News-Record.com

Unless, of course, we get a groundswell of support for a post discussing how the United States could build a missile defense system using the same materials Mel Kiper Jr. uses to turn his hair into an impenetrable wall .

As we mentioned before in this post (Man, do I love self-linking) when William Hayes was picked in the fourth round by the Tennessee Titans, plenty of people voiced/typed skepticism.

Add this site to the list.

I provided this link not to pile on Hayes. Hey I'm hoping he proves all the skeptics wrong, goes on to a Hall of Fame career and hires me to ghost write his autobiography, then complains that he was "misquoted" a la Charles Barkley, driving up sales to the point where I can purchase my own minor league baseball team and hold promotions like "David Carridine Appreciation Night."

Where was I?

Oh yes, the link to yet another "Why did we draft William Hayes in the fourth round?" blog posting. This one was worth mentioning in this blog because it closes with this:

"Here is a philosophical draft question: There is a really good chance that the Titans could have gotten Hayes in the 4th round without trading up. Let’s say Hayes turns out to be a 4 time Pro Bowler. Does that make it worth giving up the picks to move up and get him, or is this a dumb pick even if he turns out to be really good (obviously not as dumb, but still dumb none the less)?"

So even if Hayes turns out to be a steal, were the Titans still morons for trading up to get him when they could have gotten him in the fifth round?

One of the posters provides the correct answer, I think, and highlights the inherent flaw in grading drafts and criticizing GMs for "reaching." The Titans clearly thought some other team in the NFL was going to grab Hayes early in the fourth round. That's why they traded a fifth round pick so they could move up in that round to get him. If the Titans' hunch was correct - and we have no way to verify this either way - then drafting Hayes in the fourth round wasn't a reach, because he would have been gone by the fifth round.

Or maybe the Titans misread the tea leaves, panicked and made an unnecessary trade to move up to a spot to pick Hayes when no one else was planning to pick him at that point. That seems to be the prevailing thought of those who say Tennessee could have waited a round, or two, or three before pulling the trigger on Hayes.

Again, unless you were in the Titans war room (Can we call a moratorium on war room? This is a draft, not the Pacific Theater) you don't know which scenario is true. Which means you don't know if Tennessee reached or not.

Which means most of these draft grades are pointless. But you already knew that, didn't you?

That's all we'll have on the draft until next spring, we promise. If anything exciting happens to our locals in rookie camps this weekend, we'll let you know. Then it's on to discussing the injury plague that's spreading through my fantasy baseball roster like a wildfire on performance enhancers.