Welcome back!

Well, football season has officially begun.  North Texas got a somewhat shocking victory over Ball State behind a good performance by quarterback Riley Dodge.  Terrance Cain showed that he had the ability to take over for Brian Johnson in Utah’s 35-17 victory over Utah State.  The name of the game in Raleigh was “defense” as South Carolina defeated NC State.  And Oregon showed a complete lack of offensive cohesion in a very disappointing outing against Boise State.

A couple players of note for the draft next spring…

Good performance of the day: Eric Norwood, OLB, South Carolina – grabbed two more sacks (closing in on the school record) and could always be found near the ball.  Still needs to work on his pass defense a little, but will definitely be able to contribute as a pass rush specialist.

Absolutely inept performance of the day: LaGarrette Blount, RB, Oregon – had absolutely no impact on the game, finishing with -2 yards on 9 carries.  To top it off, he went all UFC at the end of the game taking a cheap shot at a Boise State player during the postgame handshakes and then tried to go after a fan in the stands.  I’d be surprised if he suits up for the Ducks anytime soon and he may have ruined his NFL chances with one quick right cross.

The Enigma

There’s still quite a good bit of time to go before anyone really starts to get hot and bothered over the NFL Draft, but I figure that just gives us more time to wonder about the one player in this draft that brings more questions than any other to come before him.  I am, of course, talking about Tim Tebow.

Many critics have loudly proclaimed Tebow to the the Greatest Collegiate Football Player Ever.  And while I don’t agree with that assessment, you can’t argue that he has proven himself time and time again.  While he may not be an amazing passer, an electric runner or even an exceptional athlete, he does have two qualities that every NFL team desires for any of its players… a determination to be the best and a proven track record of winning.

The one tiny problem with all of this is that history has shown time and time again that the NFL will continue to take chances with athletic freaks (Kyle Boller, David Carr, Ryan Leaf) while letting proven winners with questionable physical skills (Trent Dilfer is the best example) move on.  I’m not trying to say that Tebow isn’t physical enough to play in the NFL, I just question whether or not he’s polished enough to play quarterback in the NFL.  This is a league that wants results today and very rarely are players given time to develop.  In fact, more often than not, a player isn’t even given a full season before people start to question whether or not he was a bust.

What I’m trying to say is that Tim Tebow is most likely the best football player that will be  drafted during the 2010 NFL Draft, but he will not be the best quarterback.  Already, there are multiple players that could rank ahead of him (Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, Jevan Snead to name a few).  Word is that the coaches in Gainesville are trying to work more “under center” plays into the gameplan in order to alleviate some of these fears.  But that could do more harm than good, especially if it appears that he is uncomfortable working under center.

So, this is what it all boils down to… Tim Tebow will be playing for an NFL team this time next year, but the question is at what position?  We’ve got 8 months to figure this out.

The 2009 NFL Draft… in retrospect… sort of…

It’s been a week since Ryan Succop (my fellow Gamecock) was announced as Mr. Irrelevant.  Truth be told, I’ve still yet to come to grips with what happened throughout the weekend.  Don’t get me wrong, nothing that happened really caught me by surprise, not even Al Davis (but we’ll get to that later).  But I was without internet access for the weekend, so for the first time in quite a while I was allowed to just watch the draft without having to cover it.  And it was kind of nice.

At the same time, it’s been kind of hard to motivate myself to write this entry.  But it’s pouring outside, there isn’t an NHL or NBA playoff game on and I can’t watch baseball in May… so why not, here goes nothing!

I guess a good place to start is with the first selection of Matthew Stafford.  This was probably the most unsurprising moment of the weekend.  Not only had the Lions made the pick and contract terms public a day before the draft, Stafford’s name had been synonymous with the Lions since Sam Bradford decided to remain a Sooner for another year.  The only thing I really have to say about the pick is I hope for Matt’s sake that the Detroit draft pick jinx left with Matt Millen.

