IF White is gone, who do you pick?

[Whatever]

(03-27-2019, 08:25 AM)Au165 Wrote: Okay, let's move off Vander Esch then for a second as the specific player doesn't really matter for what I'm trying to say and you are hung up on that piece. Let's use Dareous Leonard as the person instead and maybe this will make more sense. Since you like using NFL.com ratings he was a 5.83. That would make him rated lower than Wilson or Bush and he definitely played a role in transforming the Colts defense. He was a first team all pro as a rookie.  

Had you taken him last year in the 1st, would you have been mad knowing what he'd be? You said there is no way you take a 4-3 LB projected as a late first early second at 11 (What Leonard was and where he went), but I think almost anyone in the NFL who needed a LB would have taken Leonard at 11 last year if they knew then what they know now. The point is the skill is the skill, don't get hung up on projections or rankings. It happens all the time where people say guys "reach" but it's only a reach if they don't work out. 

Pretty much any All Pro that wasn't a Top 3 pick was drafted later than they should have been in hindsight.  If the consensus was that Leonard was going to be that good, he wouldn't have made it out of the Top 10.  Part of the issue with him was that he played at a MEAC school and had little film against big boy competition, which made him tough to grade.  

However, the issue with Bush is that he's not that good of a prospect and there is little reason to believe he will be an All Pro.  How many 5'11" All Pro LB's can you name?  People think he's going to be this lock down cover LB that's going to eliminate pass catching TE's from the game, and that's unlikely to happen because he's going to have the same issues DB's have with the height disadvantage.  QB's don't have to adjust their throws as much to drop them in over 5'11" defenders in trail when throwing to 6'5" TE's.  Just like the QB has to be able to see over the LoS, so do the LB's so they can see ball fakes and make their reads, which is a problem for Bush.  He's undersized, makes bad reads, and he can't get off blocks and the fact that he's undersized contributes to the other two, making them more difficult to overcome.