Big Bens Combine

One of the problems with Gallery was that he had short arms and is a poster boy for why you want an OT with long arms. He did find eventually find his footing as a LG and played fairly well later in his career once the LT experiment failed.

 

I don't remember the combine being televised back then like it is today, I wasn't that familiar with Ben until right before the draft, I remember fist pumping after they drafted Ben.

 

Cowher didn't want Ben (Or any QB), Rooney and Colbert made that call.

I believe Cowher wanted a tackle.

 

I was in A-School at the time. My fellow classmate played against Ben in HS and really talked Ben up. I honestly thought dude was FOS, can't lie. I really didn't start paying attention to the draft until after I moved here to Portland in 2020, so about 2021 is when I started. It was mostly because I didn't have cable so I started doing those mock drafts and ish to kill time, I didn't have cable and such.

 

TBH I knew nothing about him as I don't follow the NCAA but I do remember how excited I got reading the message boards when knowledgeable posters were so damn excited. Right then I knew we had a QB.

 

Even though all 3 QB's in the draft were 6'5" Ben looked kind of clumsy and chunky. Hard to explain. I was pumped because of what I had read but got a bit worried when I first saw him. That faded real fast when I saw how he handled himself his rookie season. He had a fantastic cast and he directed it well. Credit to "The Chin" also.

 

It’s about when I really started to pay attention to the draft and prospects. I didn’t like how the Manning’s were manipulating things. I had a good feeling about Ben but I wasn’t certain or on solid ground until we beat the Cowboys mid season in a gutsy game where a clumsy looking Ben was making good decisions in tough situations.

Then I watched Bill Parcells really compliment Ben in a way that changed my mind. Parcells saw something and gave genuine praise which was rare. Then I was fully on-board and the coach was right. Ben had a hell of a career.

A few hiccups by him and the team and he/we could have had 2 more Superbowls at a minimum.

- Could have won against Greenbay
- Should NOT have lost against the Jaguars.
- Robbed by Cincy and Burfict sending us against a very beatable Denver team but without AB and again without Bell.

 

Ben never played his senior year at Miami of Ohio University. I'm glad he lost his Jr year against Iowa or else he would have been a Charger for sure.

 

My bad. Then it was his sophomore and junior season. Either way, he played Iowa twice.

 

While I don’t follow CFB, there are a few picks over the years I’ve been both surprised and excited by.

Watt, Decastro and Ben probably the main ones.

 

Well one thing is for certain. We probably don't end up with Ben if Eli Manning and his Dad, not wanting Eli to play for the Chargers.
Eli didn't want to play for San Diego. They picked him any how.
Then Ernie Accorsi (GM of the Gaints) went to work to trade for Manning from San Diego. But Accorsi said that if he couldn't of made that trade for Manning that he would of drafted Big Ben. That he had Ben higher than Rivers.
Luckily San Diego said that they had Rivers graded higher than Ben. so Accorsi drafted Rivers then did the swap with picks for Manning.

Then we were kind of lucky Cleveland bypassed drafting him. Luckily they had signed Jeff Garcia as FA, so they took Kellen Winslow instead. Winslow ended up in prison in the end, and Big Ben is gonna be a HOF.

But going into it a lot of Mock Drafts had Steelers selecting either Phillip Rivers at QB or Shaun Andrews at OT for that draft.

Good thing it just worked out good for Pittsburgh. But, I often wonder would we have won any Super Bowls with Phillip Rivers?

 

Yeah but only with Cowher's players.