The 2006 NFL Draft will be remembered as a huge disappointment when compared with its promise. Mario Williams never dominated games or was the linchpin of a great defense or organization. Reggie Bush was one of the original YouTube stars but was really just a glorified Eric Metcalf. And the two headline quarterbacks who battled it out in an epic title game -- Vince Young and Matt Leinart -- fell far short of expectations, too.
Drafts are usually remembered based on the first half of the first round, and there are very few players who lived up to their hype in 2006, including those above, as well as D'Brickashaw Ferguson, A.J. Hawk, Michael Huff and Ernie Sims.
When I look at re-drafts, I always work off the assumption that the player starts over with the same intellectual and physical tools -- including their level of health at the time of the draft -- and go from there. I use a slightly updated idea of position value so as not to work off of an outdated idea of draft strategy. I go into this understanding that players could take on injuries they didn't have previously or that they could remain healthy rather than suffer through the injuries that might have slowed them.
With that said, here is a do-over of the first 10 picks of the 2006 draft:
1. Houston Texans
2. New Orleans Saints
3. Tennessee Titans
4. New York Jets
5. Green Bay Packers
6. San Francisco 49ers
7. Oakland Raiders
8. Buffalo Bills
9. Detroit Lions
10. Arizona Cardinals
Top 10 draft board regardless of need
- Haloti Ngata, DT
- Mario Williams, DE
- Maurice Jones-Drew, RB
- Brandon Marshall, WR
- Tamba Hali, DE/OLB
- Vernon Davis, TE
- Greg Jennings, WR
- Antonio Cromartie, CB
- D'Brickashaw Ferguson, LT
- Jahri Evans, OG
Follow Lance Zierlein on Twitter @LanceZierlein
