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A Long Way From Lambeau
The Good Enough Club
by Mark Lyne-Austen
30/4/2008
Welcome to the Good Enough Club. Teams that consider themselves good enough not to need an upgrade right now from last weekend’s draft are this year’s members. To be good enough, a team must feel that it doesn’t have a hole in the roster that can be filled by a new star from the college ranks and instead can look more to the future, thinking about a time when the current crop begin to downgrade.
Teams use the draft for a variety of reasons and many of those reasons are about winning now. Adding a player to the ranks who fills an immediate need but also makes the team a greater threat is the typical expectation of a top draft pick. This year’s top picks all fit that mould with selections not just on the basis of a player being the best available but being the one that suits the needs of that organisation.
For some teams, getting better now means either mortgaging the future in these times of uncertain credit or offloading a big name player to buy a hot new rookie. For a team like the New Orleans Saints, they will now be heading to Wembley later this year with defensive sensation Sedrick Ellis in tow thanks to a trade with the New England Patriots. The cost was not an exhorbitant price for the Saints to swap picks three places apart with the Patriots because the Patriots themselves were in the Good Enough Club in 2007 and in 2008.
 The Patriots were in position to sell their No 7 pick thanks to last year’s trade with the San Francisco 49ers. The Patriots are renowned as a team who make good draft decisions and one of those decisions was to trade for the 2008 San Francisco selection in return for their No 28 pick in 2007. The Patriots made themselves good enough primarily through free agency last year and were confident enough during the draft to need only Brandon Meriweather in the first round. The Patriots were happy to trade away their selection to San Fran and did not pick again until the second day.
With their pick in 2008, the Patriots stated that they were part of the Good Enough Club. The roster did not require an immediate patch by a hopeful young upstart and instead they were content to trade down for Linebacker cover in the form of Jerod Mayo, a player with 140 tackles in his last year in college but who would not be in the position of having to lead his NFL team.
Another team in the Good Enough Club for 2008 are the Green Bay Packers. The Packers have an incredibly young roster especially with the retirement of the legendary Brett Favre and their selections clearly stated that they were not in desperate need anywhere. Trading out of the first round to the New York Jets, the Packers just did not feel the need to acquire a first rounder this year. While they did not get anywhere near the deal that the Patriots got, only buying themselves additional picks lower down the order, their two picks in the second round were both indicators of feeling good enough.
 Green Bay’s first selection, the 36th overall just adds to a young and talented receiving corps with the addition of Jordy Nelson out of Kansas State. The Packers are already fairly well stocked at wideout and did not particularly need to add a player there but then they clearly felt there were no holes big enough for other prospects to fill. Picking twice in the second round, the Packers have also added Louisville QB Brian Brohm. Undoubtedly Brohm was a hotly tipped prospect for much of the year, the Packers are merely repeating their trick of 2005 in selecting a QB who has slipped down the boards. Brohm does not particularly change anything the Packers will do this coming season so the organisation must feel they are good enough.
The third member of the Good Enough Club did not have the same degree of choice this year. The Indianapolis Colts traded away their right to a first rounder in 2008 in return for a shot at being good enough last year. In buying the rights to Tony Ugoh, the Colts had made the move that they felt would plug a gap well enough that they would not miss getting a top pick this time round. The Colts were pretty good last year and with the subsequent pick being a potential longer-term replacement in Center Mike Pollack, the Colts organisation must be fairly confident that they remain good enough for the 2008 season.
The Colts were not the only team last year to sell off their top pick this time round. The Cleveland Browns did the same to grab potential future QB Brady Quinn. That trade has ultimately cost the Browns a shot at the pacey Felix Jones. Still, Cleveland apparently are not too fussed, they apparently did not even need a first day selection. That must mean the Browns are good enough thanks to previous draft trades but also the addition of veteran firepower.
The team who have gambled most that this draft will make them good enough is the Carolina Panthers. Having sold off next year’s first rounder to have a second attempt at the first round, the Panthers absolutely have to see RB Jonathan Stewart and Tackle Jeff Otah come up big. Without much in the way of sudden impact clearly evident in the rest of their draft, the Panthers have bet on these two players being what it takes to bring what has been a franchise in decline back up to par.
While the headlines in the draft will typically belong to those taken right at the top or those clubs such as the Kansas City Chiefs who have invested in this year’s crop of youngsters, there are always teams who feel they are good enough and do not need to spend on collegiate ability right now. For as many trades to happen as the 33 this year, some teams have to feel comfortable with what they have and it is those teams who place themselves in the Good Enough Club. Come the 2009 draft, the decisions made last weekend by the buyers and the sellers in this hectic market will be placed into very sharp relief.
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