sschind;275920The draft is full of players who get drafted when "so many people" project him being available later in the draft.
If you try to make sense out of it you will drive yourself crazy.
At best we may wonder why did that particular GM like that particular player so much.

The questions are why did Ted like him so much and did Ted think he would have been available later in the draft.
We may never truly know the answer to the first (although I am sure Ted will tell us) but the obvious answer to the second question is no he didn't.
At least he didn't think he would be available with his next pick.

I love it how so many people (not you wpr) talk about "THE BOARD" as if there is some official draft board that everyone uses.
The thing is there are 32 "THE BOARD"s and the most important thing for any any GM is where the guy is on their board.


It doesn't matter if some draft expert that is going by what some other draft expert quoted another draft expert as saying about a guy.
All that matters is what Ted thinks of the guy.

I understand that some people are certain that the
universe, or at least the football universe, revolves around them, so if they have never personally seen the guy play or they have never heard of the guy that means that the guy sucks.
However, I am fairly certain that Ted has seen the guy play.
That, IMO makes his opinion much more valid than those who have not.


I am not talking about Uff da and his opinion about Dix.
That is a valid opinion.
I'll still take Teds over Uff da's but at least Uffda has seen Dix play (at least I assume he has) and doesn't like him.
That's fine.
I'm talking about those people who admit they have never seen the guy play or have never even heard of him but still claim he is a crappy pick.
Its like saying a movie sucks without having even seen the trailer (that is only a valid assumption with Nicholas Cage movies)

As for relying on all those strengths and weaknesses sections you may want to temper your expectations.
I was listening to a radio program earlier in the week and they did a segment where they read off a guy's strengths and weaknesses without saying who it was and the panel members had to guess the round the guy was projected at and almost every one had picked the guy to be drafted lower than projected.
A couple said they wouldn't even draft the guy based on the S & W and they were projected to be 2nd or 3rd round picks.

So true and well said sschind.

I was looking at both Bears selections in R2 and R3, both DTs, Ego Ferguson and Will Sutton, both picks made way before Khyri Thornton, and I like Thornton better than both players. However, I had never heard of Thornton before.

I'm an ASU guy too, but think Sutton will be too small to be really effective.

As fans we put a lot of energy into following these players and gathering info, for months in the offseason. I can see where some people get upset when their guy gets passed over. And, yeah, while we have to trust in Ted and his staff, there are times where a fan may still be right, in spite of all the resources teams throw at this.

I remember the day I was literally screaming for Marcus Colston in the 7th round...

Point is, the draft really can be that much of a crap shoot. Even the best make mistakes. But, Ted and his staff have a track record that is pretty damn good.

Fans follow the draft for fun. For teams, it is so much more.

wpr;275926all true.

I suppose I am saying that people are naturally inquisitive.
We like to know how something works.
We like to know why something works.
When it comes to the NFL draft we like to know the story behind the scene.
Usually there are 3 or 4 stories that we would find interesting.

Uncle Teddy certainly does work his board the way he thinks is best.
He isn't perfect but then no one is.
He certainly is right more times than he is wrong. He has made a career out of taking players sooner than others would.

Oh, absolutely, I understood what you meant and I agree.
I wasn't trying to explain anything to you in particular.
I was just using your post as a jumping off point.
It does make you wonder why he took this guy when others may not have looked so highly upon him.
That is totally a natural reaction for a fan to have.
That is painfully obvious simply by reading the opposite reactions on this site.
One guy loves the pick and the other guy hates it.
Why?

I rely very heavily on these "experts" opinions since I don't follow college football at all and I don't know much if anything about these guys.
Maybe that is why I don't get as worked up about these picks as some of you do.
I don't have my own opinion on them so I tend to think that the guys who study them know more about them than those who may not.
If you watch a lot of college football and have strong, knowledge based, opinions fine but even then, I doubt most people have studied the film as much as the GMs have.
Especially when it comes down to the 3rd round and later guys.

Your part about him making a career out of taking players sooner than others would may seem very obvious to us but I would venture to guess that the vast majority of fans feel that way about their GMs as well.

wpr;275908This is not a criticism of Thornton.
I am sick of hearing the talking heads on tv or the media in general tell us that so and so had a good game against a certain team.m As if that is such a wonderful accomplishment.

