The thread is titled "Do Not Doubt Dexter"...some people (myself included) have doubts about a guy that as overload noted: is from a small school, didn't go up against elite competition, doesn't have a lot of tape of his senior year due to a shoulder injury. Not to mention he's a draft pick which always has some element of doubt involved, let alone a guy with this many additional red flags. Other people have also noted that some guy's had their stock fall because of their play tapering off but we don't know if that would have been the case with Dex because he wasn't playing. People are assuming that his two minutes of highlights from the first three games of a season are representative of his entire season of play and further assuming that that level of play against inferior competition will directly translate to a high level of play in the NFL. That's naive at best and completely idiotic at the very worst. I think doubting Dexter is more than warranted.
Yet all you had to do was read one paragraph into the original post and you'll see that the OP's thought is the guy will be a starter sooner or later. Not a surefire starter, not a star, not a lockdown corner... but at some point a starter. Expectations, for the most part, are very realistic when it comes to McDougle.
He was a complete unknown to me and I admit my initial reaction to the pick was "WTF? Who?" Annoyed, I did some superficial digging, after which I was able to see the rationale behind the pick. I think it's his upside that has people so optimistic he will turn out to be a valuable contributor in the not too distant future whether it be now or two years from now. FTR, Gil Brandt had him projected as a probable 3rd round pick on his blog. Lastly, I'm inclined to give the knowledge and expertise of Rex & Co., the benefit of the doubt here when it comes to evaluating the talent and potential of DB prospects.
Thank you! You do a much better job distilling my verbiage and getting to the point than I do. You'd be a good editor!
My bad. I think the pick was a surprise to many of us, mostly because he was totally under the radar on just about everyone's board and analysis. Time will tell.
I easily could have missed something but exactly who is saying stuff like he's going to be an immediate starter or the second coming of Prime Time? I think if you read through this thread, you'll see varying degrees of optimism along with plenty of cautiousness and natural skepticism. I think the people who are excited about him are primarily focused on his potential upside more than anything else and, IMO, justifiably so. YMMV.....
Just saying: I don't think it's wrong to doubt Dexter. Especially as a third round pick with so many questions marks. Drafting a guy who is "at some point a starter" with a third round doesn't really excite me. Personally I would have preferred drafting a WR that would almost definitely start for us this year with the third and draft and CB with one of our 4th rounders. Hell, we might have even been able to get McDougle at that point anyway. It would sting a lot less having got him with one of our 4th rounders and having a 3rd round WR in the fold as opposed to the way it shook out. I'm not saying picking him over a WR set the franchise back 10 years or Idzik should be fired or anything extreme at all. All I'm saying is that, to me, this pick was a reach. I hope he ends up being a huge steal but with the number of red flags I'm seeing (read: not ignoring) it just doesn't seem like that's going to be the case.
It's perfectly sensible to have doubts, particularly when it comes to the inexact science of drafting college football players. What are the "many additional red flags" you are referring to in connection with DM? I think if you take the time to review the total picture available, however, there is more cause to be optimistic than pessimistic about his chances of eventually becoming a solid, starting CB that in hindsight will be deemed as having returned at least a good if not superior value for a third round pick.
Which thread then? On this site? Since you didn't offer up any actual, specific examples of posters here who manifest the symptoms of OD'ing on McDougle Kool-Aid, (i.e. he's going to start right away, he's the 2nd coming of Neon Deon, etc) maybe you could provide me with some. I read through over twenty pages of Dexter related posts and found nothing.
Well the red flags are things that have already been noted: injury history, didn't play most of senior year so it's possible his season would have tailed off naturally and had his stock drop, highlight footage isn't all that impressive (IMO), a little bit small compared to a lot of corners, etc.
But you absolutely cannot succeed in the NFL without. There are way more NFL players that have less talent succeeding over the more talented, higher drafted players. That's the main reason a guy like Gholston had a shit career and a guy like Jim Leonard made himself into a productive player. Lord knows a guy like JL was too small, too slow, etc, but had the desire and heart to outwork more 'talented' players. Based on the article D Mac will not need a fire lit under his ass. I would hope he starts year next year. But with DP's injury history he might be thrown into the mix sooner rather than later.
Maybe. You could very well be right. Personally, I am more inclined to believe otherwise but in the end, no one knows for sure. I DO know that I was originally pissed when we selected him because I was really jonesing for us to pick WR Donte Moncrief whom I believed was the best available receiver available at that point. However, after performing my own due-diligence on DM, I felt that his upside and the likelihood of fulfilling his potential made him a good pick that also addressed a critical need.
