There's the story about Philly. And Pioli made a comment that there were 3 teams looking to take him soon after.

Couple that with Rick Gosselin saying that he was the top 3 WR and/or the top 3 RB on a lot of team's boards.

Palantonio knows a lot about Philly. Pioli doesn't have incentive to lie about how many teams were interested. And Gosselin is one of the best in the biz.

The idea that this was a reach is.... well, a reach.

McCluster better gawd dam be everything and a bag of chips for us to pass up on everything with did.

there were plenty of 1st round talent guys still on the board that filled a much bigger position of need and we passed on them for McCluster.

McCluster better be Reggie Bush and Wes Welker all rolled up into one.

You're again talking about a need-based draft. You take the best on your board, period.

And yes, for this to be a good pick, he needs to get around 800+ all-purpose yards (not including return yards).

And how do you define "need"? Maybe Weis' version of a need is different from ours. Case-in-point, how many people here are bitching about the Moeaki pick in favor of one-dimensional pass catchers, even if that's not the type of tight end Weis wants.

And by the way, guarantee that most of the players we're bitching about passing up on are going to be average rotational players at the very best.

Yeah, that's just completely ridiculous.

They don't mention that McCluster absolutely dominated the short-shuttle and agility drills. I don't know when 40 times became such a gold standard for speed. Based on watching tape and his combine, the reason the kid is dynamic isn't speed, it's because he can changing direction and speed and cutting. When you're talking about slants and underneath routes in the slot, a position where you're usually not bumped at the line, I would easily take those skills over straight-line speed.

Sure, he's not the home run threat that Golden Tate was, but he has potential to be far more dangerous with the underneath stuff, which is a lot more valuable for the slot in a Weis offense. And his ability to cut/change direction as he does makes him a far more valuable open field weapon.

and i contend that there were several guys that were actually BPA over McCluster and still filled a more impactful need than McCluster does.

just one quick example:

instead of grabbing McCluster, we grab safety Nate Allen to pair up with Eric Berry.

we now have one of the youngest and most talented secondary in the NFL with Flowers,Allen,Berry,Carr. Both safeties can cover like cornerbacks but are built and tackle like safeties. Totally sic

since we took Allen we don't have to take Lewis in the 5th and we can grab a KR/PR specialist guy there like CB/KR Parrish Cox. With Cox around we don't need Arenas and we could of grab a stud LB or NT(2/3 LB's and 2/3 NT's to choose from) at 2b and our draft looks really freaking solid.

Maybe not as flashy, but still we got really good players and filled really important needs.

The MUCH bigger need was a pass rusher or ILB, both of which were available when we picked.

Here's the problem: If McCLuster was higher on our board than Koa Misi and Dary Washington, then we have a bigger problem.

They both fit a bigger need and would have fit the BPA.

I've been waiting for over a week for someone to find me one reputable analyst that had McCluster as a Top 40 prospect.

So don't act like we didn't reach. We did. For a position that Pioli felt was more important than the two biggest weaknesses on the defense.

Who's a reputable analyst?

Hell, at this point find anyone that had him as a Top 40 prospect.

We can debate "reputable" later.

If Palantonio is telling the truth, and he's better informed than anyone about the Eagles

If Pioli is telling the truth, and why would he not

And if Gosselin is right about mcCluster being a top 3 WR AND top 3 RB on a lot of teams boards, and Gosselin is one of the most informed of any draft-day sources

Then McCluster was a BPA. And at a position we currently need.

You're putting a lot more emphasis on need over BPA.

I wanted Clausen and Cody in the second, but I don't mind this pick. When last season started, Defensive Coordinators maybe worried a little bit about Bowe. Nobody else on our offense required a second thought.

This year, we'll have Bowe, Charles, and McCluster. That's 3 guys who can make plays. Combine that with what should be improved play at Guard with Lilja, Center play with Wiegmann, and hopefully an improvement at LT from Albert, and we are going to be greatly improved versus opening week last season.

A few points of contention. The first being that unless you have Eric Berry, a Safety is NOT a position that carries high positional value. I think McCluster will play as valuable a role as Allen if not moreso. Yeah, you could argue he was among the BPA, but if you factor in need, weren't people on here complaining that our safeties can't cover if there's no pass rush?

To the second point, with Cox you have a character-issue guy who's decent in kick coverage and is a lot slower to play the corner position. With Arenas, you have a bona fide nickel corner and coverage guy. I think we may have reached a little on Arenas, but I don't have a huge problem taking a guy who plays two pretty important roles.

And finally, most of these players we're talking about. Apart from Kindle, are any of these guys really playmakers? They look like they have potential to play their position well enough, but none are going to add electricity. We again go into the debate of whether this team needs playmakers or players who can solidify their positions, and it's interesting that this board has shifted gears from one position to another entirely with the McCluster pick.

he's a defensive playmaker

Nate Allen

College Stats: Finished with 144 solo tackles (five for loss) and 80 assists. Intercepted nine passes, broke up 12 more, recovered four fumbles and a blocked field goal, and scored three touchdowns.

or heck we could of waited until round 3 for S Morgan Burnett

bottomline is that there were much less "gadgety" players that are going to be quality starters in the NFL available at virtually every position and we took a speedier version of Dante Hall..

If you're looking at pure stats, Allen's stats are not that different from Kendrick Lewis. Nate Allen is going to be a decent Safety. He's not going to be a playmaker. He doesn't have enough pure speed. He's just a guy who is very solid at his position.

And the Dante Hall comparisons are ridiculous. Dante Hall was a really shitty receiver who ran below average routes and was only capable of catching short hitch routes or long fly routes. According to Rick Gosselin, McCluster was listed as one of the top 3 WRs on many teams' boards. He can do a hell of a lot more things than Dante Hall did. Dante was a great player once the ball was in his hands, but he was very below average at doing anything before that point. From an offensive standpoint, he was NOT a playmaker.

He was 55th on Gosselin's Top 100 list.

Not sure why you think using Gosselin helps your case.

And thinking we need a slot WR more than a pass rusher or ILB is why this team has 10 wins in the last 3 years.

Gosselin also gave the Chiefs an A+ and has raved about the McCluster pick. He mentions pretty clearly in his top 100 that it is not a mock draft. When a guy like Gosselin believes that a player went where he belonged, then you believe that McCluster was taken at the right value. Remember, this is a guy that was very critical of the Chiefs' 2009 draft.

Funny that we're moving the uprights. I thought a few weeks ago, we were talking about the Chiefs lacking playmakers, and that was the reason why this team doesn't win games. Isn't that the reason why this board demanded Berry over Okung? Or demanded Berry over McClain? Inside Linebacker is more important than Safety. But the Chiefs made the right move because Berry is a playmaker and McClain is not.