Of course...net. What new GM came in and drafted guys and then cut them all in favor of veterans on the team? And someone please explain to me once again what a great draft Thompson had in 2005. I will say that it looks like he did an excellent job in the 2006 draft but the 2005 draft sucked. It was a total waste. I loved Collins last year but he has played poorly this season. You can't even mention anyone else out of that draft. Poppinga is playing because we screwed up in our free agency with Ben Taylor. And don't give me any of that Rodgers crap....at least not until he has contributed to the team.
Significant players from the 2005 draft: Collins, Poppinga, Montgomery, Underwood, Rodgers.
Rodgers cannot be discussed yet because he hasn't had the opportunity to either prove himself or flop.
Collins is suffering from a sophomore slump and suffering from playing next to NFLE quality Manuel. He doesn't yet have the experience to make up for Manuel's mistakes.
Poppinga is playing rather well. Screwed up FA move or not, he's developing into a solid player.
Montgomery is simply an ok backup at this point.
Underwood unfortunately got injured, or else he should have been pushing Manuel as the starter. Murphy also suffered from an unfortunate injury.
So from the draft we have two starters and four significant players on the 53 man roster. Next year it could easily be 4 starters (Collins, Underwood, Poppinga, Rodgers) and one backup (Montgomery).
Sure, there are better drafts than this, but that's not a bad draft. It's a long ways away from being a total waste.
IMO, Sherman did better in FA than TT, but TT has done better in the draft. Sherman's focus was as a HC and not on the future. So he got experienced players who could help the team now. TT is focused on the future, so he gets inexperienced players who likely will help the team in the future.
One thing to also consider with the 2005 draft is the coaching change. An OL player like Witt fit in well with Sherman's running game, but he wasn't a fit for MM's zone blocking.