Looking Back - 2011 Draft

Paully D

I used to enjoy these threads a couple of years ago, so thought we could look back at another draft class. They say it takes around 3 years to fully know how a draft class will turn out, so 4 years in it's pretty safe to say that 2011 is looking like one of the best ever draft classes in the NFL.

The big story of this draft class was who was going to be the 1st QB off the board. It seems crazy looking back now but quite a few people (including Mayock, CBS and Lombardi) had Gabbert ranked ahead of Newton and felt the Panthers were going to Gabbert.

The Falcons made a huge trade with the Browns to move up and take Julio Jones. They gave up their 2011 1st, 2nd and 4th along with their 2012 1st and 4th for the Browns #6 pick.

In a bizzare scenario the Ravens missed their pick (#25) and had to pick #26 as time expired while they were waiting on the Bears to confirm a trade with the NFL.

Looking back, it's crazy just how much talent was littered throughout. In the top half of the 1st round alone only 3 picks turned out to be busts (incidentally the 3 QB's not named Cam Newton) while the vast majority of the teams knocked it out of the park with their selections. In the 2nd round you've got the likes of Cobb, Dalton, Wisinewski and Rudolph. While the 3rd round onwards sees the likes of Justin Houston, DeMarco Murray, Julius Thomas, Jordan Cameron, Pernell McPhee, Richard Sherman, Jason Kelce, Tyrod Taylor and Jurrell Casey get drafted. Just a talent filled draft all round.

What are your memories from that draft and how did your team fare?

eagle eye

I remember that draft so well. The guy I was shouting about in that draft was JJ Watt. I so wanted the Patriots to trade up and get him.

The guy I was unsure about was Cam Newton, just didn't know if he would make it at the pro level. He has improved with time and has been sensational this year.

poldebruin

Nice post Paully, I love looking back over old drafts, the pre draft rankings and the post draft grades - great fun with hindsight. All the what if's, the head scratching picks, did the reaches pan out - there's so much to enjoy looking back over them. Seattle picked up KJ Wright, Richard Sherman, Byron Maxwell and Malcolm Smith all from the 4th round on! I always ask myself the question - with hindsight, would I have picked JJ Watt over Cam Newton?

Anyway, 2011 was John Elway's first draft as GM (or whatever!) of the Broncos. He has the 2nd overall pick in his pocket as a result of the McDaniels debacle the previous year. There was no real drama, as Von Miller was the consensus no.2 pick. 55 sacks in 65 games and is one of the most dominant edge rushers in the NFL. Needs to be paid next year though, and I personally believe you hamstring your team by paying big bucks to defensive pieces. I'm sure we will try and resign him though (with Manning-money!)

The rest of what I think was a very solid draft for Denver saw:

Rahim Moore (2nd), started for 3 years @ safety, but will forever be known for the terrible play he (did not) make in the 2012 AFC divisional round where he completely misjudged Joe Flacco's 70 yard heave with less than 30 seconds left. Plays for Houston currently.

Orlando Franklin (2nd), started for 3 years and signed a lucrative FA deal with San Diego this year.

Nate Irving (3rd) Solid player, played frequently over the first 3 years, was starting inside LB until he got injured mid way though the season last year - signed with the Colts in the off season.

Julius Thomas (4th), off to a slow start before breaking out for huge years in 2011 and 2012 (26 games, 24 TDs). Oft-injured, he leveraged a great deal with Jacksonville this offseason.

Quinton Carter (4th) Really promising start to his career, but was dogged by injury. Showed enough that the Broncos kept him on IR for two years, but ended up leaving after suffering another injury late last year. A real pity, he looked like he could have been a quality safety for us.

Virgil Green (7th) Primarily a blocking TE, didn't see much action for the first couple of years, but notice him a lot more often and can expect to see even more if we move to 2 and 3 TE formations with Osweiler under center.

LuckyLloyd

Jake Locker (retired following completion of his rookie deal) and Christian Ponder (cut in camp by Raiders this year) out of football already.

adrian522

Ah the 2011 draft, seemed so good at the time, and honestly looking back I don't think any of the issues could really have been forseen, just the way the league works...

