But, here is why most sports fans love the draft: because, deep down, every one wants two jobs when they grow up - scout or General Manager of a sports team. The draft gives us the opportunity to play as both. We can act like we're experts if we've seen the kid play one college football game and since we've followed our pro team religiously, we know their needs just as well as the guys paid to run the franchise (or, at least we think we do). We can stand back and tell everyone within ear shot why that was a dumb pick or how you knew that was the guy for your team all along. Best of all is that no one remembers what you said by the next draft, so you never get called on it when you're dead wrong.
Now, admittedly, I could do without some of the tedium of the NFL Draft. There is no need to take the full 10 minutes to make a pick; if you're not sure about who you want after 3 months of evaluating talent, then you should just give up and work in a job where you're not making decisions. If the Lions use their full allotted time with the first pick, then all they are doing is trying to hold the spotlight for as long as possible. They have to know by now who they want to pick or they have the worst scouts in history. If a team does use it's full 10 minutes then that had damn sure better be followed by the commissioner saying, "There has been a trade." Otherwise you're just dragging the process out.
Before we get to the hometown team, I have a couple thoughts:
- I don't get the love affair everyone is having with Mark Sanchez. He has one year starting against a down Pac-10 and he was surrounded by the most talented team in college football. He probably won't have that much talent around him, no matter what team he goes to, and the playing in the NFL isn't exactly like playing against Stanford.
- To wit, why would Seattle draft him? If you think Hasselback is on his last legs than sure, you draft a quarterback. But you do it in rounds 3-5 when no one cares if he sits for 2 years. The 4th pick in the draft should be playing immediately.
- Also, why the hell are the Browns after him so much? Quarterback is the one position they seem set at.
- Those last two points could be totally off and neither team wants him. The NFL Draft is one of those times that no one seems to mind when you lie to their face, even if they know you are doing it.
- I seriously doubt the Broncos trade up to get Sanchez either. If McDaniels is the Belichick disciple that every one seems to think he is then he'll take an experienced quarterback later in the draft thinking that he can mold him into the next Tom Brady or Matt Cassel. Todd Boeckman is a perfect example.
- I don't think the Lions should take Matt Stafford. It's not that I don't think he'll be a good pro, but they're going to be God-awful again this year. Take the (cheaper) lineman you can stick at tackle for the next 10 years, take your lumps this year with Dante Culpepper as your starter, get another Top 5 pick next year and take Sam Bradford. It's the better plan.
Now, as for my Patriots... I have no idea what they're going to do.
Last year I was right on. I knew that they wanted to trade down, how far they were likely to trade down and who they were targeting when they did. Maybe it was because I was in the building every day, even if I wasn't anywhere near the team. Just got it through osmosis. But this year it's harder to decipher. The draft gets harder and harder to predict the farther back the team is because so much can change. People can trade up and down and no one knows for sure who's going to be left after the first 10 picks.
I think they are targeting 3 positions in this year's draft: outside linebacker (with Vrabel in Kansas City they need someone to put across from Thomas), corner (Hobbs is a solid player, just not sure he's the kind of corner you an leave on an island) and tackle (the left side of the line is nothing but all-pros. The right side? Not so much). All are needs, none are major. At this point, they are in the position that they can draft for the future. The best bet is that they'll take the best player left at one of those positions, I just couldn't tell you which one. Personally, I think they could use a running back (Maroney just can't stay healthy), but the team seems to be OK with the running back-by-committee thing right now. They could still take a back, but it won't be in the first three rounds. I'll also say there is no way they use all 3 of their second round picks. They'll trade at least one of them for a better pick in next year's draft.
But, for the heck of it, I'll throw a name out there: Vontae Davis.
No comments:
Post a Comment