Another What If

[westcoast]

This is old news and I'm sure allot of people have probably seen the piece on the NFL Channel about drafting QB's and the 2004 draft of Manning, Rivers and Roethlisberger. I thought it was worth posting considering it's slow and you just never know how things are gonna work out in the draft.

I was watching it last night and a couple things jumped out at me, we have Cleveland and Eli's antics on stage after being drafted to thank for getting Ben in the draft. Everyone knows Manning didn't want to go to San Diego, the Giants GM (forget his name) wanted him but the Chargers wouldn't take the Giants offer to move into the number one pick. The Chargers decide to call Manning's bluff and select him. Manning get's on stage with the Charger's jersey but no Charger's hat and his now famous hound dog expression and disinterest after landing an eventual cash windfall.

The Giants GM said oh well screw it, we're taking Roethlisberger at number four, he claims it's half way through his alloted time to make the selection when he gets a report that Cleveland is trying to move up in order to consolidate a trade with the Chargers and obtain Manning. He figures if Cleveland can do it, there still must be an opportunity to get Manning so he makes one last call to San Diego who wants a number one pick and Phillip Rivers so the Giants take Rivers and the trade is made. Someone with a camera films Big Ben and his agent when the Giants take Rivers knowing full well the Giants preferred Ben. Roethlisberger's agent whispers to Ben that Eli played it perfectly by acting like an ass on stage. Ben slides seven picks to us.

[Lofaw]

This is old news and I'm sure allot of people have probably seen the piece on the NFL Channel about drafting QB's and the 2004 draft of Manning, Rivers and Roethlisberger. I thought it was worth posting considering it's slow and you just never know how things are gonna work out in the draft.

I was watching it last night and a couple things jumped out at me, we have Cleveland and Eli's antics on stage after being drafted to thank for getting Ben in the draft. Everyone knows Manning didn't want to go to San Diego, the Giants GM (forget his name) wanted him but the Chargers wouldn't take the Giants offer to move into the number one pick. The Chargers decide to call Manning's bluff and select him. Manning get's on stage with the Charger's jersey but no Charger's hat and his now famous hound dog expression and disinterest after landing an eventual cash windfall.

The Giants GM said oh well screw it, we're taking Roethlisberger at number four, he claims it's half way through his alloted time to make the selection when he gets a report that Cleveland is trying to move up in order to consolidate a trade with the Chargers and obtain Manning. He figures if Cleveland can do it, there still must be an opportunity to get Manning so he makes one last call to San Diego who wants a number one pick and Phillip Rivers so the Giants take Rivers and the trade is made. Someone with a camera films Big Ben and his agent when the Giants take Rivers knowing full well the Giants preferred Ben. Roethlisberger's agent whispers to Ben that Eli played it perfectly by acting like an ass on stage. Ben slides seven picks to us.

If you think about we've gotten pretty lucky in the 1st round a few times. No way Ben should have lasted to the 11th pick that year and then just recently when DeCastro fell all the way was just stunning. We should really thank Eli for being a selfish Ass.

[westcoast]

It was also amazing how many teams passed on Ben like Cleveland and Jacksonville who are still looking for their QB and teams like the Lions, Falcons and Red Skins who all used higher number one picks to obtain their present QB's. If the Giant's GM doesn't hear the Cleveland rumor that they're trying to move up, they take Ben and someone (maybe Cleveland) would have swung the deal with the Chargers by picking Rivers. In other words we end up with zilch.

Of course the Jaguars had Leftwich at the time and probably figured they were set ;)