At least 3 times last night I heard them say that a certain player had a good game against Illinois as if that validated their selection in the 2nd or 3rd round.
HELLO they were playing the pansies of Illinois.
If he didn't have a fantastic game against Illinois he should not even be looking for a job in the NFL.
Naturally we are told that other players "had a good game" against SEC or ACC teams or in the National Championship game.
it still doesn't impress me very much. One game does not a career make.
One game does not tell me how good he will do lined up against the best players week in and week out.

Or like the above quote. Thornton had a good game in the post season senior game or someone else in a bowl game.
I want to hear about players who had a great career not just one game a season.

I agree.
I also feel sort of the same way about highlight reels.
I mean sure, its nice to see the guy you took make some nice plays but I'm pretty sure players like Ryan Leaf and Jamarcus Russel had pretty impressive highlight reels as well.
I'm guessing if you cherry picked plays you could pick out at least a half a dozen highlight reel plays from every player drafted that would make them look like first round talent.

wpr;275908This is not a criticism of Thornton.
I am sick of hearing the talking heads on tv or the media in general tell us that so and so had a good game against a certain team.m As if that is such a wonderful accomplishment.

At least 3 times last night I heard them say that a certain player had a good game against Illinois as if that validated their selection in the 2nd or 3rd round.
HELLO they were playing the pansies of Illinois.
If he didn't have a fantastic game against Illinois he should not even be looking for a job in the NFL.
Naturally we are told that other players "had a good game" against SEC or ACC teams or in the National Championship game.
it still doesn't impress me very much. One game does not a career make.
One game does not tell me how good he will do lined up against the best players week in and week out.

Or like the above quote. Thornton had a good game in the post season senior game or someone else in a bowl game.
I want to hear about players who had a great career not just one game a season.

I think the problem is outside of maybe Mel Kiper Jr and that McShay guy, no one really watches every single game and analyzes every single player. I doubt that they even do it.
I think they should have regional people evaluate and also positional too.
Something because there is no way one person can watch the game of over 200 teams playing 12+ games with rosters the size of 100 or so and know who is good at what and bad at what.

If he went to another school, people would probably know more about him. He went to a Southern Miss team with a terrible overall record. They looked at his individual performance within that, his fit in this scheme, and his ability to play three different techniques on the line.

93 Boyd, Josh DE 6-3 310 24 2 Mississippi State
95 Jones, Datone DE 6-4 285 23 2 UCLA
94 Thornton, Khyri DE 6-3 304 24 R Southern Miss
99 Worthy, Jerel DE 6-2 304 24 3 Michigan State

76 Daniels, Mike DT 6-0 300 25 3 Iowa
98 Guion, Letroy DT 6-4 315 26 7 Florida State
90 Raji, B.J. DT 6-2 337 27 6 Boston College

96 Neal, Mike
DE/LB 6-3 285 26 5 Purdue
56 Peppers, Julius LB/DE 6-7 287 34 13 North Carolina

When you see it in profile, it looks like a really talented group with a lot of potential. Now we just need another linebacker to add to that particular group.

Thornton Highlights

Guy looks like he has some real power to his game. For Ted to go that high for him, they must really like what he can do. I believe it probably is based more on his versatility, where he can play pretty much any position on the line. That has to figure in during situations where you don't have a whole lot of time to sub.

play2win;275950Thornton Highlights

Guy looks like he has some real power to his game. For Ted to go that high for him, they must really like what he can do. I believe it probably is based more on his versatility, where he can play pretty much any position on the line. That has to figure in during situations where you don't have a whole lot of time to sub.

i love the move he throws down at :41

gbguy20;275955i love the move he throws down at :41

He's got some stuff! I'm telling you, Ted knows how important this pick was. We might be very, very happy with Khyri Thornton playing on our DL.

To me, it was a big risk pick. But, that's just to me. Ted found Mike Daniels in R4... pick 132... I'd have to say he has earned a decent measure of trust here.

I watched one of those highlight videos where it shows every snap in a game.
Some things that stood out to me were:
- He penetrates into the backfield a lot
- When he doesn't penetrate, he doesn't get pushed off his spot much at all
- He was constantly hustling, which is impressive for a guy his size.
He was already around the play, even downfield.