This is why I place so much blame on TD. I've broken down all his drafts and listed who else we could have had instead of what he picked. As you'll notice, he's HORRIBLE at finding anything worth a shit after round TWO. Just look at all the talent that other teams have found after the second round compared to us.
2008:
1-3. Matt Ryan - obvious great pick
1-21. Sam Baker - can't stay healthy, but still gave him huge contract
2-37. Curtis Lofton - great pick, let him go to replace with Akeem Dent
3-68. Chevis Jackson - BUST
3-84. Harry Douglas - turned out to be good pick
3-98. Thomas DeCoud - BAD, worst tackler in Falcon history
5-138. Robert James - trash, career special teamer
5-154. Kroy Biermann - "almost gets to the QB", the biggest under-achiever we know
6-172. Thomas Brown - zero productivity, injured, then cut, wasted pick.
7-232. Keith Zinger - trash
And here's who we could have had (after 2nd round, of course):
3rd: Jamaal Charles, Pat Sims, Cliff Avril, Bruce Davis, Jermichael Finley, Philip Wheeler, Mario Manningham
4th: Dwight Lowery, Quintin Demps, Jacob Tamme, David Hale
5th: Brandon Carr, Orlando Scandrick, Tim Hightower, Carl Nicks
6th: Geno Hayes, Ryan Mundy, Pierre Garcon
7th: Matt Flynn, Demetrius Bell, Chris Chamberlin, King Dunlap
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2009:
1-24. Peria Jerry - HUGE BUST
2-55. William Moore - great pick, can't stay healthy, watch us give him a big contract still
3-90. Chris Owens - below average CB, certainly not worth a 3rd round pick
4-125. Lawrence Sidbury - bust
5-138. William Middleton - traded him away and of course he played well at his new location for several years
5-156. Garrett Reynolds - trash
6-176. Spencer Atkins - trash
7-210. Vance Walker - finally a decent late round selection, got 1 year PS, 2 years as a backup before leaving in FA.
And here's who we could have had:
1st: Vontae Davis, Clay Matthews, Ziggy Hood
2nd: Louis Delmas, James Laurinaitis, Rey Maualuga, Eben Britton, Darius Butler, Jarius Byrd, Conner Barwin, Max Unger, Sabastian Vollmer, Paul Kruger, Andy Levitre
3rd: Shonn Green, Michael Johnson, DeAndre Levy, Antoine Caldwell, Jared Cook, Keenan Lewis, Tyrone McKenzie, Chase Coffman
4th: Donald Washington, Brian Hartline, TJ Lang, Glover Quin, Austin Collie, Andre Brown, Greg Toler, Seth Olsen
5th: Chris Clemons, Mike Hamlin, George Bussey
6th: Jason McCorty, Brandon Myers, Brandon Gibson, Zach Miller
7th: Captain Munnerlyn, EJ Biggers, Julian Edelman, Clinton McDonald, Rashad Jennings
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2010:
1-19. Sean Weatherspoon - under-achiever who can't stay healthy
2. No second round pick
3-83. Corey Peters - REACH, average at best
3-98. Mike Johnson - bust, chronic injuries
4-117. Joe Hawley - only good pick of this draft
5-135. Dominique Franks - REACH, average at best
5-165. Kerry Meier - we'll never know, could have been good if not for back2back injuries
6-171. Shann Schillinger - REACH, another average guy we moved up to get.
And here's the list of guys we could have had:
1st: Demaryius Thomas, Bryan Bulaga, Dez Bryant, Dan WIlliams, Devin McCourty, Jahvid Best, Jerry Hughes, Patrick Robinson
2nd: Roger Saffold, Brian Price, Rob Gronkowski, Linval Joseph, Daryl Washington, Taylor Mays, Carlos Dunlap, Sean Lee, Ben Tate
3rd: Jon Asamoah, Morgan Burnett, Major Wright, Emmanual Sanders, NaVorro Bowman, Jimmy Graham
4th: Trevard Lindley, Walter Thurmond, Dennis Pitta, Thaddeus Gibson, Geno Atkins
5th: Kam Chancellor, Kendrick Lewis, Perrish Cox, Walter McFadden, Cam Thomas, Matt Tennant, Reshad Jones, Marshall Newhouse
6th: Greg Hardy, Sam Young, Eric Olsen, Antonio Brown, Trindon Holliday, Ted Larsen
7th: Willie Young, Dekoda Watson, Jamar Chaney, George Selvie, Kade Weston
Holy shit look at what all we could have had in 2010 compared to the crapfest we got. Look at all the incredible players found in the late rounds and we didn't get a single one.
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2011:
1-6. Julio Jones - obvious elite pick, but could have possibly avoided it, we'll never know.
2. no pick
3-91. Akeem Dent - BUST, just a horrible pick
4. no pick
5-145. Jaquizz Rodgers - average at best
6-192. Matt Bosher - probably TD's best late round draft pick in his career, which is sad because it's a punter.
