Jacksonville GM Gene Smith told Peter King of Sports Illustrated late last night that the club hid its interest in defensive tackle Tyson Alualu, a Samoan kid raised in Hawaii who played at Cal. When front-office people around the league would trade pre-draft information on what they were hearing, Alualu's name never leaked out of Jacksonville. "You can call this a reach,'' Smith said, "but the more work we did on him, the more we saw an excellent player with high character and excellent competitiveness who'd played every spot on the defensive line. I watched every game he played the last two years. The more I watched, the more I became convinced this was an excellent player for what we do. He had 17 sacks, playing inside a lot, and another one in the Senior Bowl. He's a very disruptive player.'' The draftniks on the edge of the game -- Mike Mayock, Mel Kiper, Todd McShay -- didn't have Alualu anywhere near the middle of the first round; respected analyst Gil Brandt had Alualu rated in the fifties. Source: Sports Illustrated
This. There is no defending this pick. Not with JPP and Morgan still on the board. At least Morgan would have been more of a "local" prospect that would bring in fans from Georgia. Same with JPP.
I was thrilled when the Jaguars chose Alualu. It opened the door for the Titans to get either JPP or Morgan. Good for us and I love that the Jaguars made a dumb move. He might end up being a good player, but a top 10 pick? That was a major reach.
This wasn't a dumb move. Granted it's not a big named, superstar pick at #10 but this guy is exactly what we needed in the middle of our defence to hopefully return to that fearsome, run-stopping Defence we once had. Knighton and Alulu is the second-coming of Henderstroud.
It may not be a dumb move, but in terms of value, it was a horrid decision. It reminds me exactly of the Derrick Harvey pick from a few years back, where the majority had him falling around the tailend of the first round, only for them to reach at #8. Alualu could end up being a good pro, it just didn't make sense to reach for him when they could have easily dropped a few spots and pick up a few /early mid round picks to provide more strength to the roster.
As with every other draft pick in every other draft, there will be some that fail and some that succeed that were drafted before him and behind him. If he pans out to be a solid starter for years, it turned out to be a good pick.
