This is what I'm counting on.

He better, I'm doing my writeup right now.

obligatory picture

This is true to an extent, but a bit too simplistic. Corner is still a very important position. I agree that you need to protect your corners with a pass rush (which I have), but even with a pass rush there is still a clear difference between very good and average corners.

Not counting my chickens before they hatch. But I'd be totally stoked if my guy gets past you and AF.

Giants won with a rediculous pass rush and below average corners imo. I believe the Pats d-line and front 7 made up for their deficiencies in the secondary although they have had some great ones. The Steelers have never had elite corners the last 10 years but have been quite good (good safeties though) and the Colts don't have elite corners by any means but have always had a pass rush (cover 2).

Assani is offline.

Level of gay = high. I really wanted to get my pick in tonight.

I'm going to start my write-up too, hopefully neither you or Assani picks my player.

Best pick of the round so far: Flozell Adams.

Are you arguing that corner is not an important position? For one, I think the position is more valuable because of the fact there is so much depth/quality at WR. Especially compared to the depth at CB.

If you just load up on pass rush only and ignore corners in this league you are in trouble imo.

You posted in the other thread..........................he was great ^^. Of course you love o-lineman.

Disagree.

However, for the pass rush to compensate a lack of a secondary, it has to be extremely good because the WRs are a deep position and are also extremely good.

I dunno what you're trying to argue here. Yes, if you have a terrible pass rush you won't have a great pass defense even if you have great corners. The same is true if you have a great pass rush with terrible corners.

The fact that a great pass rush can "overcome" bad corners doesn't mean that you wouldn't be far better off with great corners and a great pass rush.

who needs linemen im taking 7 linebackers

Heh, which thread? Either way the guy was arguably the best OT in the league last year. He was basically unstoppable. He got a fat contract and has regressed by a decent margin this year though.

Do you think the VORP in this league between corners is really that awful? If I wait (which I won't) I can still have way above average corners on top of a rediculous front 7. I'd take that over a great secondary and a mediocre front 7 any day. 7 >>>> 4. There are also ways to fix your team if you don't have elite corners by running cover 2, etc.

I'm not going to deny the number of elite corners <<<<< number of elite WRs (i dont. But there are ways to overcome this and it's not just by loading up on secondary). Great safeties of course help especially if you decide to run a cover 2.

You don't think that the fact that this draft is insanely loaded with WR's makes CB's more important? How doesn't it? There are more great receivers than great corners, good receivers than good corners, etc.

LT thread, you put him at LT on top of a top of other elite LT.

I'm running smoke coverage every single play. Your QB's are going to be so damn confused at why there is a LB in the deep third and a CB covering man on one side of the field. It's going to destroy teams.

Round 6/Pick 183: Tony Romo







Its no secret that this entire draft I've been claiming that aside from the elite QBs taken in round 1, it has been a waste of a pick to take one too highly. All along I've claimed that I could get as good of a QB later on. Well after McNair and Esiason have gone, my list was down to exactly one QB who I still felt was in that second or third tier(depending upon whether you count the round 1 QBs as all one tier or break them up into two). That QB is Tony Romo.


FACT: Tony Romo has the highest Career QB Rating in NFL History

FACT: Tony Romo has the 3rd highest ypa in NFL history, and both of the QBs ahead of him(Otto Graham and Sid Luckman) played 60-70 years ago.

FACT: Tony Romo also leads all QBs in NFL history in Adj yds/Pass Att, Net Yds/Pass Att, and Adj Net Yds/Pass Att.

FACT: Tony Romo has the 6th highest TD% in NFL history and all 5 above him(Sid Luckman, Frankie Albert, Frank Ryan, Arnie Herber, and Otto Graham) played 50 or so years ago.

FACT: Tony Romo has the 15th lowest sack% of all time, and only three QBs drafted already(Manning, Brees, and Marino) are better in this regard.

FACT: Tony Romo has the 3rd highest completion % in NFL history.


