It turns out...

**NeilPatrickBanana** · 03-09-2013, 04:38 PM

... that Xavier Rhodes is the best defensive player in this year's draft

**K Train** · 03-11-2013, 09:13 AM

No he isnt, best corner probably...i would have agreed with that for years now, but ive always had a little crush on rhodes

**NeilPatrickBanana** · 03-11-2013, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by K Train

No he isnt, best corner probably...i would have agreed with that for years now, but ive always had a little crush on rhodes

I spent last week, reviewing the defensive players in the top 32 on my last board. Xavier Rhodes is the best defensive prospect in the draft. He is the best cover corner to come out since Revis or Haden. I compared his tape to Claiborne and he blows it away.. Rhodes is now #2 on my board behind Joekel. (I updated my top 100 thread)

These are the guys I re-watched (most) and there new positions on the board (i'm doing offense this week) :
2 Xavier Rhodes CB Florida St
3 Shariff Floyd DT Florida
4 Dee Milliner CB Alabama
5 Dion Jordan DE/OLB Oregon
9 Bjoern Werner DE Florida St
11 Sheldon Richardson DT Missouri
12 Barkevious Mingo DE/OLB LSU
13 Ezekial Ansah DE/OLB BYU
15 Kawann Short DT Purdue - did not re-watch
16 Jarvis Jones OLB Georgia
17 Desmond Trufant CB Washington St
20 Star Lotulelei DT Utah - did not re-watch
24 Johnathan Hankins DT Ohio St
25 Kenny Vaccaro S Texas
26 Datone Jones DE UCLA
29 Robert Alford CB Southeastern Louisiana - only re-watched combine
30 Manti Teo LB Notre Dame

**K Train** · 03-11-2013, 10:30 AM

There no way in hell revis and haden were the best prospects to use as a jumping off point, thats classic 20/20 hindsight...they were middle of the pack guys even if they were the top corner their year (revis wasnt) and are the far superior players today. Theres like 8 CBs over the last few years that i would have rated SIGNIFICANTLY higher than i had revis, haden, rhodes, and milliner

**steelcitysfinestXL** · 03-11-2013, 10:45 AM

Yeah that draft class was DB heavy with Berry being the clear cut best available player, maybe of the whole draft. 5-6 dbs went in the first that year. Revis and Hall were pretty evenly hyped in their draft class as well.

**NeilPatrickBanana** · 03-11-2013, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by K Train

There no way in hell revis and haden were the best prospects to use as a jumping off point, thats classic 20/20 hindsight...they were middle of the pack guys even if they were the top corner their year (revis wasnt) and are the far superior players today. Theres like 8 CBs over the last few years that i would have rated SIGNIFICANTLY higher than i had revis, haden, rhodes, and milliner

If the Steelers.com board still existed, you would see that I had Joe Haden ranked #2 that year, (behind Bradford) and
I also spent a month ranting about how we needed to trade our 2nd round pick to move into the top 10 to take Revis in his year. (of course, none of this can be verified and I realize this could be viewed as talking out of my ***... lol)

I'm a pretty good judge of CB talent.

**steelcitysfinestXL** · 03-11-2013, 11:52 AM

I just look at the recent history of the Steelers drafting CB's in the first... and there isnt any! Chad Scott was the last and I think there is good reason for that. Revis was a Pittsburgh kid who I got to see play every game at Pitt. So I was obviously REALLY high on the steelers drafting him. I knew he could start game 1 and back then he was a hell of a return man! Other than that, there hasnt been many corners I've wanted in the first round!

**K Train** · 03-11-2013, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by NeilPatrickBanana

If the Steelers.com board still existed, you would see that I had Joe Haden ranked #2 that year, (behind Bradford) and
I also spent a month ranting about how we needed to trade our 2nd round pick to move into the top 10 to take Revis in his year. (of course, none of this can be verified and I realize this could be viewed as talking out of my ***... lol)

I'm a pretty good judge of CB talent.

you had haden #2 over suh and berry? get out of here lol

i admittedly hated revis, i hate revis and carriker so much that year as the steelers pick but he was #2 to me. I thought haden was #1 by default because of a painfully average CB class he came out of but hes exceeded what i thought he was.

How I'd rank them from 2003-Now as prospects:

1. Patrick Peterson
2. Antonio Cromartie (the dude had it all, if not for his knee injury he would have been among the top picks)
3. Deangelo Hall
4. Pacman Jones
5. Terrence Newman
6. Morris Claiborne
7. Leodis Mckelvin (again, this is ignoring the fact that he actually sucks)
8. Marcus Trufant
9. Janoris Jenkins (had him slightly below Claiborne...but obviously where he was going was a crap shoot, but above haden)
10. Leon Hall
11. Antrelle Rolle
12. Darrelle Revis
13. Dee Milliner
14. Joe Haden
15. Xavier Rhodes
16. Dunta Robinson
17. Carlos Rogers
18. Malcolm Jenkins
19. Stephen Gilmore
20. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie

something like that.

Honestly i had earl thomas ranked higher as a CB than haden that year

**steelcitysfinestXL** · 03-11-2013, 11:59 AM

Yeah Berry and Thomas i thought would make better CB's than Haden. I liked Patrick Robinson as a second better than Haden as a first. Parrish Cox was a guy i was REALLY high on in that draft too, lol... whoops!