Big 4 vs. BJ Raji

[CRobi21]

I'd love to pick up Raji. Kid seems like the real deal, and could be dominant in the middle for us for years.

[artmonkforHOF]

One of the overriding themes I have been seeing on the draft discussion on ES is whether we should take a Big 4 LT (A. Smith, Oher, Monroe, and J. Smith) or BJ Raji. Many people are saying we should take one of the Big 4, because it is a good value pick. However, at the same time, I feel that Raji is a great value pick as well. What Raji is is a NT who constantly makes plays in the backfield. That, in itself, is so rare and I think he is not going to be a top 10 pick only because he is 6-1 (so he is not going to knock down a lot of balls). It would indeed suck to lose out on a RT who can play LT down the line, but we have only 4 picks and a crapload of needs so I think that in this situation we need to compromise and take a pure RT in Rd. 3 where there will be guys like Alex Boone and Feneki Tupuo.

I would rather take the best tackle out there at #13 (if it's one of the big 4-Monroe's my favourite). Everyone makes a big deal about making a LT play RT and vice versa, but look back a few year to the Saints and Jammal Brown. 2005 draft they took him at 13 even though they had Wayne Gandy as their starting LT and plugged Brown in at RT. Gandy is now in Atlanta and Brown is now their starting LT and a good one at that.

I think you go after the tackle, put him on the right side for now and in a few years when Samuels either retires or starts to slip, you have your future LT all ready to go and is familar with the blocking schemes instead of having to take the chance that a good LT will be availbe in the draft at your pick when samuels does decide to hang em up.

[REDALERT]

Well, good defenses usually help build confidence on the offense especially if you have a good pass rush that cn cause havoc.

Look at all the teams in the playoffs this year without a great offense. Alot of the teams still in the hunt have good DL up front and average offenses and not great QB's. It all starts on defense and having that nasty attitude that carry's over on offense. I'm not saying a good offense doesn't help, but a nasty DL would benefit the skins better IMO. I think you can find better sleeper OL later in rounds then you could on the DL.

So, with that in mind, I would draft the best DL available if it was a toss up between DL and OL.