Round 1, Pick 7:

Aldon Smith - You can use hindsight if you wish but this was a good pick, guy was an elite pass rusher, record setting in terms of sacks, just couldn't stay out of trouble but there weren't really any red flags prior to the draft.

Round 2 Pick 36:

Colin Kaepernick - Could discuss this one all day, the 49ers moved up to select him, the raiders apparently would have taken him if the 49ers did not. Story is Trent Baalke wanted Dalton while Harbaugh wanted Kaepernick. ?It has to go down as a good pick, he was good to very good for a few years. Gone off the rails completely the last 2 years though. The whole mess of the coaching setup this year hasn't helped but I don't think he will ever fulfill the promise he showed early.

Round 3 Pick 80:

Chris Culliver - Starter from his rookie year in SF, looked good for the most part. Was exposed badly in the superbowl after coming out with some idiotic comments in the run up, but overall if you good production out of a third round pick and then get a comp pick when he leaves that has to be pretty good. Tore his ACL in 2013, left in 2015 for Washington.

Round 4 - Pick 115

Kendall Hunter - Did well as a change of pace back. Always felt there was more to come from him but an horrific injury put the brakes on his development and he never really took the next step, good value in the 4th round though.

Round 5 - Pick 163

Daniel Kilgore - Still on the roster, he's been a pretty good pick, essentially provides depth on the interior of the line.

Round 6 - Pick 182

Ronald Johnson - Didn't make the roster.

Round 6 - Pick 190

Colin Jones - Traded away after 1 season.

Round 7 - Pick 211

Bruce Miller - Great pickup in the 7th round, was a starter from day 1, huge help in the run game. Good option in the pass game too, still on the roster though may have some legal trouble coming down the line.

Round 7 - Pick 239

Mike Person - Released prior to the 2012 season.

Round 7 - Pick 250

Curtis Holcomb - Didn't make the roster.


Overall - Good draft, no question. Got 4 starters and 2 good backup type players out of one draft. Already had a decent roster but this draft set the 49ers up for a great 3 seasons from 2011-2013.

The next 2 drafts were poor and we are paying for those now. As of start of next season probably only Miller and Kilgore will remain on the roster.

phatkev

I couldn't believe the jets had the chance to pick up Mo Wilkerson when the 30th pick rolled around! They also picked up Bilal Powell and Jeremy Kerely in the 4th and 5th round, so by the Jets standards this was a really solid draft!

HigginsJ

Pretty poor draft for the Giants overall. Grabbing a falling Prince Amukamara in the middle of the 1st has worked out pretty well, he is a very solid corner when fit.

Sadly it starts to go downhill rapidly from there. Marvin Austin was a colossoal bust in the 2nd round, out of football for a year before we drafted him he was placed on IR year 1 and barely featured in year 2 before we let him go.

Jerrel Jernigan out of Troy at WR in the 3rd did very little amassing under 400 yards in 3 years before being let go.

James Brewer an OT out of Indiana was a big raw prospect who hung around for 4 years bouncing between practice squad and the 53 making 8 starts overall.

Greg Jones an LB out of Michigan State was taken next. In a series of who will be the Giants next starting MLB, Jones was named to the spot in his rookie year after an injury to Jonathan Goff. He was waived at the end of his 2nd season and is now knocking around in Canada with the Argonauts.

Tyler Sash a S from Iowa was next up. He was banned for 4 games for Adderall abuse in his 2nd season and was cut at the end of his 3rd year.

Jacquain Williams an LB from South Florida was our next playey taken and for a while it looked like he might turn into a player & memorably stripped a 49ers player in the conference game to set up the game winning field goal on our way to the SuperBowl. In 3 years he made 166 tackles and 2 sacks but was cut at the end of the 2014 season.

Da'rel Scott was an RB out of Maryland. Over 2 and a half years he managed 200 total rushing and receiving yards, although did have a few preseason highlights including taking his 1st carry for a 97 yard TD run. He was waived mid 2013.

That is how you draft like a Giant!!!

