There are a few particularly interesting guys that may well still be their in the 5th, 6th and even 7th rounds.
One of those guys will be great for depth this year and a future starter (2015 or later), but to expect to find a 2014 2nd starting CB in this draft (outside of the first few rounds) is unlikely. Idzik/Rex must trust that someone currently on our roster can do the job, unless they don't want to go BPA in the draft.
Later rounds is okay, still kinda sucks considering how many other areas of need we have...but if it's a first or second rounder I won't be impressed at all.
I don't know what Idzik thinks. The 2011 Seahawks wound up starting a 5th round rookie and a UDFA rookie at CB. The UDFA made the Pro Bowl and Richard Sherman was the 5th rounder. CB is a very strange position at the moment. The consensus in the NFL is that you need good CB's to compete but the teams that pay their CB's the highest have tended to be uncompetitive. The All-Pro CB's have frequently come off of less competitive teams. My viewpoint on it tends to be that NFL GM's and HC's and DC's see CB as a position where everything can fail in a hurry and so they prioritize the position. This is clearly Rex Ryan's viewpoint. What gets lost a bit in the shuffle is that CB is an edge position and sees less actual competitive action than positions closer to trenches and the middle of the field. It's true that a bad CB will make you cry several times a year but a bad safety that can't manage their responsibilities will de-stabilize the entire defensive backfield and leave you constantly crying in the process. When I start seeing the teams with the best WR's and CB's consistently dominating the NFL I'll probably change my tune but at the moment it seems as though the prioritization of having good to great CB's is more a hysterical phenomena than anything else. The defenses that really scare people may have a good CB in the mix but they almost always have a great safety.
This makes a lot of sense, but it still doesn't completely explain why the market values CBs more than safeties throughout the league. Even average CBs make a great deal more than average safeties regardless of the team they play on. Is this because of the perception that a bad CB can get beat every play whereas a bad safety can get shielded by great CB play? That's how Rex has always deemed it, but is that how the rest of the league currently works? And does that mean that it's a "hysterical phenomenon?" If so, are the Seahawks the innovators? Maybe there will soon be a shift in focus on the relative importance of CBs and safeties. It's an interesting question, though.
The Seahawks won't shift much because they have good to great CB's, just very cheap ones, to go along with their good to great safeties. Watching their decisions on who to keep and who to let go will be very interesting. Watching what happens to the team after those decisions will also be instructive. Darrelle Revis is more likely to shift the perception than anybody else at this point, because he is a great CB who significantly impacts his team's cap flexibility. It's been awhile since Revis was on a good team, 3 years to be exact. One of the things in his decision to join the Patriots was undoubtedly that they gave him the best shot at pushing back against the claim that he wasn't an impact player in terms of wins. It was a pretty zero sum maneuver though in my opinion. The problem is that the Patriots were already pretty damn good before he joined them and unless they win a Super Bowl next year it's going to be hard to argue that he made them better. It's certainly going to be interesting to watch next year.
Their success matters, but also their ability to sign him to a longterm contract. If the Pats hypothetically make it to the Super Bowl and lose to the Giants, and then they have to cut Revis because they aren't going to pay him $20 million, most Pats fans will likely not be happy about his signing. Unless they either win a Super Bowl or sign him to a longterm, reasonable contract (which I think is impossible), the Patriots made a bad move in singing Revis.
I think it's a combination of things. First, like you said, CB is just viewed as a more important position. And I think the other big thing is that cornerbacks have a shorter shelf life than safeties. A good safety can be good well into his 30s if he stays healthy, but that's much less common for CBs. So that scarcity of really good CBs probably helps drive their price up as well.
The figure for 2015 is actually a $25m cap hit - they gave him a $10m signing bonus so half of that defers into next year. So yeah, they have to let him walk next year (and like you said there is no chance of him agreeing to a reasonable long-term contract.)
They're going all in to win a superbowl before Brady retires (or sticks around and gets too old). He'll be 37 when the season starts and likely only has a couple of year left before he retires. It's a very smart play for them whether or not it works.
Completely depends how much you value the CB position and whether having an elite CB brings you closer to a championship in relation to the salary you are paying him.
So, does this guarantee they are drafting a CB in the 1st round now instead of a WR? Or does Idzik plan on going into the season with Darrin Walls, Johnny Patrick, and Ras-I Dowling competing for the spot opposite Milliner? (Patrick was a 3rd rd pick and Dowling was a 2nd rounder, and Walls looked decent last year, so maybe they have more potential than we realize?)
Its amazing we once had the best secondary in the league now were reduced to Millner,Wilson,Dwan Landry and Allen,It once was Revis,Cro,Landry,Bell .I really am intrested to see what Idziks gonna do about this mess he created for himself by being a shitty negotiater
no this doesn't guarantee a cb in the first just like not signing decker would have guaranteed drafting a wr in the first. what ever is available will be the pick and will quickly be proclaimed a bust
