Apr 30, 2008 2008 Draft, Awesomeness, DeMeco Ryans, The X Factor
I rarely do the whole “link to another story” post, but this is an exception. Check out SOLIS’ post on Xavier Adibi over at BRB. And then allow me to reiterate that he is, by far, my favorite player we took in this draft.
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April 30th, 2008 at 9:42 am
X-Factor is an absolutely perfect nickname. Great article, SOLIS.
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April 30th, 2008 at 10:07 am
The Texans are adding the “young guns” from the Nigerian Mafia! Vince (pastel) Young and others, should fear being in the cross hairs of the “hitmen”!
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April 30th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Thanks Matt. Thanks DT.
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Yeah, Adibi is another one who should be welcomed in the Nigerian fold. He’s got that vigor for the game. He had a brother, Nathaniel, who played DE at Va Tech and got drafted in the 4th also… but he never really panned out. Now dude sells real estate.
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As I research these guys for the intro pieces, I keep reading the same things. Great character – very intelligent. They said it about every single one of them.
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Can you imagine Okam and Okoye? Talk about a smart tandem. They could probably figure out a way to power Reliant with soap, tweezers, and an old taco shell. For real…
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April 30th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
@solis: Then you’ve got the “old man” N.D. Kalu (Rice Grad.) to make sure all of his “puppies” maintain the right attitude. The old guy may turnout to be one the better signings the Texans have made in the past couple of years. More for his off-field than on-field contributions.
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April 30th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hey I didn’t really know where to throw this, but it’s a great read from the Texans draft luncheon.
http://www.houstontexans.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=4296
Again, I know it doesn’t go with the X factor, but I don’t think I saw this anywhere else on DGDB&DM.
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April 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
X-factor is ok, but I think we can do better. I would love to see Okam’s Razor actually make it into rotation though. That’s greatness.
I can easily see myself falling in love with Adibi, but can anyone tell me why he fell so far? I agree that he is a monster and everything I have seen about him is impressive, but why were we able to get him in the 4th?
Mario, DeMeco and Adibi killing people with Okam and Okoye contemplating string theory is ok with me.
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April 30th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Quick note to say that I love the emphasis the front office puts on intelligence and character.
@dallas: Apparently he fell because of some run-support concerns. But that doesn’t seem like enough to pull down this player all the way to the 4th. I’m thinking there’s something else out there.
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April 30th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I know this is unrelated to Adibi (who is a badass) but Lance Z links to a story in his blog in a San Diego paper where Norv Turner admitted they were going to take Brown at 27 overall but took Cason as their second choice becasue Brown was gone. So, we may have indeed taken Brown too high but he would have been gone the very next pick. All the talk about trading down again or getting him in the 3rd is wrong. He was going to get drafted in the 1st and I’m glad it was us who got him.
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April 30th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
@Solis – Thanks for a great article. That’s the most excited I’ve been about the upcoming season so far
@casey – Ok, so maybe Brown wasn’t a reach
@beef – if you’re out there, you were right, I was wrong. Douche? I mean truce?
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May 1st, 2008 at 9:21 am
That’s interesting, Casey, because they already have Marcus McNeill at LT, and he’s one of the best young tackles in the league. I wonder if they were going to put him at RT?
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Also, Lance, this really doesn’t put any over-reach argument to rest. Far from it. He’s a project by any standard, and just because another team wanted him changes not a thing.
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May 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Hey, b0ng: Who’s the due on your avatar at TexansTalk? It reminds me of Jeff Alm.
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May 1st, 2008 at 11:10 am
@BFD I’m not sure that’s the argument he’s making. He’s countering the argument that the Texans reached because they could have traded down and taken him in the second or even in the third as some have said. I tend to agree with him that he would have been gone by the start of the second. Lance himself said after the pick that he was a major project and there was no way around it.
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May 1st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
@thatguy: I’m here, and since I’ve visited the chron today, I’m full up on douche right now. Thanks for asking.
So, did you really go back and look to see how much time elapsed between the two picks, or were you just being silly? OR did you just realize you were being a typical ass about it?
