The uneducated Brit on Justin Blackmon

[richtree]

I don't think you can clearly say he is better than Julio Jones --- In fact I would grade Julio Jones higher....

If you gave me the option of having Julio Jones in exchange for our #2 pick I would do that today.

[Nick]

To recap:
Blackmon is no AJ Green (Green was drafted #4) but he's better than Julio Jones (who was drafted #6 and is a physical freak) which means Blackmon is worthy of the #2 pick.

Again, this goes back to a conflict of philosophies.

Is there a minimum grade threshold that a prospect should have to reach in order to be worthy of being selected with a certain pick? OR.. Does a Top Five prospect in this class deserve Top Five consideration in this draft, even if he doesn't necessarily grade out as high as players who were taken in lower spots in previous years?

Ultimately, I'm of the latter mindset. The Rams do not have the option of drafting A.J. Green or Julio Jones. If they could, I know I'd take Green over Blackmon, though I think he's closer to Jones than some admit. Regardless, you can only pick from the prospects available, and if Blackmon grades out as being among the top five in this class, he's certainly worthy of consideration by the Rams IMO. If he doesn't grade out as a top five pick, then yes, the Rams should look elsewhere.

But I think it would be a colossal mistake for the Rams to disqualify Blackmon as an option simply because in a completely different class Green and Jones were taken later. Very few QBs have stacked up equally or favorably to Peyton Manning, but that hasn't stopped teams from using top picks on those quarterbacks over the years. Ultimately, you grade the class, you stack 'em up, and you pick from what you've got. It just all depends on where you grade/stack these guys.

[GROUND DOG 39]

To recap:
Blackmon is no AJ Green (Green was drafted #4) but he's better than Julio Jones (who was drafted #6 and is a physical freak) which means Blackmon is worthy of the #2 pick.

I think your getting way to caught up with draft position and supposed value, and I don't know where you got this obsession, about Blackmon and the second pick from. You must be misreading things, again.? Was it all because I said "where need meets value is corcerned, he is right near the top." Because that was just a throw away comment. I couldn't care less about silly value charts. If I thought Blackmon looked a better WR than Julio Jones pre combine last year, thats my opinion. Blackmon is a more "natural" reciever than Jones. Jones is a physical freak, trying to become a reciever. Jones has since posted a brilliant forty time, and had a good season with the Falcons. But let's be honest, the other weapons the Falcons deployed, definitely took the pressure off Julio. If Jones was the only good receiver on the team, it might have been a very different story. But this shouldn't take anything away from Blackmon, as he is seen as smaller and slower, as he is a good player in his own right. You have got to always look through the numbers as well. Blackmon will have other strengths over Jones. Like his amazing catch radius, and route running, although Julio's got a huge catching radius as well.? They both have different things going for them.
I also said "Its important he runs quick at the combine, 3 runs of the forty, all under 4.50."
THEN I would put him near the top. So Id never crowned Blackmon as anything, from memory.