This is so overplayed it’s unreal. We have drafted two first round players in the first round since 2014. Mosely and Humphrey. Didn’t work out so bad now did it.
Oh good. 2/5 early Bama picks actually worked. Brilliant. Give Ozzie a medal.
Are you kidding? His bias has cost the team in other ways and it's undoubtedly there. It's not even up for debate, it's the truth. Since 2010 he's drafted Terrence Cody, Courtney Upshaw, CJ Mosley, Marlon Humphrey, and Tim Williams all within the first three rounds. Sure, the ratio probably goes up as I think Tim Williams is more likely to succeed than not, but Upshaw and Cody were such terrible picks that we didn't retain them and they the damn franchise back. And 5 players from the same school in a ten year period, which is likely to increase with this year btw(which I'm fucking pissed about) IS A TON. It's a lot, almost a whole drafts worth. His bias is obvious.
Lets account for the actions in the war room. It makes us so predictable that teams likely don't trade back with us for that reason. That might come back to bight us in the ass. What if we pull a Julio Jones trade for Calvin Ridley. A team would accept it in a heartbeat and expect us to call for it because not only do we need a WR... But because of Alabama. Take last draft. Sure, tons of Bama players were available and a few of them were even good prospects. But let's not forget, this is Ozzie. If we wanted to trade back no team would've accepted it. Oh. And we did take an Alabama player. Something the media has even noticed at this point. We're one of the most predictable teams on draft night. Don't believe me.
2010: Alabama Player
2012: Alabama Player
2014: Alabama player.
There was a four year period where EVERY TWO YEARS we drafted a Bama player early on. We skipped that in 2016(coincidence that this remains Ozzie's best draft in over a decade? I think not) so last year WE DRAFTED TWO IN THE FIRST FOUR PICKS. Probably to make up for it. Teams know who we're going to take if there's a Bama defensive player on the board. It's uncanny.
Not to mention teams know who we're scouting specifically since we dedicate a decent amount of our resources to going down there and scouting these prospects. And it showed last season that Ozzie might have been willing to give some leniency for a Bama player, which has pissed me off especially. Case and point: Cam Robinson. Who we were strongly considering in the first two rounds of the last draft which would have shown how hypocritical the franchise truly is. Why is that? Because the season before we passed on Larmey Tunsil, a superior prospect to Stanley, because Tunsil had some drug concerns. Cam Robinson was high on our board: with the same damn issues, and he was ARRESTED for it. Yet we were considering drafting him! Why? BAMA. No other reason. Tunsil was a superior prospect to Robinson in every way, shape, and form, and that video comes out hours before the draft and we pass up on him. The smart move especially with the benefit of hindsight since it looks like Tunsil sucks. But we were considering someone who committed a worse offense last season? Sorry, that makes Ozzie a hypocrite. And there's only one reason why he'd possibly overlook something like that.
Sorry. It's not overhyped. The evidence points to it. We not only have drafted a good amount of Bama players since the turn of the decade, but all of them have been early picks on defense. Only 2 have worked out so far. That number is more than likely to grow this year. This hurts us in so many ways. Teams know where we're going and probably don't want to trade up with us. The rest of the league knows our draft strategy now so if they want to take a certain prospect, they'll likely know that we are not looking that way and are going with a Bama guy instead. Oh and it shows that we are able to overlook actions of certain prospects because they went to fucking Bama.
It's undeniable. Ozzie has a significant bias towards Alabama players. It hurts us. We need to stop. And it won't until he steps down. "But Lost Decosta has been running the drafts". Who's been in charge of the big board: Ozzie. Thank god Decosta went to a smaller school.
I'd put a pretty penny on us taking an Alabama defender early this year. It is an even year