I could’ve sworn we had the pick in within a few seconds. If not, oh well. I’m still not going to try to act like I was sitting next to Rick and Gary during the whole thing, with claims of them being exposed.
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May 1st, 2008 at 2:38 pm
@beef and thatguy: Is there some sort of history between you two I am missing here?
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@Buck: Ah, OK, missed the semantics. In *my* mind, there is still a valid argument that Brown was an over-reach. And just because another team may have wanted him at 27 doesn’t change that. In this case, I consider an over-reach where he should’ve gone 10 years from now. For example, even though half the GMs wanted Reggie Bush, he was an over-reach by 6 or so rounds.
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May 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
@BFD – In the Draft Day 2 Open Thread, I put forth my speculation that we had traded back to get Jenkins at value after DRC went to AZ, but when the Cowboys moved up to get him we were forced to go to our secondary choice, which was Brown, and which was a bit of a reach. Apparently, such speculation makes me a douche-tastic ass.
@Beef – I’m sincerely trying to make nice here, dude. I’m sorry that my opinion pissed you off so much. That was just the reaction I had at the time. Seeing the San Diego story about them wanting Brown, and hearing that Green Bay was also eyeing him has made me re-evaluate Brown’s value (at least his perceived value in the draft). So we got him right where he would’ve gone and we got a 3rd and 6th to boot. Good job, Smithiak. I’m still a little upset that we went with a developmental pick rather than an immediate impact pick, but I can live with it. I’m not sure what I’ve done to make you think that I’m “typically” an ass, seeing as how I don’t post much, even though I read this blog every day. I reacted honestly and expressed my opinion. I’ve admitted that opinion was speculative and that my opinion seems to be incorrect. If you give me a P.O box or something, I’ll gladly send you the pound of flesh you seem to want to extract from me. Lord knows I can spare it…
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May 1st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
A person could argue that the “San Diego would have taken him” thing is apples-to-oranges when it comes to talking about whether Brown was a reach for us. San Diego has a Top-5 LT, so they would have been drafting him most likely to play RT or to fill some other role. We were drafting him as Left Tackle Of The Future ™, which is a much harder position to fill historically. Even more importantly, they would have been drafting him to play RT when they know exactly what quantities they have throughout the rest of their line; we drafted him to play LT when we are in the process of rebuilding not only the line but the entire blocking scheme.
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May 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
@ BFD
I agree with you regarding where Brown should have gone. But it’s like market value for free agents. Jaque Reeves may not be worth what he got, but that’s what mediocre db’s are getting. So even though Reeve’s not worth it, we didn’t overpay because that’s what the market is. Brown may not be a first round talent, but other teams were willing to take him there as well. To me, that’s not a reach, but it is just semantics. Like, is a douche someone who cuts you off in traffic, or something worse like a chron columnist?
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May 1st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
@Buck: Don’t make me go Moneyball on you!
I do worry about putting too many shiny coins toward one position. In addition, I’m not sure we maximized our value from the pick (which is the premise of Moneyball).
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To answer your last question: can’t it be both?
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@thatguy: I saw that. If we were graded on our ability to be right about everything, I’d be so douche-y, I’d smell like fucking spring.
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May 2nd, 2008 at 8:29 am
@thatguy: My bad, dude. I went a little musky on that last reply, as my assholery is strong like bull. I couldn’t tell if you were being fo-real, so I went with the default head shot. Shame on me.
The “typical” comment was addressing anyone who likes to pretend they know all the ins and outs of our front office. It was nothing you’d, specifically, done.
In summary, fuck me. I suck. Not as much as VY though. On that, I hope we can all agree.
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May 2nd, 2008 at 9:00 am
@beef – bygones, brother. Sometimes when I get a notion in my head and gut, I argue like I know a helluva lot more than I actually do (my momma calls that “smarmy”). I knew I had done that, I wanted to tell you that you were right to call me out on it. Here’s to a season full of visions of VY flat on his ass!
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May 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 am
@thatguy: (in my best Terry “Hulk” Hogan voice) Amen to that, brother!
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May 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Sorry, meant to post that on another thread. I’m so tech savvy, it burns when I pee pee.