What happened during the 2008 draft: The Matt Ryan decision
So far our draft nostalgia journey has reminded us of many bargains, and many more tears. It started in 2010, when TebowTime was introduced to our world, and then last week we stopped off in 2009, which featured a man named "Captain" and a paratrooper.
Now in 2008 we wrestle with a hindsight conundrum: What comes first between the franchise quarterback and the franchise left tackle?
The BIG story
Let's rewind to a time when the Miami Dolphins had a hovering cloud of uncertainty at quarterback. No, not last fall. We probably can't make a vast, sweeping conclusion about Ryan Tannehill yet, but back in 2008 the stench of suck under center in Miami was strong.
The franchise had just finished its eighth year of flailing at a Dan Marino replacement, and a one-win season which earned the Dolphins the top pick featured quarterback sludge in the form of Cleo Lemon, Trent Green, and John Beck. After Green suffered a concussion, Lemon took over, eventually stepping aside for Beck in Week 10.
They combined to throw all of 12 touchdown passes, while averaging 5.9 yards per pass attempt. Green's season ended on October 7 when he showed, um, poor cut blocking technique.
So between incompetence and injury, the need for then vice president of football operations Bill Parcells to use his first overall pick on a quarterback was abundantly clear, right?
No, not really.
Overall it wasn't a great year for quarterbacks. But that didn't matter for Parcells because he held the top pick and therefore had access to the only arm worth clamoring over: Matt Ryan. After Ryan there was Joe Flacco, and then there was a looooong tumble to the second tier.
The problem for Parcells was that also atop this class sat Jake Long, and left tackles like him don't come along that often. He's struggled with knee injuries (most recently a torn ACL) that have zapped his effectiveness, but Long has put together four Pro Bowl years over his six NFL seasons.
And all of them came when he was playing with the Dolphins.
Why?
Because Parcells looked at his group of quarterbacks who were sacked 42 times, saw the multiple holes a team with only one win clearly had, and surmised that paying a quarterback his mammoth salary (remember, the rookie wage scale is merely a pipe dream at this point) wasn't a wise investment if he's picking stones from his teeth every Sunday.
It's now the most picked apart decision in recent draft history. Had the health dice roll fallen in Long's favor over the long-term, Parcells' decision to pass on Ryan and let him fall to Atlanta wouldn't look nearly as bad. He waited to draft Chad Henne one round later, and then pounced on Chad Pennington when he became available the following August.
Parcells followed the Russell Wilson path before it existed, taking two cheap lottery tickets at quarterback between Henne and Pennington, and focussing his attention elsewhere early. For a time it worked, with Pennington winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2008 while leading a team that won 11 games, and took the AFC East before losing in the first round.
With growing uncertainty at the quarterback position during this year's draft and with Wilson's Super Bowl success still fresh, there's a good chance we'll see the same strategy again in 16 days.
The problem for the Dolphins, though, is that beyond 2008, their other lottery ticket wasn't Russell Wilson. It was Chad Henne.
The reminder that predictions are hard
At least Henne was a starter for a time in Miami, and he still is in Jacksonville.
One slot ahead of him (56th overall), Brian Brohm came off the board when he was selected by the Packers. With Brett Favre still in his final Packer days and Aaron Rodgers not at all yet Aaron Rodgers, the Pack sought a lottery ticket of their own.
Say, Merril Hoge, what did you think of Brohm's potential?
Three years later Brohm was playing for something called the Las Vegas Locomotives.
The funniest football human
Because it gave us the gift of Martellus Bennett (61st overall to the Cowboys), 2008 was a blessed year. There's really no perfect place to begin while reminding you about the depth of Bennett's awesomeness, so let's go with these two goodies.
First, this response during a Q&A in the middle of his first training camp with the Giants. In the same interview he called himself a "Black Unicorn".
Bennett was asked how he's getting along with Eli Manning...
"I usually get along with a lot of people. Eli's a real laid-back guy. He's easy to talk to. Just ask him what he wants. It's not like, sometimes like your wife, you never know what she wants. You ask and she's like, 'Well, I don't want chicken.' You're like, 'Well, do you want steak?' She's like, 'No, I don't want steak.' You know Eli knows if he wants chicken or steak."
Then there's this, and it needs no further commentary…
The Tale of Triumph
There were a whole lot of sweet, sweet bargains in this draft that we'll get to in a minute. But the hero tale belongs to Danny Woodhead, the little guy who wasn't even drafted in 2008, and was later cut by the Jets.
All he's done since is log 1,675 yards as a water bug receiver out of the backfield, 605 of which came this past season.
The year first-round running backs started to go extinct
Barring something miraculous, it's almost certain we’ll have the second straight running back free first round. Looking back on 2008, and seeing five in the first round -- and two in the top 15 -- is a little jarring.
The results from those five have been far less than spectacular. They came off the board as follows:
Darren McFadden (4th overall): A breakable player at an even more breakable position has appeared in only 67 of a possible 96 games.
Jonathan Stewart (13th): effective when healthy (he rushed for 1,133 yards in his second season), but over the past two years he's missed 19 games.
Felix Jones (22nd): Still sputtering as a backup after showing plenty of speed and open-field flash in Dallas, but not the ability to carry the full load expected from a first-round pick.
Rashard Mendenhall (23rd): Already retired six years later after he wasn't the same following an ACL tear
Chris Johnson (24th): The only one to emerge from this sadness, setting the single-season record for yards from scrimmage in his second year (2,509 yards).
Look further down the 2008 draft board for the seeds of running back devaluing, and the league-wide epiphany. Matt Forte was selected 20 slots behind Johnson at 44th overall, and then Ray Rice (55th), and Jamaal Charles (73rd) followed much later, all producing more value.
The best name
Bo Ruud (197th overall to the Patriots), and it's not close.
The bust
Vernon Gholston was touted as a powerful earth mover, which resulted in the Jets selecting him with their sixth overall pick. That also made him the second defensive end to hear his name called, 86 picks ahead of Avril. He will now forever be remembered as one of the worst busts in league history.
Over three seasons Gholston didn't record a single sack. It seems statistically impossible for him to not at least stumble into a sack at some point, especially with 617 players recording at least one sack over Gholston's three-year career. He was cut after the 2011 season, but he still made a cool $21 million in guaranteed money.
This is a real thing he did to Jake Long.
The bargains
Where do we begin? Ahh, how about the guy with 113 catches and 1,346 yards for the Redskins in 2013, and he waited until the sixth round...
- Pierre Garcon (205th overall)
- Geoff Swartz (241st)
- Carl Nicks (164th)
- Kroy Biermann (154th)
- Brandon Carr (140th)
- Red Bryant (121st)
- Cliff Avril (92nd)
- Jamaal Charles (73rd)
- DeSean Jackson (49th)
- Matt Forte (44th)