To be fair we hit some great success in UDFA's that year picking up Mark Herslich, Henry Hynoski, Larry Donnell and Spencer Paysinger who contributed way more that those selected in the draft. Herslich and Paysinger played a good bit at LB but were core special teamers. The Hynosaurus was our FB up until he was beat out this pre season. Larry Donnell is our starting TE (although injured at present)

HigginsJ

The draft did have 5 Qb's start a game this weekend in Cam, Dalton, Gabbert, TJ Yates and Tyrod Taylor.

brinty

Must take a look at cowboys other picks
But Tyron Smith and DeMarco Murray were pretty great picks..

Knex*

HigginsJ wrote: »

Tyler Sash a S from Iowa was next up. He was banned for 4 games for Adderall abuse in his 2nd season and was cut at the end of his 3rd year.

Tyler Sash died from an overdoes last September too, sadly.

11 and 12 were poor drafts from the Giants. Thankfully 13 and 14 seem to be quite good so far, but we are lacking in depth because of the former two, for sure.

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/12/17/danny-watkins-philadelphia-eagles

Interesting read about Danny Watkins he was one of the "safest picks" in that draft and was a monstrous bust


One of the worst drafts iv seen the Eagles have only good player to come out of it and play for the Eagles was Kelce

Richard Hillman

For the Chargers, only 1st pick (18th overall) Corey Liuget (DT) is still at the franchise and can be considered a relative success. Marcus Gilchrist (CB) was ok but for a second round pick and picked before Richard Sherman then there would probably be more regret about it.

The rest were released within a season or so. A bad year, followed by years of "OK" players.

LuckyLloyd

adrian522 wrote: »

Ah the 2011 draft, seemed so good at the time, and honestly looking back I don't think any of the issues could really have been forseen, just the way the league works...

Round 1, Pick 7:

Aldon Smith - You can use hindsight if you wish but this was a good pick, guy was an elite pass rusher, record setting in terms of sacks, just couldn't stay out of trouble but there weren't really any red flags prior to the draft

That's the thing though isn't it? Look, I know people love this stuff and I get why. It's exciting to think about what might be and play the guessing game. It's also something to do during the long seven month period without actual football to watch.

But it is impossible to look into the future and the scouting effort will always be compromised by the constantly refining sophistication of the Draft prep effort. Simply put, players get ever superior advice on how to handle themselves in the run up and their physical preparation is specific to the tests laid down for them. Ultimately the problem is that NCAA competition is of a much, much lower standard than the NFL. That's always going to be the key problem that the Draft process is unable to surmount. You just can't be sure what will happen when you plug an all world NCAA star into a context where everyone was once an elite NCAA player and have improved since their entry into the big show.

SameOleJay

Even in such a stacked class, hard not to be chuffed landing a transcendent talent like Gabe Carimi.

brinty

Wow just looked at the 2011 draft by the cowboys and Tyron smith is the only player still at the club.
We'd a good class
R1 Tyron Smith
R2 Bruce Carter
R3 DeMarco Murray
R4 David Arkin
R5 Josh Thomas
R6 Dwayne Harris
R7 Shaun Chapas
R7 Bill Nagy

Some good players on that list, some not so good. But that's the luck of the draft I guess

D9Male

Brayden Zealous Kindergarten wrote: »

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/12/17/danny-watkins-philadelphia-eagles

Interesting read about Danny Watkins he was one of the "safest picks" in that draft and was a monstrous bust


One of the worst drafts iv seen the Eagles have only good player to come out of it and play for the Eagles was Kelce

That article on Watkins is well worth a read. Thanks.

Magico Gonzalez

Yeah, Christian Ponder. That went well...

adrian522

They may want to rewrite this...

Class of '11 rivals best crop of rookie quarterbacks ever

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82509efb/article/class-of-11-rivals-best-crop-of-rookie-quarterbacks-ever

HigginsJ

Knex. wrote: »

Tyler Sash died from an overdoes last September too, sadly.

11 and 12 were poor drafts from the Giants. Thankfully 13 and 14 seem to be quite good so far, but we are lacking in depth because of the former two, for sure.

That is very sad, I do not remember hearing that.