i want to believe but the corners in the nfl are no jokes. And he comes from a gimmick offense

His argument is that its better to draft a WR than a LB in the top of the draft when the truth is you shouldn’t draft either one at the top of the draft. QB, LT or pass rusher are the highest impact positions and in my opinion, if you have a choice should be the only positions you really look at.

Also, his statment that there have been many “superstar” WRs drafted at the top of the draft is highly subjective. He counts Roy Williams as a superstar, but I would not. Williams had one 1000 yd receiving season in 5 years. Likewise with Braylon Edwards with Cleveland. Good? Sure, superstar worth a top 7 pick? No. Calvin Johnson? He could be, but he’s only been around two years.

With a top of the draft pick you want a guy that will make a huge impact on your team. QB, LT, pass rusher. Those positions are on the field every play and contributing while WRs are the “sexy” pick because they are they make big catches that put them on the highlight reel, WRs might touch the ball only 4 or 5 times a game. A good WR is valuable yes. But if you are looking at improving your team, you want to go with the positions that will make the biggest impact and WR isn’t it.

or past drafts as reasons why we should or shouldn’t draft someone are ignorant, every year and every player is different, along with the teams that draft them and their needs

Nice shout out. :)

Seriously, though, there are quite a few problems with Babb’s column. First, he’s making his case for Crabtree off the presumption that Crabtree will be an elite wide receiver (1,000 yards, 10 TDs) Which is fine, except that he overlooks the very high probability that he won’t. As we discussed earlier (using a much bigger sample size than Babb), the odds of getting a wide receiver who is elite with that pick is pretty slim. Many elite wide receivers, in fact, weren’t selected in the top 10 picks of the draft. Terrell Owens (who Babb uses as an example) was actually a third-round pick…the Niners selected him behind noted first-round bust J.J. Stokes. Most of the wide receivers selected that high, in fact, were either busts or had maybe a couple of good years but could hardly be called superstars. And there was certainly question over whether or not they contributed that much to the success of the teams that drafted them (as I noted in my column).

Second, he makes this assumption:

Considering the monster Crabtree was in college even on a badly injured ankle, I think he’s the best player in the draft (which I believe was the consensus before all the irrelevant stuff with the minor foot injury came up).

Really? The best player in the draft? Was that before or after they found out he was average height for a WR? Or before they found out they were unable to get a 40 time for him? Shorter wide receivers can certainly do well in the NFL, but they usually struggle to be great if they weren’t also burners and there were definitely questions about Crabtree’s game speed even before foot surgery. So that puts Crabtree too far on the risky side for my tastes. Maybe the guy’s the next Jerry Rice. But I suspect that it’s more likely that he’s the next Peter Warrick…a guy who posted great numbers in college playing in a system that usually posts great passing numbers who’ll have a tough time achieving at an elite level in the NFL (where the defenders are a lot faster than in college).

I’d rather the Chiefs went line or lineman with their pick.