cage

I'm actually not advocating that he should have done anything differently. I'm happy with the direction of the team and generally agree with his logic. I'm just saying that he has put all his eggs in the Fitz basket and it will become the basis of his success... or failure. So, is there anything else he could have done? Lets look at history... 2010 -- Tim Tebow picked by Broncos w/ 25th pick on a surprising trade-up to get him, widely rumored that Bills would have picked him with their 2nd round pick that year 2010 -- Passed on picking Jimmy Clausen in 2nd round 2010 -- Passed on picking Colt McCoy in 3rd round 2011 -- Picked #3 and passed on Jake Locker (Titans/#8), Blaine Gabbert (Jaguars/#10), Christian Ponder (Vikings/#12) in 1st round 2011 -- Picked #34 and passed on Andy Dalton (Bengals/#35), Colin Kaeperniak (49ers/#36) in 2nd round 2011 -- Picked #68 and passed on Ryan Mallet (Patriots/#74) 2012 -- Picked #10 and passed on Brandon Weedon (Browns/#22) 2012 -- Picked #41 and passed on Brock Osweiler (Broncos/#25) So those have been his chances. Ignoring the most recent draft, the only outright misses on this list is Andy Dalton (2011/2nd round) and possibly Ryan Mallet (2011/3rd round). He's also made some notable decisions to ignore Clausen and McCoy when he had reasonable shots at them and these seemed to be good choices. By and large its hard to argue with where we're at. QB is a tough position to call and looking at the history above, Nix is batting well over .500 on his decisions...

I think we should rethink the definition of draft success. We also can't penalize Butler for subsequent front offices not resigning a player. The average NFL player has about a 4 year career and when you look back at the retrospective redrafts that are published every year at draft time of what "should" have been picked 4-5 years ago based on how the players actually performed, there's nearly a 50% bust rate in the first round. That rate gets high, of course, is subsequent rounds. Anytime you bag an 8-10 year starter in the league, then you HIT on that draft pick and the selection was a good one, given the information they have at the time. The highlighted players should all be counted as successful draft picks. -- Fina had a 10 year career as a starting LT -- Burris was a starting CB, electrifying punt returner and was signed away by Colts to a rich contract -- Ruben Brown and Eric Moulds you've already declared a success -- Antowain Smith, did have 2 1K years and had a productive 10 year career at RB, he's a bit iffy -- Antoine Winfield has long been a top notch CB in the league So I think we have to give him credit for hitting 5.5 out of 9 (A. Smith I counted as a 1/2)

I think the jury is still out. The longstanding hallmark of a long-term successful run is the stability of a franchise QB. He's put all his eggs in the Fitz basket. So far we've been able to say that the team around him hasn't been good enough. With the attention to D this past offseason and Jackson/Spiller on the verge of becoming a dynamic duo we'll find out if this is a good call on Nix's part. I would submit that his legacy will rest on this strategic decision. If Fitz plays well all year and the team follows suit then he'll be Executive of the Year. If Fitz fails and shows he's no better than a competent back-up, then the rest of the improvements will be irrelevant and Nix will hang with him as patience will run out with developing a rookie QB from the next draft. I don't think he would be able to pick a round 1/2 QB next year and tell everyone that he'll need 3 years for him to develop.

Are we really putting Batten and Eddins at DE? They should be LBs...

+1

Man, you beat me to it... I was going to continue the bidding at 4.19...

Don't worry we'll get him, we'll trade a first round pick for him a few years from now...

I think the Rivers pick had different motivation. Brees was a 2nd round pick, had been given a few years and really hadn't played that well up to that point. They felt they needed a starting QB, straight up. Brees lit it up during Rivers rookie year and took off from there. It was a big surprise at the time...

After the first round, I was advocating we get another early 2nd round pick so that we could get OT and WR given what was on the board. They waited and got Glenn, which is the guy I wanted for OT as well. Then as the round progressed, the cost of moving up our 3rd got cheaper and cheaper. If they were willing to move up a few slots for a 7th, I'm a bit surprised they could get to the back 5 of the 2nd round with our 6th to get Randle. Would have been a great move. Don't know anything about Graham, but we'll see how it works out... If we had gotten both Glenn and Randle and only list a 6th round pick, the board would have been hooting it up!

So that's the Nigel Bradham slot... we'll how lucky or unlucky we got by the 'skins picking Cousins, hmmm. I think I like our LB

That's a joke, right? Not sure why you'd pick a kicker w/ the 3rd last pick? Anyway,... great draft!!

I'm surprised they didn't pick at TE yet... maybe last pick of 7th. I'm good w/ WR... the Easley threads aside, Donald Jones is not ridiculous, very strong guy who still has upside. Nelson is pretty good. and between Graham, Clownley, Hagan, Aiken and Roosevelt pluse whatever UDFA they pick up there should be another 1-2 guys. We're not over the top, but we don't suck either. Another Safety and real back-up Center would be nice...

+100 Now go get that WR!!

Randle? You have David picked in your mock draft footer, FYI...

Agree totally... I'm usually a "trade back" person, but you have to be willing to make the moves up when it makes sense. I think this year, at this stage of the draft with this number picks and frankly where the team is in a better position to go for filling its core needs rather than just finding depth... the move should be to get a 2 out of 3 among OT, WR and LB in the top half of Round 2!

This is what I've been thinking all day.... except the "fat ass" part. I'd love to see us acquire another 2nd. Given the needs and what's on the board, I think he should go for it. We have an extra 4th and 5th. They should be used. With the injured players coming back and free agent acquisitions, we're not where we were 2 years ago where we need to accumulate picks like the Colts, Rams, Dolphins or Browns should be... I think they should make a move!

That is crazy,... sounds like way overanalysis. I was very surprised when they didn't take Orakpo at the time.

I agree with BPA... happy with WR, OT or LB. But would like to see us acquire another 2nd rounder somehow and snag 2 of the 3 given what's still on the board

Just listening to review of that pick and it sounds word-for-word like critiques of Maybin... WOW!

I'm not going to disparage das Fraulein in any way as she is certainly beautiful, but if you do a Google search on Munich Oktoberfest and scroll the pictures, you'll see plenty of talent! http://www.livelypic.com/oktoberfest-in-munich-gemany.html Keep scrolling... some avatar candidates in the lower half!

Agree on both the pick and avatar.... was in Munich last Oktoberfest in the Lowenbrau tent and there's plenty of young ladies that pretty much look that... rock on!

The funniest part is if you look at his comments on the Carolina Panthers, he dings them for "what about corner". Well if they had done that as he says, it would have been Gilmore coming off the board one pick ahead of the Bills.... so by Prisco's logic, Gilmore fell to us!

I agree... the biggest eye-opener in how weak our defense is, was the Bengals game. Where a rookie QB was able to stage a comeback against us when were undefeated at the time. Also, the first Jets game, where Sanchez made our secondary look silly. I would have liked Floyd too, but this pick is actually a greater necessity.

I totally agree, this is the time to package a few of those picks later to another 2nd rounder.... WR and OT!

ahhh, Glenn!!