Originally posted by NYniner85:
Only people trying to justify this pick are homer fans. There's been 5 kickers taken in the first 3 rds since 2000.
He legit needs to come out and be one of the best kickers in the NFL to justify the pick. When 95% of the league has kickers that were drafted late day 3 or UDFAs, objectively it's a bad pick simple as that.
Geez Louise, what a load of crap. They got him as a 3rd round compensatory pick at a position that, under normal circumstances, would have been the early 4th round. You might as well argue that ANY player taken in the 4th round has to turn out to be one of the "best players in the NFL" to justify having been picked at that spot. As I pointed out in a previous post, NFL kickers almost always lead their teams in points scored during the season. Every time they step on the field they are in a position to affect the outcome of a game one way or another, which is more than you can say about almost any other 4th rounder you could select. (Okay, cue the list of cherry-picked 4th rounders who have gone to have great careers). They needed a kicker, so they got the kicker they rated as the best in the draft rather than waiting around to pick up their 3rd, 4th or 5th choice as an UDFA. It's posts like these that are the reason some people in here don't have any respect for your opinions and don't take you seriously.
Picking as late as they did in this draft there was almost no chance that they would find a player in any round who would end up making an immediate impact this year, except at kicker. That kid Brown looks like he could have some potential and I am intrigued by some of their other picks. This could end up being a really solid draft for role players and depth and may even offer up another late round surprise or two. I have no complaints.