7-210. Andrew Jackson - trash
7-230. Cliff Matthews - trash
And here's who we could have had:
1st (if we would have stayed at 21): Cam Jordon, Jimmy Smith, Muhammed Wilkerson, Cam Heyward, Derek Sherrod
2nd: Bruce Carter, Kyle Rudolph, Orlando Franklin, Brooks Reed, Rahim Moore, Marcus Gilchrist, Da'Quan Bowers, Shane Vareen, Torrey Smith, Brandon Harris, Marcus Gilbert, Randall Cobb
3rd: Nate Irving, Justin Houston, DeMarco Murray, Steven Ridley, Jurrell Casey, Chris Culver, Mason Foster, Chris Conte, Kendrick Ellis
4th: K.J. Wright, Clint Boling, Jordan Cameron, Cecil Shorts, Jalil Brown, Cortez Allen, Julius Thomas, Davon House
5th: Marcus Cannon, Richard Sherman
6th: Byron Maxwell, Charles Clay
7th: nobody worth a shit
Could you imagine where we'd be if our draft was 1-Cam Jordan, 2-Randall Cobb or DeMarco Murray, 3-Justin Houston, 4-Julius Thomas, 5-Richard Sherman, 6-Byron Maxwell???
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2012:
1. no pick
2-55. Peter Konz - BUST, short arms, small hands, and only did 18 reps of 225#, should have been a big red flag.
3-91. Lamaar Holmes BAD, just a horrible pick
4. no pick
5-157. Brady Ewing - another chronic injury guy wasting a pick
5-164. Jonathan Massaquoi - could be good, but we'll never know because they won't let him play
6-192. Charles Mitchell - who? another wasted pick
7-249. Travian Robertson - yet another wasted pick
And here's who we could have had:
1st (if we didn't do Julio deal): Riley Reiff, Dont'a Hightower, Doug Martin
2nd: Coby Fleener, Courtner Upshaw, Janoris Jenkins, Cordy Glenn, Alshon Jeffrey, Bobby Wagner, Mike Adams, Casey Hayward, Rueben Randall
3rd: Dwayne Allen, Trumaine Johnson, Ronnie Hillman, Brandon Brooks, Demario Davis, Jamell Flemming, Mohamed Sanu, John Hughes, T.Y. Hilton, Brandon Thompson
4th: Ben Jones, Robert Turbin, Bobby Massie, Keenan Robinson, Brandon Boykin, Jared Crick
5th: Robert Blanton, Brandon Marshall, Adam Gettis, Ryan Miller, Vick Ballard
6th: Alfred Morris, Blair Walsh, Danny Trevathian, Emmanuel Acho
7th: Nate Potter, Alfonzo Dennard, Nathan Stupar
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2013:
1-22: Desmond Trufant - very good pick (we gave up 3rd to move up to get him, however)
2-60: Robert Alford - seems to be another good pick
3. no pick
4-127. Malliciah Goodman - trash? don't know because he never plays
4-133. Levine Toilolo - average at best
5-153. Stansly Maponga - trash? again, don't know because he never plays
6. no pick
7-243. Kemal Ishmal - good backup safety
7-244. Zeke Motta - trash, wasted pick
7-249. Sean Renree - so average we signed TJ Yates in FA, wasted pick, would have been there in UDFA
We could have done this draft so different. Did we really need to move up for Trufant? Brent Grimes is yet again a top 5 CB in the league, but we let him go. Here's who we could have had:
1st: Sharrif Floyd, DeAndre Hopkins, Cordarrelle Patterson, Alec Ogletree, Travis Frederick, Matt Elam
2nd: John Cyprien, Zach Ertz, Darius Slay, Giovani Bernard, Jonathan Banks, Kawaan Short, Kevin Minter, Kiko Alonzo, LeVeon Bell, Johnathan Hankins, David Amerson, Jamar Taylor, Montee Ball, Eddie Lacey
3rd: Travis Kelce, Sio Moore, Bennie Logan, Leon McFadden, Tyrann Mathieu, Keenan Allen, Dallas Thomas, JJ Wilcox, Jordan Reed, Kayvon Webster, Brandon Williams, Knile Davis
4th: Jalani Jenkis, Barrett Jones, Sean Porter
5th: Denard Robinson, Jesse Williams, Micah Hyde, Zac Stacy, Jordan Mills
6th: Latavius Murray, Mychal Rivera, DeVonte Holloman, Andre Ellington, Cornelius Washington
7th: Jordan Poyer, Nick Williams, Garrett Gilkey
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2014:
1-6: Jake Matthews - everyone would agree this was the best pick for us
2-37: RaShede Hageman - needs to develop, but can't do that only playing 10 snaps a game, has great potential though, didn't solve our pass rush woes however.
3-68: Desmond Southward - hopefully he develops, but showed very little as rookie
4-103: Devonta Freeman - also has great potential, but needs to get better at pass blocking to have a chance at more snaps.
4-139: Prince Shembo - appears average, nothing special
5-147: Ricardo Allen - zero contribution, was on PS virtually all year
5-168: Marquis Spruill - unknown because of pre-season injury
6. no pick
7-253: Yawin Smallwood - wasted pick, already cut him
7-255: Tyler Starr - obvious trash, but somehow made the team, total joke of a pick
And these are 2014 rookies that we could have had (after 1st round) who contributed significantly to their teams:
Kyle Van Noy, Weston Richburg, Jeremy Hill, Kony Ealy, Jarvis Landry, Preston Brown, Tre Mason, Chris Borland, Terrence Brooks, Will Sutton, John Brown, Terrence West, Michael Schofield, Andre Williams, Tre Boston, Larry Webster, Cameron Flemming, Alfred Blue, Seantrel Henderson, Jonathan Dowling