Time to Build an Offensive Line

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

Hmmm, francise QB or franchise LT? Joe Thomas or Phillip Rivers? Stop being so short sighted people. This is going to be a two year process. I agree that one of the first two picks should be O-Line but lets not pretend that all of our problems will be fixed by picking two O-Lineman with our first two picks. All that did for the Jags was get them to 8-8.

You don't pass up a franchise QB and it's clear to most scouts right now that Bradford is that type of guy. Just pray that he falls to us, in which case you'll thank the front office in a few years.

You make it sound like it is the end of the world if we don't get Bradford. Jacksonville may have been 8-8, but they were still in the playoff hunt before they fell apart. Besides, there are issues in Jax outside of football that are hunting that franchise. Furthermore, I can show you a Miami or a NYJets as teams that addressed their line first, and then went QB (Jets) or addressed the line and were able to develop their 2nd round QB (Henne).

Tackles can be just as important as QBs. Given that we have a serviceable QB that could play for a year or two, it's really hard to pass up on a franchise tackle when we had the JaMarcus Russell equivalent of an offensive line.

I know Bradford appears to have a lot of talent, but in the end he got injured during his senior year and did not play the majority of his final season in college. I'm sure for the sane mind this is not much of an issue and players do come back from these injuries and can be successful. But you are asking a team to gamble on this player with those two things in mind (injury and not playing), and pass up on the bast tackle that can be a huge improvement to the unit that just lost its best player (Samuels), and has been a big contributor to the losing ways of this team.

If Jason Campbell had put up JaMarcus Russell numbers over the past two years, a.) he probably would have been cut and b.) I'd be riding the Bradford bandwagon. Outside of that, I can't see how not taking Bradford and picking up Okung would be the end of the world.