Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The NFL Draft is one of the funniest "events" of the sporting world. The media devotes so much time and money writing articles, speculating this and that, projecting where players may get drafted, and creating 7 versions of their mock drafts. This goes on for four months culminating with a now three day "primetime" event where there is no competition, unless of course Mel "the hair" Kiper and Todd "don't call me Ryan Seacrest" McShay debate which late-round quarterback could potentially be a Tom Brady-like steal (I'll save them some time, none). The whole event is people just sitting around for 15 minutes for the commish to come up announce somebody's name. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the sports world the NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs are underway. I admit, it's all just a bit ridiculous and it makes no sense that people would watch this. And yet I do... and love it. I'm really fascinated by personnel issues and I really think it stems from this natural progression as a sports fan where you get to the point where in your head you think "I could do better than (insert GM name here)." If the name you inserted was ex-Lions GM Matt Millen, you're actually correct.
So having that said, these are few thoughts I have going into the draft:
1. If you have a top 10 pick, and don't have a QB - GET BEN ROETHLISBERGER. If he can really be had for a top 10 pick, this is an absolute no-brainer. Is he a good guy? No. Is he a hell of QB? Yeah, in fact, one of the top five or six in the league. Though he may not be a model citizen, or even a good one, he hasn't proven to be toxic in the locker room, which has a greater effect on the football field. (You're not gonna compete next year if you're in the top 10 anyway, so who cares about the 4-6 game suspension... as long as there isn't another.)
2. The Raiders draft board probably looks something like this:
- S Taylor Mays, USC - had the fastest forty time of any of the DBs at the combine while weighing in at 6'3 240 lbs, forget the fact that he lacks football instincts.
- OT Bruce Campbell, Maryland - Forty time originally reported at 4.77s (later said to be more like 4.85), while coming in at 6'7 315 lbs, so what if he can't block?
- DE Jason Paul-Pierre, USF - Youtube clips show that he can do 15 consecutive flips, sounds draft worthy to me.
- CB Akwasi Owusu-Ansah - don't know who this kid really is but I saw him on ESPN's First Take this morning and apparently he's a corner that runs a 4.3 and is projected as athird round draft pick. The Raiders are probably worried that he'll be off the board and will thus take him at no. 8 overall.
- S(printer) Usain Bolt, Jamaica - Al Davis will try.
3. Three steps to fixing the Lions:
- Draft Ndamukong Suh. This is easy. The Rams are going to pass on the best player in the draft (I'm biased, but seriously, he is), to take a "franchise quarterback" in Sam Bradford, who is far from a guarantee in my books. This drops Suh, the closest thing to a guarantee, right into your lap. Don't listen to Todd Seacrest... er McShay with all of his Gerald McCoy talk, draft Suh.
- Change your freaking jerseys/colors. I personally rank the Lions jerseys among the worst in any of the major sports. And blue and silver, how did these colors become associated with Lions. Granted, tan or "brownish-gold" would be a lame color, but you had your choice and you came up with blue and silver?!? I mean who picks silver? The Lions have to be the only professional sports team that has silver as one of its primary colors. This just screams "We're shooting for second, if we can just get to second..."
- Tank another year and get a top 3 pick again. OK, so I didn't say I was fixing this thing in one offseason. After three straight years of good picks in the top 3 of the draft, I think they may have a chance.
Sidebar: Jim Schwartz ranks among my favorite coaches in sports for two reasons. First of all, the "use the Schwartz" Spaceballs/Star Wars jokes are endless. Second of all, it looks like Ben Linus stepped right off the set of "Lost" and onto an NFL sideline (if this were true, it would only make sense that its the Lions and had to be a Matt Millen hire). Serious doppelganger thing going on here. Speaking of which, maybe he has the answers to all of my "Lost" questions....
4. If you didn't watch Jon Gruden's QB Camp on ESPN, you missed out. ESPN comes up with a lot of bits that are terrible, but they hit a home run with this one. Gruden schooled the "top four" QBs in different aspects of being a QB and the things he specifically saw in their games that needed some attention. The best part was when he was making fun of how Colt McCoy talks, and then proceeded to walk him through film of him being dominated by Suh. The sessions did change my impression somewhat of the QBs. I would count myself not a fan of Jimmy Clausen, because I don't like his intangibles and leadership abilities which are necessary at the QB position, but his studious approach to the game (equally necessary) impressed me. Sam Bradford came off as a little cocky and not very responsive to Gruden's coaching. McCoy and his "aw shucks" personality/voice are annoying - OK, so that wasn't new. The biggest insight to me was Tim Tebow. They talk about the intangibles a lot obviously, but when you watched him work with Jon Gruden you could see that he was incredibly coachable - incredibly. He will put in the work, he will watch film, and he will listen to his coaches. If he can't be a NFL QB, no one in the Tebow-mold can be. I'm going to say that I think he does it.
5. There's of course a lot of talk about teams towards the top of the draft wanting to move back in the draft and acquire more picks. It sounds like such a good idea when you have so many holes, but it rarely works out. Trades realistically won't start till at least after the top 5 picks, if not later. The thing to watch in this draft, I think, is trades involving getting a QB. Bradford's locked in to no. 1, and that's not going to change. However, there is a lot of variability with Jimmy Clausen, ranging from no. 7 to late in the first round. A team may get impatient or think another team is targeting him and move up to get him. I think the same thing could happen late in the 1st round, possibly early 2nd, involving Colt McCoy. I wouldn't rule out a similar scenario with Tim Tebow, whom GMs either love or hate. And of course, there's Ben Roethlisberger, who could shake up the draft significantly if traded.
Well, time to put on the GM hat and start critiquing. Happy Drafting!
Some additional quick notes....
Shocked that the Cubs front office and Lou Piniella had the balls to put Carlos Zambrano and his $17 million a year contract in the bullpen. Absolutely the right baseball move, just surprised they actually did it.
I've heard a couple of rumors recently about Big 10 expansion. The first has UConn joining the Big 10, Colorado and Utah joining the Pac 10, leaving TCU to join the Big XII. Makes a decent amount of sense, especially with the Pac 10 and Big XII moves, eventhough I don't like adding another team from Texas to the Big XII. UConn to the Big 10 is a bit odd in terms of geography, though a great add for the Big 10 in terms of their actual sports programs. The other rumor is Nebraska being the top choice after Notre Dame, who has balked at joining the Big 10. Don't love the move for Nebraska, but could possibly warm up to it.
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2 comments:
Great take on the draft. I think it's ridiculous but am obviously interested. I am mostly looking at the big guys and the Nebraska guys though. After that I really don't care. For the sake of my upcoming marraige...Nebraska needs to stay in the Big XII :)
Haha, you are right on that marriage thing man. I really don't want to have to root against the hawkeyes once a year either.
I unfortunately am even interested in the later rounds as well, thats where the true nerds come out, though I don't get really into it and know all the players and such. I'm try to keep myself from completely going off the sports deep end here.
Thanks for reading!
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