson]

There's only 2 teams with enough depth to have the injuries we had & still get to their conference championship game & that's Seattle & San Francisco

You all sit back & talk about depth & say Seattle & San Francisco are so great but forget to realize they've been bottom feeding the last 6+ years. It's easy to get depth & top talent when you're picking top 10 in the draft consistently. Unless you're the Jags cause they just suck.

But point being, the 49ers & Seahawks took TIME to get to the talent their at. You all are too impatient, that's the problem. You can't build dynastys & championship teams overnight. Just doesn't happen.

Since 2010 when Pete Carroll and John Schneider were hired they've had only one top ten pick (Russell Okung) and the past two drafts haven't even made a pick in the first round. There were also only three players left over from the previous regime on the Super Bowl roster, none of them top ten picks. They built their roster by drafting extremely well in the later rounds and turning obscure players from the CFL and other teams' practice squads into starters. It also didn't take them much TIME....their 2013 roster that won the Super Bowl was assembled in just three years after blowing up a roster that had won a total of nine games the previous two years.

And the Seahawks' success is a good reason to ignore draft grades because they almost always get bad grades for their drafts since they evaluate players differently than the likes of Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. The "experts" frequently scratched their heads about many of the Seahawks' selections who later turned out to be starters, Pro Bowlers, and even All-Pros.

[Modern]

I'm still laughing about someone trying to justify every player being drafted as benefiting Luck and keeping him healthy.

The waterboy who mixes the Gatorade to keep Luck hydrated. The groundskeeper who makes sure there are no rocks on the field for Luck to trip on. The valet parking attendant who opens the door so Luck doesn't hurt his throwing hand by grabbing the handle awkwardly. The stop sign on the corner making sure on coming traffic doesn't run into Luck.

All of these things come together to protect Luck. What round did we take the stop sign in ? Never mind doesn't matter.

[TKnight24]

I'm still laughing about someone trying to justify every player being drafted as benefiting Luck and keeping him healthy.

The waterboy who mixes the Gatorade to keep Luck hydrated. The groundskeeper who makes sure there are no rocks on the field for Luck to trip on. The valet parking attendant who opens the door so Luck doesn't hurt his throwing hand by grabbing the handle awkwardly. The stop sign on the corner making sure on coming traffic doesn't run into Luck.

All of these things come together to protect Luck. What round did we take the stop sign in ? Never mind doesn't matter.

Stop sign was a UDFA out of Traffic Signs University

[Modern]

Still a better center then Satele.

[chrisfarley]

I wonder how people view the Colts draft now?  Now that some time has passed and people have had a chance to digest and regurgitate about 50 times?

[Guest NDColts!!]

Wow !,see that most fans are calling for the heads to roll with this draft process. Honestly seems that the bloggers have forgotten this same team of scouts and Grigson, That kept the Colts winners and not whiners an the so called experts are calling this a D grade, it seems 1st and foremost injuries led Luck and the offense to struggle.  The running backs an receivers was addressed . The defense was able to improve  in this draft considering the lack of higher picks they have addressed most areas that they could with the picks they had. The secondary was not a position that was addressed with off season pick ups and with Grigson"s history of being a secondary coach he should know whats up If the Defense can put more QB pressure lets the secondary to attack with less risk, used real well in the SB blowout of DENVER!!!

[Steamboat_Shaun]

I've never taken 1 thing Kiper says seriously. He's supposed an "expert" at this draft thing, then gets 4 out of 32 correct picks in the first round. He'd get more right if he were just throwing darts at a draft board. I personally loved the Mewhort pick, and what's not to like about Moncrief?

[Coffeedrinker]

I've never taken 1 thing Kiper says seriously. He's supposed an "expert" at this draft thing, then gets 4 out of 32 correct picks in the first round. He'd get more right if he were just throwing darts at a draft board. I personally loved the Mewhort pick, and what's not to like about Moncrief?

Kiper does a mock draft because that is what his fans want.  He doesn't study teams and their draft history or needs, etc.

 

Kiper is good at evaluating college players and identifying their strengths and weaknesses.  Everything beyond that is just because he loses subscribers if he does not provide them.