Okay, so it’s been a while. We had more important league business to attend to. But now that we have a draft day set (August 26th, bee tee dubs), we can return to our series rating last year’s draft.  On to part 10 of the 11 part series. Today we look at the Bestine Banthas. The Banthas draft didn’t begin until the fourth round, thanks to a bunch of trades that brought some talent to the team, but left them without much to build their future on.

Bestine Banthas

Studs

Not sure we can really find any on this list, which is unsurprising given the fact that all of them are late round picks.

Decent Pickups

Getting Willis McGahee in the fifth round was pretty good.  He became a nice spot starter.  A 6th round safety isn’t bad either.  Malcolm Jenkins didn’t light the world on fire, but again, not a bad guy for the price.

Misses

Rashad Jennings was injured and missed the entire season.  Even so, a fourth round pick might have a bit too high for a backup running back.  It might have been smarter to pick up a rookie running back if you were going to draft someone who is buried on the depth chart.

A bunch of wide receivers were drafted, so you would think that at least one of them might catch on to some degree.  But alas, no.  Jordan Shipley seemingly had the most upside, but he failed.  So did Blair White, and Jerricho Cotchery.

Taking a flyer on running back Alex Green didn’t seem like such a bad idea.  Who knows, maybe he’ll even be decent one day.  But the Banthas gave him his walking papers.

When Lindsay drafted cornerback Morgan Trent, I had never heard of him.  I still haven’t heard of him.

The Grade

I’m not sure it’s a great draft when precisely zero of your drafted players make the roster the following year.  So Ryan gets an F, but hopefully he can do better this time around.  He doesn’t have a first rounder again this year, but at least he has a second rounder.

© 2012, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.