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5 Mistakes NFL Teams Made in the 2015 NFL Draft
Take a look inside to see what the five biggest mistakes on draft day were.
NFL teams are billion dollar enterprises, but that doesn’t stop them from making big mistakes every year. Whether it is overdrafting a player or selecting a player that doesn’t fit their scheme, NFL teams will always make mistakes.
The 2015 NFL draft was no different as there are numerous examples of teams not taking full advantage of the drafting process. Now, it is difficult to definitively state whether a move or a selection was a mistake because we don’t know how it will play out. For example, when the Dallas Cowboys selected Travis Frederick in the first round in 2012, it was heralded as an awful selection. However, fast forward a couple years and Frederick is one of the best centers in the NFL.
Despite these exceptions, we can look to see if teams got enough value with their trades or selections. With that being said, let’s take a look at the five biggest mistakes made in the 2015 NFL draft.
Jacksonville Jaguars Drafting Dante Fowler Jr. at No. 3 Overall
Fowler being on this list has nothing to do with the fact that he tore his ACL soon after he was drafted; instead, it has more to do with the fact that the Jaguars, and many others in the draft media, overvalued Fowler’s ability as a player.
Fowler isn’t a bad player by any means, but his talent and scheme fit did not warrant a top-five selection at all. Fowler is a player who is kind of a Swiss-army knife type of player. He is most effective as an A-gap blitzer on the interior of the offensive line. However, as a Leo with the Jaguars, Fowler would play on the edge on the majority of snaps, which is a spot that he was a lot less effective at while at Florida. Fowler lacks the ability to line up and beat an offensive tackle on a consistent basis. He is inconsistent with his hand usage and he lacks the bend to consistently capture the edge at the next level.
The Jaguars would have been much better to go with a player like Vic Beasley, who was the best pure pass-rusher in the 2015 NFL draft, to take over the Leo spot. Beasley has the speed and technique to consistently beat NFL offensive tackles on a consistent basis.
The Jaguars selection of Fowler will be one they regret when they look back in a few years.
New York Giants Selecting Ereck Flowers at No. 12 Overall
Another head scratching move made early on in the draft was the Giants’ selecting Ereck Flowers in the top-15. Now, Flowers is a very good run-blocker who has the size and strength to win at the point-of-attack in a gap-style offense. However, the No. 1 priority for an offensive tackle is to be great in pass protection.
Unfortunately for Eli Manning, Flowers struggles mightily in that facet of the game. Flowers lacks the athleticism and fluidness in his kick slide to keep up with speed rushers. Furthermore, he tends to catch pass-rushers when they use power rather than displaying a strong punch to stop them in their tracks.
If the Giants don’t give Flowers a ton of help, Manning will be a lot worse for wear. The Giants could have gone a lot of other directions with players like D.J. Humphries or Andrus Peat, who are both much better in pass protection than Flowers.
St. Louis Rams Selecting Sean Mannion in the 3rd Round
Every year there is a tall, statuesque quarterback with a big arm that gets pushed up draft boards much higher than he should. This year, that player was Sean Mannion, whose skill set barely warranted a seventh-round pick let alone a third-round one.
Mannion’s positives are that he has great size and arm strength. That’s it. He lacks anticipation, pocket mobility gand accuracy at all three levels of the defense. Mannion’s ceiling is a solid No. 2 quarterback, but it’s unlikely he even makes it that far with the skill set he is working with. Rarely do we see a player develop the skills in the airs that Mannion is deficient in, which makes it all the more unlikely that he amounts to anything significant.
The Rams would have been better to go in a number of different directions, especially because they didn’t have to go quarterback in that situation. The Rams are going to be kicking themselves about this pick in the future.
Washington Redskins Selecting Matt Jones in the 3rd Round
The 2015 NFL draft was filled with a plethora of fantastic running back prospects for every scheme at any point of the draft. However, the Redskins made the mind-numbing poor decision to overdraft a running back with a ton of other options on the table.
Matt Jones is a downhill powerful back with below-average vision. He’s not very athletic and he lacks the patience and burst to make the most out of what is blocked for him. He could be a good short-yardage back with a predetermined gap to run through; however, the third round is awfully early to get that type of player.
The Redskins would have been much smarter to draft a player like Mike Davis, Javorious Allen, David Cobb or a plethora of other running backs who are better prospects that Jones. If the Redskins decide to part ways with Alfred Morris in the future, they will be right back to where they were before the draft because Jones isn’t the answer.
The Dallas Cowboys Failing to Trade Up in the 3rd Round for a Running Back
The first two rounds couldn’t have gone any better for the Cowboys. They got one of the most talented cornerbacks in the draft at No. 27 with Byron Jones and they got possibly the most talented defensive end in the draft at No. 60 in Randy Gregory. Going into the third round, the Cowboys had only one real weakness on their team and that was at running back and with Duke Johnson still on the board, they Cowboys had the opportunity to get the perfect player to fill that role.
The Cowboys had the opportunity to trade ahead of the Cleveland Browns at No. 77 and select Johnson; however, they felt the price was too steep and instead took the oft-injured offensive tackle Chaz Green at No. 91. Now, the Cowboys will go into training camp with Darren McFadden, Ryan Williams, Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar as their stable of running backs, which doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
The Cowboys should have taken the gamble and gave up their third- and fourth-round picks to move up and select Johnson in the fourth. They wouldn’t have Green or linebacker Damien Wilson, but they would have a dynamite running back in the stable who could help the offense not miss a beat with the departure of DeMarco Murray. Instead, the Cowboys have a lot of uncertainty at the running back position and it could come back to bite them when the season rolls around.
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