I still think, regardless of the plans, it was a bad move not to take at least one secondary guy....
I'm curious, where would you have taken one?
Our first 4 picks were MONSTER picks in my book. All great picks. A first, two second round picks and a third (Langford).
I've already detailed the dreariness of the sixth round DBs, so let's say you would have taken our fourth rounder (Shawn Murphy) instead (we didn't have a fifth):
EIGHT defensive backs were drafted in the fourth round, after we picked Murphy. Of these eight, TWO have as much as a single assist. Jonathan Wilhite, who plays for a team with a pretty bad secondary (the Pats), has a total of zero starts and two tackles (both solo). Dwight Lowery, who plays for the Jets, is the only player of the eight who looks like he might belong in the NFL. Lowery actually won a starting spot.
I think the problem is that cornerbacks and safeties are valued so greatly in today's NFL that there just isn't much left come the fourth round. This year, SIX defensive backs went in the first round, SIX in the second and SEVEN in the third. Plus the first two picks of the fourth were defensive backs (we picked eleventh). That's TWENTY ONE defensive backs that went off the board before we got there with out fourth.
Quickly looking that the positions drafted, I wasn't able to find a single position taken more often in the first three rounds (plus first 10 of fourth) than defensive back. And that's despite combining offensive and defensive linemen, respectively (since DBs cover both safeties and corners).
Seriously, if you want to grab a player for your secondary in the draft, you'd better be willing to spend a first-day pick on it.
For the hell of it, I decided to check where some top cornerbacks were drafted. Not wanting to bias anything by coming up with a list by myself, I googled for one.
http://www.football.com/top10/top_10_cornerbacks_in_the_league.html1 Champ Bailey – Denver Broncos
2 Chris McAlister – Baltimore Ravens
3 Asante Samuel – New England Patriots
4 DeAngelo Hall – Atlanta Falcons
5 Nate Clements – San Francisco 49ers
6 Rashean Mathis – Jacksonville
7 Ronde Barber - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8 Antoine Winfield -- Minnesota
9 Lito Shepard – Philadelphia Eagles
10 Charles Woodson – Green Bay Packers
Considering the number of DBs taken in every round of the draft, you'd expect a pretty good spread. Look at starting quarterbacks in the NFL. No position is more valued or more coveted, yet it's obviously a hard position to draft, because there are plenty of undrafted and lowly drafted starting quarterbacks out there (Romo and Brady, just to name one of each, although I submit that Brady technically isn't a starter right now).
Bailey: 7th overall
McAlister: 10th overall
Hall: 8th overall
Samuel: 120th overall (4th round)
Clements: 21st overall
Mathis: 39th overall (2nd round)
Barber: 66th overall (3rd round)
Winfield: 23rd overall
Sheppard: 26th overall
Woodson: 4th overall
That tells me that great cornerbacks are either pretty easy to identify or the shear number of them picked in the first rounds simply vacuums the market of any real talent.
Corner isn't like running back or lineman. You don't just find someone on day 2. You have to be willing to spend a good pick to get a good player.
Sure there are SOME good players taken later, there always will be, but considering the shear number of players taken at that position, the number of misses outside the first few rounds must be HUGE.
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