by Jared Smola
All the major fantasy football sites (yes, even DraftSharks) are working on 2009 NFL Draft Grades. But let's be honest, these guys haven't played a down of professional football yet. No one knows what they're talking about.
In my opinion, it takes 3 seasons before we can start to see what kind of NFL players these guys are going to be. That means we can now look back at the 2006 draft with some clarity. Here are the top-5 best and worst picks from the 2006 draft:
5 Best Picks
1. QB Jay Cutler (Denver), round 1, pick 11 - The only franchise QB in the draft class, even though Cutler won't be the franchise QB for the team that drafted him. QBs Vince Young and Matt Leinart were selected ahead of Cutler.
2. CB Cortland Finnegan (Tennessee), round 7, pick 215 - Pro Bowl CBs taken in the 7th round don't come around too often. 19 CBs were picked ahead of Finnegan.
3. WR Brandon Marshall (Denver), round 4, picks 119 - For all the headaches he causes, Marshall was a steal in round 4. WRs like Travis Wilson, Derek Hagan, and Cory Rodgers were all picked before Marshall.
4. LT Marcus McNeil (San Diego), round 2, pick 50 - A 2-time Pro Bowl selection, McNeil is already the Chargers' best offensive lineman. Nabbing an anchor to protect your QB's blind-side is huge.
5. C Nick Mangold (New York Jets), round 1, pick 29 - Mangold has started all 48 games for the Jets since being drafted and made it to the Pro Bowl last year. That won't be his last trip to Honolulu (or wherever they're playing the Pro Bowl nowadays).
5 Worst Picks
1. QB Vince Young (Tennessee), round 1, pick 3 - It's never a good thing when your 1st round pick is fighting for a back-up position. GMs are still scared to take QBs from spread offenses after this debacle.
2. TE Vernon Davis (San Francisco), round 1, pick 6 - He's a better athlete than football player. TEs should never be picked in the top-10 anyways.
3. RB Reggie Bush (New Orleans), round 1, pick 2 - He's shown flashes, but you have to be a perennial Pro Bowler to warrant the 2nd overall pick in the draft. With a career 3.7 yards per carry average, Bush is nowhere near that level.
4. S Donte Whitner (Buffalo), round 1, pick 8 - The most noise Whitner has made since entering the league was his screams when being tasered after resisting arrest a few weeks ago. Taking him at #8 was a reach back in '06 and it doesn't look any better today.
5. CB Tye Hill (St. Louis), round 1, pick 15 - Hill is one of the 5 worst starting CBs in the NFL. In fact, if the Rams secondary wasn't so putrid, he wouldn't be a starting CB. There are better cover guys in the DraftSharks office.
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