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26 April 2010
The 2010 NFL Draft is finally behind us and now the fun part starts...ignoring football until September or so.
But until then, here's a few thoughts to wrap up the weekend that was the draft. Due to an immense amount of rain and an embarrassing lack of a social life, I actually watched more of the draft than I care to admit. Therefore, I am anointing myself as an expert. So to the delight of at least one person who reads this site, I will use bullet points to give some draft thoughts.
- Mocking Mel: I'm not normally one of those guys who loves to point out how many picks Mel Kiper missed. Any rational fan understands the draft is always a crapshoot, and I
doubt anyone could accurately predict more than about 50% of the picks correctly in any given year. But this year, there were just too many misses to be ignored. Here's a list of players that, at one point, were predicted by Kiper to be first-rounders; Everson Griffen (98th overall), Bruce Campbell (104) Aaron Hernandez (111), Ricky Sapp (131) and Johnathan Dwyer (179). Ouch. And this isn't just taking predictions from Kiper's early predictions. Griffen was a first-rounder in all four of Kiper's mock drafts. As was Sergio Kindle, who went 43rd overall, and Taylor Mays, who went 49th. Navorro Bowman, who would go 91st overall, was at one point picked by Kiper to go 24th. But the real story has to be Tyson Alualu, the DE from Cal who went 10th to Jacksonville. Kiper quickly said he wasn't too surprised by the pick, apparently neglecting the fact that he never once predicted this guy would go in the first round, let alone #10. For a guy who has one job - to predict the draft - you would think Kiper could do a little better. 
- Poor Jimmy: About the only thing funnier than seeing Kiper's mock drafts explode was seeing the reaction of all of the analysts to Jimmy Clausen's drop to the 48th pick. You would have thought Peyton Manning was still on the board to hear the utter shock in their voices. Clausen has good size and a strong arm. His mechanics are apparently perfect (according to an ESPN The Magazine article that was arguably the greatest waste of four pages ever), and he played in a pro-style offense. Fine. Great. He also was a guy who went 16-19 in his career, won a grand total of one bowl game, and has serious attitude issues. He may very well turn out to be a decent NFL quarterback, and he landed in a good situation with Carolina and their running attack. But let's not go overboard here. Clausen is hardly a can't-miss superstar, and the fact that so many teams passed on him, some of them doing it twice, should come as a surprise to no one.
- Error on ESPN: Personally, I enjoyed the new draft format, splitting up the rounds and allowing people (not me) to have a life and still keep up with the draft happenings, as opposed to devoting 10 consecutive hours on a Saturday afternoon. But the one downside was three days of ESPN's broadcast, which as Chris "Mad Dog Russo" put it, "set broadcasting back 100 years." It's bad enough to have five guys on one set, where apparently the only rule is that you can never let another person finish a sentence before interjecting your point. But this was also a poor combination of people. Chris Berman and Tom Jackson have a very creepy chemistry together, probably rooted in their ability to speak almost continuously without really saying anything. Kiper...well we've picked on him enough, but suffice to say, his reputation as an "expert" took quite a few hits. But at least he wasn't Steve Young, who provided the comedic relief, albeit unintentionally. Young started the vast majority of his sentences without any clear idea of what he was saying, and because of that, he would sometimes drone on for two or three minutes as the others watched in amazement. Even better, you could tell he didn't even know what he was going to say. It was almost as if his switch would get stuck in the "Talk" position, and no one could figure out how to shut him off. It was enough to make you feel bad for Jon Gruden, the one analyst with any real knowledge of the game. Gruden was simply too good to be included on that broadcast. It would be like LeBron James showing up in my backyard to play pickup ball. As good as he is, he would be dragged down by the utter stupidity of all of us around him. Next year, I'll be watching the NFL Network coverage, if I'm not out on a hot date.
- Tebow talk: Of course there will be a Tebow section on here. You saw who wrote this post right? For the record, I do believe Tim Tebow can be a solid NFL quarterback one day. I also believe that he is not ready to be one next year, or maybe even the year after that. If you want to argue that it's a questionable move to spend first-round money on a player who might not see meaningful snaps for two years, that's a fair point. But most of the criticism directed at the Broncos and Tebow has centered around his throwing motion, and the belief by some people that he will never be an NFL quarterback. Admittedly, I am a Tebow fan, and therefore not objective. But I find it a little curious that people are convinced he is incapable of altering his throwing motion. I mean, it's not as if Denver drafted the drum major out of the band and is attempting to teach him how to play the position. Tebow did throw for 88 touchdowns in the SEC over his career. He may not be the next Tom Brady, but he is capable of throwing a football. Will he be able to change his mechanics? Will he be able to be effective in a pro-style offense? Maybe he can, maybe he can't. No one really knows. But I do feel that it's a little early to entirely write off the possibility that he could become a starting QB.
- Browns' blues: I would imagine the excitement of draft day for an NFL prospect is overwhelming. You're on the verge of becoming very wealthy, you're fulfilling a lifelong dream, and you're waiting to find out in which town you'll be enjoying loads of female company. But if I were a prospect, I think I would be more than a little upset to get drafted by the Cleveland Browns. Not because of their general ineptitude, or because Cleveland might not have the best nightlife. No- I would hate to go there because of their uniforms. There is not a worse combination of colors, maybe in the history of sports, than brown and orange. It's awful. At least with other bad teams, be it the Lions or Rams, you can at least get some cool gear. You may lose 12+ games every year, but at least there's the possibility of some good-looking apparel, be it the uniforms, practice shorts, or even just a hat to wear on the sidelines. With the Browns, you have none of that. I have yet to see a single piece of Cleveland Browns' apparel that didn't immediately turn my stomach. You could just see it in Colt McCoy's eyes when the Browns selected him in the third round. Even someone who wore burnt orange for four years was less than thrilled to be heading to a place where the main color is often found at the bottom of a toilet. Look for McCoy to demand a trade soon.
- It's the draft, not a game: Finally, to the fans who show up to the draft, sporting face paint, and carrying flags...stop. It's one thing for people to have the draft on TV in the background as you're doing something else, pausing occasionally to sit and watch a few picks in a row. It's another thing to get dressed up and sit in an auditorium for hours on end to watch people walk across a stage and shake hands. I understand people get excited about the draft, and for at least a few nights in April, nearly every team can have some optimism for the season. But when you're painting your face and carrying around replica helmets, you need to re-evaluate your life decisions.
