Potential starters drafted

**SAPHOJUNKIE** · 05-03-2011, 08:21 PM

This was an EXCELLENT draft. We have three legit first round TALENTS in houston, hudson, and baldwin. They fell for PERCEIVED reasons. Here's the thing...if no one will buy a house because it's pink, the price goes down. If you don't mind a pink house, then you got an excellent value. Everyone will sit around saying, "You shouldn't have bought that house! It's pink!" And then you say, "uh...the foundation is excellent. The location is excellent. I can easily paint it and then I just have a perfect house." That's called value. Buying low. We nailed that.

But forget the fact that we nailed draft value on a number of our picks.

Forget that every one of our picks has terrific upside.

My biggest excitement is the number of potential day one starters from this draft.

Jon Baldwin - WR2
Rodney Hudson - C
Justin Houston - LOLB
Jerrell Powe - NT
Shane Brannon - FB (top of depth chart, though FB might not be an official "starter")

Add to that the contributions to special teams by Miller, Brown, and Bailey.

Also, Stanzi hopefully gives us an upgrade at the backup QB spot.

We are looking at five potential starters on Day 1 from this draft. Three of those players

I know people are saying we reached on Jon Baldwin. They wanted us to take Torrey Smith, the "burner." Guess what? Baldwin is taller, thicker, better leaping, better hands, and only a few HUNDREDTHS of a second slower than everyone's "burner."

Besides, Baldwin had one rough year. That year the entire team fell apart. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. He has no other issues to speak of. He made a comment after a frustrating game. Big deal. The guy isn't a thug. He's not out stealing cars. He made a dumb comment to a dumb "reporter" from NFLdraftscout.com.

Oh man, I'm getting really, really pumped about this team. We are almost to a point where bringing in a few key free agents will really make a difference.

**Jrudi** · 05-09-2011, 11:38 AM

The reality is that a number of these draft picks will be significant CONTRIBUTORS this upcoming season.

Starter or not, that designation doesn't really matter, that's more of a paycheck type designation... the "starters" get paid more and get the glory of being listed as a starter. Charles wasn't even listed as a starter this last season, and two seasons ago Derrick Johnson wasn't listed as a starter, even in the Denver game when he had two int's for TD's!

I can honestly see Baldwin, Hundson, Houston, and Powe, coming in and being legit contributors that will help this team become better on day one, and that may increase as the season moves on. Weather or not they are listed as starters does not mean they won't help this team. Brown, Bailey, and the Bannon will will get their names heard a couple of times throughout the season, but won't contribute as much as the first four mentioned.

They are all rookies and they all have to learn a lot, but overall I think this draft class is a good one. Lets just hope they can be as productive as 2010's. If they are, I think we are headed in the right direction!