Josh McDaniels Continues To Surprise Us

In loom of of the whole "McJayGate" saga, Denver Broncos' new Head Coach Josh McDaniels continued his questionable decision making in the 2009 NFL draft. It seems as if he has no idea how franchises are supposed to be ran. With his first strange decision, he selected Georgia RB Knowshon Moreno with the 12th overall pick to join his already running back corps of Correll Buckhalter, J.J. Arrington, LaMont Jordan, Ryan Torain, Peyton Hillis, and Selvin Young. Young has since been released to make way for Moreno. The young former Georgia running back is very talented but this move is quite questionable for a few reasons.

Fistly, they already have so many running backs who are all atleast somewhat effective. There are a few who actually have great potential based on what was seen of them previously. Also, Buckhalter, Arrington, and Jordan were all free agents signed in the offseason to big contracts. If they are making large sums of money, then they should be give the chance to prove their worth on the field to benefit the franchise economically. Secondly, the Broncos have serious issues that needed to be addressed on defense and could have grabbed an elite defensive player in the draft with that pick. Texas DE Brian Orakpo, who many viewed as a top 5 player in the entire draft, was sitting for them at that pick and they passed on him. Not only is he immensly talented but he has lots of experience in that complex 3-4 scheme and would have been a very safe pick. Thirdly, the running back position is not valued very high in the draft compard to other positions. A running back can be selected in later rounds and end up being very effective not only in the long run, but immediately. Perfect examples are Brandon Jacobs and Steve Slaton. If they wanted to take a running back who trumps all of the talent already on the roster, they could have waited a few rounds, or atleast til their second first round pick.

The second questionable decision McDaniels made was trading his 2010 first round pick for a 2009 second round pick to select Wake Forest CB Alphonso Smith. Smith is also a very talented cornerback with elite ball skills whom many believed would have been a first round pick if it was not for his 5'9" height, but does McDaniels not remember all the drama that just went down a month ago with Cutler? His defense is in a rebuilding mode and his team was given two first rounders for Cutler. You can't just waste one of the four first rounders in this year's draft and next year's draft like that for lesser value. The Broncos are basically back to square one now with that deal and the Moreno selection. He will have a lot to prove once the season rolls around.