Pancake Blocks Mock: Pick No. 15
Texans mock GM Shyam grew up in India, went to school in Wisconsin, roots for the Packers and lives in California. He's never been within 500 miles of Houston, so his fleeting love for the Texans comes from the role their offensive studs have played in his recent fantasy success. He also has no regard for our word count! Here's Shyam with the pick:
The ‘Broncos of the South’ under Gary Kubiak, Kyle Shanahan and Alex Gibbs have figured out a way to repeatedly rack up yards of offense. The #3 offense in the league from 2008 has talent, depth and solid coaching on the offensive side of the ball. The Offensive line is mostly young and coached by one of the all-time great coaches. This approach with their current personnel looks fairly repeatable in the near future making it unlikely that the Texans draft any offensive skill players until the late rounds.
The Texans have ample room for quality defensive starters and would love to trade this spot in the draft to a team that covets Matthew Stafford and move down 5-7 spots where they will be able to snag one of the top linebacker prospects while adding future picks. Assuming that doesn’t happen, the Texans will try to add a defensive player at # 15 who can make an immediate impact. While Brian Cushing or Ray Maualuga would be tempting selections that fill a great need, the value is just not there for a # 15 pick.
A top-tier defensive end with a high ceiling, capable of playing the run and the pass is a lot harder to find in the later rounds in this draft. Tyson Jackson is highly regarded and possesses the ability to play nose tackle and defensive end. Considering the past success of defensive players from LSU and Tyson Jackson’s experience as a 3 year starter with the Tigers, he makes for a pretty safe pick with low risk.
With some size and athleticism on their defensive line, the Texans can now work on bringing in a rotation of undervalued undersized linebackers (Ala Cato June). If the Texans can work on adding depth to the secondary and linebackers in the later rounds , their defense may finally translate into an above average unit which is all they need to catapult themselves into the playoffs for the first ever time.
At # 15 The Texans draft Tyson Jackson.
2009 Pancake Blocks Mock Draft
1. Detroit Lions (Sparty) - Jason Smith
2. St. Louis Rams (Evan) - Eugene Monroe
3. Kansas City Chiefs (Dude Abides) - Michael Crabtree
4. Seattle Seahawks (LunaticFringe) - Aaron Curry
5. Cleveland Browns (Thomas G.) - Aaron Maybin
6. Cincinnati Bengals (Wesseling) - Brian Orakpo
7. Oakland Raiders (Andrew W.) - Jeremy Maclin
8. Jacksonville Jaguars (Matt G.) - B.J. Raji
9. Green Bay Packers (Bob) - Michael Oher
10. San Francisco 49ers (Wes H.) - Everette Brown
11. Buffalo Bills (Mark P.) - Brandon Pettigrew
12. Denver Broncos (Michael R.) - Mark Sanchez
13. Washington Redskins (Ryan J.) - Andre Smith
14. New Orleans Saints (Scott K.) - Malcolm Jenkins
15. Houston Texans (Shyam) - Tyson Jackson
16. San Diego Chargers (Justin) - On the Clock
Comments
So Matt Stafford is still available halfway through the first round, huh?
Posted by: BDiddy | April 17, 2009 01:53 PM
Crazy, huh? I could see him slipping if he gets past No. 4, but someone would surely trade up to nab him.
Posted by: Wess | April 17, 2009 02:12 PM
I agree that in the real draft, someone would invariably trade up to get him - a factor that does not exist in this mock draft. That said, I'm still not buying all the talk (as well as pick #12 in this mock draft) about Sanchez being the better QB prospect. I think Stafford has just been over-scrutinized relative to Sanchez because he (Stafford) has been the preeminent prospect all along.
Posted by: BDiddy | April 17, 2009 02:59 PM
Yeah, that's a good point.
As someone who lives in Georgia and has seen most of Stafford's games, I think he's a good NFL prospect but not special.
He has prototypical size and arm strength, and I'm very impressed by his intelligence and poise. But it's true that he was inconsistent at UGA and was generally seen by UGA fans as a player who should have been much better. When I would tell UGA fans over the past 2 years that Stafford had a chance to go No. 1 overall in the NFL, they looked at me like I just spat in their grits.
How can a player be impressive and underwhelming at the same time? That's kind of where Stafford sits in my mind.
Posted by: Wess | April 17, 2009 03:12 PM
That's the reason this draft is so off guys. Stafford is going to go #1. If Detroit takes him, that lets one of the tackles slide down to Seattle. Crabtree won't go to K.C. so he'll be available somewhere in the second half of the top 10. I don't know if the purpose of this is to pick who you would pick or who you believe the team will pick, but my guess is most of these drafters are using the former.
Posted by: DJOmaha | April 17, 2009 03:25 PM
I don't see Stafford going #1. That's just my take.
That said, I think the most unlikely pick so far is this one. The Texans aren't going to take Tyson Jackson. They want a 1st round guy who is going to make an impact and he isn't it.
Posted by: Dennis | April 17, 2009 03:35 PM
Now that Buffalo is going to need a LT it looks like smith would go to them at 11 and pettigrew would still be falling as well, and the skins would have had to have rolled the dice on stafford. But this Mock is still alot of fun, I just wish it moved a little faster so that trades didn't happen mid draft that now make this mock pretty much irrelevant. Wasn't the goal to get this wrapped up by today? Just a thought for next year, have an alternate ready to pick for each team so if the first picker drags his feet or falls ill like omaha, we can keep this thing rolling.
Posted by: John M | April 17, 2009 04:05 PM