The rest of the top ten was pretty predictable.  I didn’t know how high it would be, but I had a feeling the Jets would be trading up for Sanchez.  Even the Darrius Heyward-Bey pick at number 7 was foreseen in a way.  I’m not trying to say that I had him picked there, because that would be an outright lie.  What I’m trying to say is that I should have seen him going there.  Year after year, Al Davis will reach for a player because of an outrageous 40 yard dash time.  So, why should it have been any different this year?  This much I can guarantee for the 2010 draft… watch the Combine and at least 2 of the 5 fastest players will end up wearing the Silver and Black.

It’s not a Mel Kiper type prediction, but it’s the best I’ve got!

The rest of the first round was mostly marked by the Browns trading down, two picks at a time, which is what I dubbed last year the “Jerry Jones approach to the Draft”.  However, I think they made it work.  Sure, taking a Center in the first round is never a popular pick,  but then again who would have thought that there would be a run on centers in the first few rounds?  They still picked up two productive receivers and a plethora of defensive personnel.

So, while I hesitate to actually give a grade to anyone’s draft, I’d say the Browns did fairly well.  Other teams that I thought did well include the Ravens, Giants, Cardinals, Bengals and most of all the Texans and Packers.  On the other hand, let me just go ahead and vent about the Cowboys for a moment.

Now… if I had been able to write this last week, hours after the draft had concluded, I would have likely given the Cowboys an “F”.  Having had a week to think it over… it still sucked.  Jerry pretty much spent the entire weekend getting his Special Teams squared away.  While that is an area of need for the Boys after they spent the past couple seasons near the bottom of the NFL in pretty much every ST category you can name, it still doesn’t make sense.  I haven’t been able to articulate my argument all week, so let me try a new strategy.  In the first couple rounds most teams draft players whom they can build a franchise around, while the latter portion of the draft is spent picking players to complement the foundation.  Jerry apparently believes that he has a foundation in place already and that is what I’m questioning.

Let me put it another way… of the 12 players selected by the Cowboys, the one who will likely have the biggest impact this season is David Buehler, the kickoff specialist from Southern Cal.  Jerry Jones always said that he admired Al Davis.  I’m now starting to wonder if they are the same person.  Seriously, has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?

But I digress, it’s time to move on.

There are many other intriguing stories to talk about and I hope to come back to them over the next few weeks!  But, it’s also time to start thinking about 2010.  You may think that it’s too soon, but before you know it’ll be here.  And I, for one, am pretty excited.  It’s going to be a great trip!

Down to two

While they still have almost three days to make up their minds, it appears that the Lions’ front office has narrowed the selection down to two choices.  Matthew Stafford and… Aaron Curry.

I have believed that Stafford was going to be the first pick ever since Sam Bradford made the decision to return to school.  However, the inclusion of Curry is a bit puzzling even though he could be the top prospect available this year.  The odd thing is that the decision is coming down to a quarterback and an outside linebacker, while there are two bonafide franchise left tackles available and the Lions have a desperate need for help along the offensive line.  At one time the Lions were negotiating with Jason Smith, but it appears that something fell through.

Now comes the real interesting part…

Apparently Aaron Curry is asking for more guaranteed money than Stafford.

I’ll pause while that sinks in…

An outside linebacker is looking for more money than a quarterback.  I’ve been struggling to understand this for most of the day.  At first I thought that I had misheard the story or that someone was getting the facts wrong, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

So, considering that information, I feel even more confident that the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft will be Matthew Stafford, quarterback from the University of Georgia.

It’s almost here…

Well, we’re just a little over 4 days away from the 2009 NFL Draft and we still know very little about how the top of the draft is going to work itself out. As more time goes by, it’s a pretty safe bet that Matthew Stafford will be the first pick by the Detroit Lions. However, if history has taught us anything… when it comes to the NFL Draft, expect the unexpected.

So, do what I do.

Just sit back and enjoy the ride.