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!