NFL Draft

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this guy is an idiot; he’s writing about football in April because of the NFL Draft. You ask yourself, “why talk about football when opening day is still over fourth months away?” Who cares! You ask yourself, “why talk about football and a bunch of guys in suits picking teams?” Who cares! You ask yourself, “shouldn’t we talking about the NBA playoffs or baseball season?” Who cares! You ask yourself, “this guy likes football way too much, is he a little, you know, crazy?” Well, he is. And, who cares!
Lets face it people, the NFL draft is awesome. It is one of those days where you can sit on the couch for eight straight hours being absolutely lazy watching a bunch of has been ex-NFLers and analysts. It’s in the top three great do-nothing sports days along with New Year’s Day college football and the Masters. Economy size bags of potato chips were created for days just like this.
Ok, now that I have laid out one of the most convincing arguments you’ll ever hear not to mow the yard since “honey, I’m going for the tropical jungle look”, lets start looking at what went down at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
The popular consensus from pretty much everyone was that the Miami Dolphins really wanted to trade out of the number one pick since their weren’t any just any “oh my gosh, he’s amazing” players this year. But they couldn’t and ended up taking Michigan tackle Jake Long. The debate will now be whether he should be a left or right tackle. I don’t know either but I do know that the guy is huge, he could probably play both; at the same time. Anyway, the reason Miami couldn’t trade out of the pick is because no one wants to pay some unproven rookie over $60 million when you can get an experienced veteran in free-agency for $30 million. The NBA has a rookie salary cap and the NFL will probably do the same when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in a few years.
Defensive linemen were a hot commodity this year with the Rams taking Chris Long at No. 2 and the Chiefs taking Glenn Dorsey at No. 5 among many others in the first round. The Chiefs had one of the best drafts in getting Dorsey, offensive lineman Branden Albert, cornerback Brandon Flowers and runningback Jamaal Charles. The Rams? It looks like another long year.
The Falcons took BC’s Matt Ryan at No. 3. Wow, haven’t we seen this before? A really, really bad team takes a quarterback whose stock rises after the season ends. That really, really bad team gets off too a really, really bad start and they want the new guy to come in and save the day. Anyway, that guy isn’t ready enough and there aren’t enough support players to help him out so that guy gets sacked and picked off every other play and looks really, really bad. Does anyone else notice the multiple “really, really bad’s” in this conversation? Atlanta would have really helped out Ryan if they would have picked up an experienced veteran quarterback in the free-agency to help the young guy along.
Oakland got the biggest talent in the draft in Arkansas runningback Darren McFadden. Some people questioned his character but many think he’ll be able to stay out of trouble. If he does, than he’ll be a star; because that guy is really good.
Outside of the top five, it was a pretty dry draft. Not a whole lot of playmakers. Dallas got an upgrade at runningback with the selection of the other Arkansas Razorback Felix Jones; that guy is good too. Their were several solid pickups including the Bengals getting linebacker Keith Rivers, Tampa Bay getting Aqib Talib and Atlanta getting offensive lineman Sam Baker.
But it was really the later rounds that had the most interesting stories.
Louisville’s Brian Brohm falling to the Packers in the second round meant that 55 other players were selected before the best quarterback in the draft. A lot of things that weren’t his fault caused him to have a bad senior year for the Cardinals and he will be a serious contender with Aaron Rodgers for the starting job in Green Bay. Chad Henne was the pick behind him for Miami. The Tuna is usually pretty smart and that’s a good value pick.
Tampa Bay got Dexter Jackson, remember, he was that really fast wide receiver from App. State that ran all over Michigan at the Big House. Baltimore got hard hitting safety Tom Zbikowski. That guy can knock people out. Really he can, he’s a pro boxer.
Well we could talk about this forever, there were 252 players selected. And believe me, if you get on the internet, they do go on about this forever. It’s almost as if us sports guys are having nothing do but talk about football even though it’s still spring time. It makes you wonder if we are all almost a little weird. Oh well, who cares.