RiverDog":pi0thcpj said:Sabin did indicate that he was surprised that Carpenter went in the first round. That doesn't make anything else he might have said about him invalid, and was my biggest thing about drafting Carp, that I felt we took him too early, that he was projected to be at best a mid 2nd rounder.
But don't pay any attention to me. I also said that I thought we took Russell Wilson too early in the 3rd round.
I agree, but my feeling at number 25 was that we REALLY wanted to trade down and pick Carpenter perhaps at the top of the 2nd round, but simply couldn't find any takers. Especially if you recall that we then didn't pick again until we took Moffit with the 75th pick - there's no way that we were happy with a 50 pick gap in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. A quick look at the trades that did occur in 2011 agree with me, as there weren't really any trades where somebody moved up into the late first round to take someone.
When that happens it forces your hand and you pick the best guy on your board, which in our case must have been Carpenter - and really, looking at every player taken between then and Moffit, there aren't many players that can make a case for being better. Arguably the worst draft for 2nd round talent in a long time