Quote:
Originally Posted by ukcolt
I think quoting Diem and DeMulling as drafting replacements is stretching things a little. Diem possibly, he was a 4th round pick who you think will be good depth and maybe become a potential starter, but DeMulling was a 7th rounder flyer, who no-one really knew would become a replacement starter. Could just as easily have been a cut candidate.
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Definitely disagree on Diem. I think Polian definitely drafted him w/ the thought of replacing Meadows, which he did end up doing. I also think DeMulling was more than a flyer as Polian was pretty good at drafting IOL in the later rounds or bringing them in as UDFAs. On top of DeMulling there was Jake Scott, Lilja, obviously Saturday, etc.
Either way there was a clear pattern under Polian of drafting replacement players at least 1 year ahead of time, which allowed them to develop and be evaluated. Another example is David Thornton being drafted in '02 and replacing Peterson in '03. I can list several of these (including ones that didn't work out), but the point being is that IMO this is a better strategy than relying on rookies to come in and produce right away which is what Ballard tends to do.