The McDaniels Draft & Free Agency Strategy

I keep seeing 'What If' posts and mock drafts on this site. I'm sure that many of you feel that it is far too early to engage in these sort of discussions. I, however, actually enjoy the thought that these discussions seem to spark and further believe it helps me personally gain early knowledge about the propects comming out of college (I don't watch much college ball).

With my limited knowledge relating to current players comming out of college, I'll not be giving any draft predictions in the near future, as my thoughts simply wouldn't be worth much at this juncture. For the near future, I'm personally more interested in, and focused on, what sort of moves we should be able to expect during this off-season. We will never be able to even get the basics down exactly, as I'm not even sure the coaching staff yet knows. But I do believe we can get somewhat close in our projections and expectations if we first just focus on understanding Coach McDaniels' moves and motivations of last season.

I don't think it is a secret to any readers herein that there are some serious issues on both lines, and more specifically that the weak links lie in the middle three positions of each. Now that is not to say that I, nor that I think you believe we should (or even that we could) upgrade all six of those positions this year. Rather, I'm saying that we all likely understand that our ability to run the ball and stop the run was utterly pathetic late in the season, and that most would agree the solution to this begins with the interior linemen.

Having read many posts on here advocating a first round draft pick of Rolando McClain (ILB), it is apparent that many of you either think that he is just an amazing stud of LB that we just shouldn't pass up, or you believe Andra Davis is a problem in run stopping. My understanding is that McClain is a true leader and high in character and perhaps that is part of the equation also. I'm hoping to hear more on this issue. My own opinion is that the team should focus on interior linemen early in the draft and get younger elsewhere in latter rounds. I'd like to hear from those whose opinions differ.

As I elluded to to earlier, if our attempt is to semi-accurately predict the overall direction of this off-season, then I think it is important to understand what Coach did last year and even go so far as to assume we know why he went down those specifc avenues. So without getting too arrogant in pretending I can read minds, I'd like to just list a few items I believe Coach was going after last season (in no specific order).

1. High character, leaders. No surprise to any of you on this one, I'm sure. Exceptions may exist, but there was a very definate pattern of bringing in people who not only lead by example on and off the field, but are also smart enough to sort of coach and command on the field. Just ook at how much communicating our current defense does in the backfield. On the other side of that, look at Brian Dawkins' vocal leadership, the kind that demands accountability. The two are different kinds of leadership, although many of our guys seem to have both.

2. Positional draft depth. The first example that comes to mind is NT's and true five-teqnique DE's. They simply weren't deep, almost nonexistant last year, at least it seemed so. Many of us wanted Raji, but after him who was next? Ron Brace? And perhaps I'm being a little ignorant here, but can anybody name a couple more rookie NT's/DE's in a 3/4 (or 52) that got substantial playing time lthis year? Anyway, the point I'm hoping to make, is that we couldn't throw big money at every problem, so with weak draft depth at d-line.. Coach grabbed some free agents on the relative cheap to fill those holes. A stop gap until next year perhaps. I expect that his plan all along was to draft d-line this year.

3. Affordability in free agency. In my opinion, it was apparent to Coach that substantial changes were needed on both sides of the ball. Defensive upgrades were available in free agency perhaps moreso than offensive. So this defensive free agency frenzy in turn led to so many offensive draft choices. I believe this was his strategy all along. I believe he knew prior to draft day, prior to the last FA sgnees that he would draft more offense than people expected and go nuts in defensive free agency.

So what this means to me in summation, is that I believe Coach will again (a) choose areas to primarily focus on fixing. Last year it was the secondary. This year I believe it will be the interior linemen. He will then (b) decide where positional draft depth is at, where it is not at, then act in free agency accordingly.

I think it is also important to briefly mention the 'reaching' aspect of the draft. This is obviously frowned upon in nearly all circles, at least in black and white terms. But I believe Coach sees plenty of gray in this area. Let's remember how short of a board McDaniels widdles down to. For good or bad, he is certainly confident in his and his staffs ability to evaluate talent, and judging by the volume of offensive picks last year, he absolutely cares not what we think... only that he will eventually be judged by wins and losses. Let's also not forget that he like to move picks like he's trading baseball cards.

Anyway, wow. I should proably try to tie that all together, but I think my ADD just kicked in. My intent here was to articulate what I think McDaniels will base his drafting on this year, and that I believe he will again choose specific areas to address in frees agency, then focus on specific areas to draft for - this year I believe that to be the interior lines. I believe the approach itself and the strategy in drafting are both conscience decisions. I believe Coach does, at least to some degree draft for need and that he will again move around, both up and down, to draft those positions of need. I believe he will again pick to 'get younger' when the opportunity arises and draft those positions on a 'best available' basis in the later rounds.

I further believe that this year those positions of need (interior linemen) are more clear cut, and will be focused on nearly exclusively in the early picks. I'm hoping to hear your thoughts on those questions I broached earlier, your thoughts on draft/free agency strategy this year vs last year and I'm also hoping for any thoughts you might have on the following random questions:

If we draft a NT, which I completely advocate doing by early 2nd round, how easy might it be for Ronald to scoot over and be productive? He's got the size, but how easy is that position shift likely to be?

Assuming Casey sticks around this year, do we truly need to draft another center? Couldn't we wait, and wouldn't the guards be a far higher priority?

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, I look forward to hearing yours.

~Alex.