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 No. 36 |
 Pick by Dawgs By Nature Ryan Kalil |
(Note to readers: this is my second round draft pick for our site-wide Sports Blogs Nations' NFL mock draft.) In the first round, I selected offensive tackle Joe Thomas, as I've been craving him for several months now. After picking a lineman in the first round, I was stuck in a major pickle with the 36th overall pick. I really wanted to take a cornerback, because although we have Leigh Bodden this season, I'm not sold on Daven Holly being a starter. On the other hand, Gary Baxter claims that he'll be back for the season, but that would call for a remarkable recovery.
For the record, if cornerbacks Chris Houston or Aaron Ross were available at this pick, I probably would have selected them. In the end though, the best available cornerback was Eric Wright, and the best linemen were Kalil, Arron Sears, and Tony Ugoh. Had I not selected Thomas in the first round, and gone with Adrian Peterson or a quarterback instead, then Sears or Ugoh would definitely have been the pick. However, with Thomas on board, I didn't feel like taking another tackle just yet. That left Wright and Kalil remaining. As much as I'd like to hope that LeCharles Bentley heals to his Pro Bowl form, we simply don't have enough information on him yet, and Hank Fraley obviously isn't a long-term answer. Kalil has first-round potential, meaning we wouldn't be making the same type of Jeff Faine reach that we did a few years ago. And, in regards to the cornerback position, this year's class is deep, and I believe we could snag an adequate one in the third round.
I still felt weird selecting two linemen back-to-back for the first two rounds though, because it seems like a thing that the Browns wouldn't do. What do you guys think? Who would you have liked me to take with this pick (to see who was already off the board, visit Field Gulls, the host of our mock draft).