For reasons best known to himself Kiper doesn't have Branch in his 12 best available. ie he thinks there are 26 guys better than him in this draft. Crazy!

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Does it suprise you? Houston picks overrated DL in first round twice in two years.
GB passed on him as well.

Look at it this way - Branch will go to a better team. Both those teams are going to have bad seasons and need a lot either way.

Watch Al Davis take Dwayne Jarret at the top of the 2nd and look finally look like the madman genius he was of yesteryear.

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Your right, undersized Okoye who played in a weak conference is a much more sure thing.

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Branch to the Cardinals - who have been drafting well in recent years BTW - who also picked up Levi Brown in rd 1

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THE LOUISVILLE FIGHTING CARDINALS...L-YEAH
GO CARDS GO BIG EAST

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What part of "stress fractures" don't you understand?? Branch's questionable work ethic aside, I think 32 NFL teams knew what they were doing when they passed on a guy who is one cut block away from a career-ending leg injury.
Okoye is undersized because he's 19, fool. Would you rather invest your money in a hard-working, intelligent phenom who has yet to hit his peak, or an overweight, uninspired Gabe Watson clone with balsa wood legs?
Nobody has doubted Branch's athleticism or his productivity at Michigan. Those traits are obvious, but they aren't the concern with him as an NFL prospect.
First-round picks get massive amounts of guaranteed money. NFL teams would rather invest that in someone who will be around for a few years, like Okoye.... If you're going to gamble on a boom-or-bust pick like Branch who could be out of the league in two years with a crippling leg injury, you wait until after the first round to do so.

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You guys need to pay greater attention to detail. Alan Branch has stress fractures in his legs, and could become the next Steve Emtman. There's nothing sure about Branch.

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Weird you mention this injury when I never heard Kiper mention for one second his "injury prone" body. If his stress fractures were so serious, we would've heard every commentator jumping all over his injury prone-ness every two seconds, bet on it. And how do you not know Okoye is a boom or bust kind of guy? That's the most ridicuous statement I've ever heard. Just because he's young and can learn doesn't mean he is all of a sudden a sure thing, nobody is, however I'd rather take a guy who's actually done something great and has proven himself at SOME level rather than none. If anybody is getting injured in the NFL, it's a younger, under developed kid who has to play with men. Don't EVEN compare Branch to that lazy piece of crap Watson...have you ever watched football in your life? You also do realized that uninspired, overweight guy is 6'5'' and is FASTER than Okoye but only a bit heavier than him. It doesn't take long for a player to gain/lose weight, therefore not a big deal come draft day. Get out of here with that crappy, Kiper-esque, cliche assessment of Branch.

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Branch is better and proven. This is a classic case of draft hype vs. production. Branch will be a pro-bowler and produce for his team in year one. Branch is the steal of day one.

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Clearly I'm wasting my time. You didn't hear about Branch's leg fractures because you didn't want to hear about them.... you're so absorbed in pro-Wolverine bias that you don't want to hear anything to the contrary. And if the ESPN pundits didn't say anything, it wouldn't be the first time they missed a key detail.
"And how do you not know Okoye is a boom or bust kind of guy?"
I didn't say he wasn't a boom-or-bust guy. I said he's still a few years away from hitting his peak, so it's worth investing in him because he never had problems with durability or motivation at Louisville. He could be a bust, but he probably won't. And I wouldn't call him underdeveloped. He's built like a much older man, and he has NFL size right now. But whatever... I rest my case. There's no point in arguing with you. Branch is taller, and he's heavier... so he MUST be the #1 defensive tackle on everyone's board. Like I said, Gabe Watson MUST be a Pro-Bowl talent because he's huge and he's from Michigan, and apparentley those are the only things that matter.
There were a lot of teams who picked after Houston in the first round who needed defensive tackles, and they all passed on Branch. If Okoye was an error, was Harrell-to-Green Bay an error too? Could it be possible that there are good defensive linemen who DIDN'T go to Michigan?
I think NFL scouting departments know a little bit more than a few armchair GMs from Michigan. Branch could be great, but Steve Emtman could have been great too.

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Amobi Okoye is the shizznat get used to hearing that name every sunday.

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VJD, Branch isn't just bigger, but he's faster and was more productive

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VJD, your entire argument rests on speculation and the presumed seriousness of these stress fractures. are they the reason why teams dropped Branch? we don't know, that's merely speculation on your part. what we do know is that the pundits have been mentioning his fitness level and their impression that he takes plays off (a la gabe watson), NOT his stress fractures (which I'm sure they're aware of).

branch stated himself that he has had these stress fractures for a long time (including the entire 2006 season) and that they never affected his play.

although, much like the stock market, past performance is not necessarily a guarantee of future success, we do know that branch had a much more successful career at Michigan while playing a much more difficult schedule than okoye did at louisville.

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Next year Louisville is gonna own the draft, I expect us to get 3 guys picked in the top 10.
Brohm,Douglas, an If Mario leaves early.

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