2019 Draft - Edge Rushers

[smitty46953]

Originally Posted by Dam8610

You understand that there was no way to guarantee this beforehand, right? The last two guards to go top ten before Nelson were Jonathan Cooper and Chance Warmack, both of whom flopped miserably and never even came close to living up to their top ten draft status. Both of them were All-Americans and hyped up as great players like Nelson was. Even discounting that and assuming he was going to be elite (which would've been a foolish assumption beforehand), an elite OG hasn't been worth as much as an elite DE, WR, LT, LB, DT, CB, etc. in the NFL over the last 10+ years. Considering 16 of the top 20 contracts for offensive lineman belong to LTs, and LTs don't get paid as well as the other positions I listed, it would seem that is a well established point among NFL GMs. That makes drafting a guard that high an even bigger risk. Fortunately it worked out, but no one could've known that Nelson would have a bigger impact as a rookie than any OG in the past 10+ years on draft day.

Few of us wanted Nelson, I watched ND a lot and he passed the eye test for me. Had Chubb been available and it was up to me the pick still be Nelson. Just my 2 cents. Had to protect the QB …