"But Tony Romo hasn't proven himself enough yet"
Tony Romo didn't throw a single pass attempt in his first two years.

In 2006, Romo sat out the first 4 games completely and threw 2 passes in the 5th. In the 6th game, he didn't start and sat out the entire 1st half. In the second half, he finally came in. He then started the last 10 games of 2006.

He started all 16 games in 2007.

He started the first 6 games of 2008 before getting hurt.



What does all this mean? It means that it works out quite nicely numbers wise because Romo has started exactly 32 games which is exactly 2 seasons.

Stats in games in which you throw one or two pass attempts are pretty meaningless since its usually against prevent defenses anyway. Also stats in which you and your opponent weren't expecting you to play are also pretty meaningless. Therefore let substact Romo's 2 pass attempts in game 5 of 2006 and the passes he threw in the second half of game 6. Doing that we get:

32 games started
667/1030 completed passes(64.75%)
8541 passing yards
66 TDs
34 INTs
8.29 ypa

And then divide that in half to get his per season averages of:

4270.5 yards
33 TDs
17 INTs


Pretty impressive, no?



"But 2 years is not enough sample size"
There have indeed been picks made with a 2 or less year peak that I have critisized. However, I believe this to be a different case for the following reasons:

1. Those 2 years were back to back. I'm much more likely to believe that its not a fluke than when a player puts up two great seasons but they're multiple seasons apart from each other.

2. Its all hes ever done. In other words, he doesn't have a bunch of seasons with much worse stats. When a player puts forth average stats for years but then suddenly puts forth better stats for a year or two, that screams fluke to me. This isn't the case here.

3. He has performed well regardless of whether or not its a contract year.

4. He has been fairly consistent from game to game.



"Tony Romo benefits from playing with a great supporting cast."
I'm certainly not going to say that his cast is poor, but....

FACT: None of his teamates were taken in the first two rounds of this draft and two overall were taken(one in the 3rd and one in the 6th) so far. This compares favorably to many of the QBs taken.

FACT: The QB who was the starter before Romo took over in 2006 was known as a fairly decent player himself. Not great by any means, but definitely not horrible either. Yet his stats in those 6 games were pretty bad: 6 games, 1164 yards, 53.3% completion, 7 TDs, 8 INTs, 5.2 ypa, 69.2 QB Rating.

FACT: The QB who took over for Romo once he got hurt this year is under a lot of criticism. However, before he took over he was thought of as a decent QB. At the very least, people thought he was a league average backup. Yet he has stepped into that same offense and his stats suck: 2 games, 356 yards, 53.7% completion, 2 TDs, 3 INTs, 3.6 ypa, 60.3 QB Rating.

FACT: The Cowboys only put up 14 and 13 points since hes been injured. Even if you do believe that their backup QB isn't very good, at the very least a top offense should be able to be league average without their QB, no?




As I said to begin this writeup, I've maintained this entire draft that I can get someone as good as many of the QBs taken much later. Imo Brady, Montana, Young, Manning, Marino, and Elway are all clearly better than Romo. Imo Favre would have to be considered better solely due to sample size, but I actually see Romo as a very similar player as Favre. Other than that, I"m not convinced that Romo isn't as good or better than every other QB taken.

Ahh. Well TNM owned me again in that thread so I must have put it out of my memory.

I want an insane D but I prefer to load up on front 7 and take PB level corners than the opposite. I have one guy in the secondary who I like a lot, and if the guy I like this round is available I might go secondary again, I'm not saying it's not unimportant I just think there are ways to overcome this b/c in the league right now there are great Ds without great corners.

I disagreed with your final statement.

An exceptional pass rush can overcome a weaker secondary. However, the pass rush must be obscenely good (or at least against a weak O-line) for it work due to the depth at WR.

I'm really not sure what to say about Romo...I like the write up a lot. But...hmmm...

hmm I forgot about Romo I wonder if I should have taken him instead of Palmer, I think they're pretty close.