I remember reading an article that said 3 starters is considered a good draft- not amazing. And that's considering a normal draft(seven picks). I personally think it goes beyond just number of starters because quality matters when speaking of starters. Two of our best picks that class are a kicker and punter. The other good pick is Jenkins and he's enigmatic. Quick might be good but I'll wait until he actually does it. None of these players are still what I'd consider game changers.
We had a TON of top picks that year. We should have had more than 3 starters from that draft class. And if you ever want to win a SB, you're going to have to consistently draft better than almost all the other NFL teams. I admit I have a high standard for the draft. I just feel that if this team is ever going to win a SB, it's going to have to be outstanding at drafting for multiple years in a row. I don't think they've done that considering the ammo they've had. JMO.
Where to start, V3?
BTW, Hekker was an UDFA, not a draft pick. I wasn't going to get into the UDFA weeds, but since you brought it up...
When they started their first offseason, S&F had 7 picks. Then came the RG3 trade bonanza. Don't they get any credit for robbing Washington?
Anytime a team still has 5 starters from a single draft class while entering their 4th year, it's had an exceptional draft by ANY standards. And to think we could have had Bobby Wagner instead of Pead... Sigh...
Brockers
Quick (might be our #1 WR now)
Jenkins
Tru Johnson
Zuerlein
And those are just the starting draftees after 3 full years. On a roster that's now generally considered loaded, so please spare me the "anybody could be a starter on such a weak roster" non sequitur. In Snead's first year before he could hand pick his own scouting team, at that.
You said we needed to draft better than almost all the other teams in order to win a SB. I don't disagree. I think that S&F have done just that since they got here. Jury is still out on the '15 class, of course, but it's looking good so far. At least to me.
The entire O has been turned over via draft, trade, FA, and UDFA. All 11 starters and almost all backups.
Only Quinn, Long, and J Lau remain as D starters. Plus almost all backups have been replaced, too.
They've made a few mistakes along the way, but compared to the regimes of the previous 10 years, well...
Hell, there IS no comparison, is there?