I'm watching the NFL draft and recording my thoughts as I go.
Draft Pick #1 overall: Gee the Colts took Andrew Luck. No surprise here, they won the Suck for Luck contest. Lately, I've been hearing that RGIII is statistically the better QB and most likely will be going #2 with Washington.
Chomping at the bit waiting for the 11th pick for my Chiefs. Sports Illustrated has them taking Luke Kuechly out of Boston College. I kind of like the idea of another high draft pick on defense. When the Chiefs were a dominant force in the 90s (even though they never got to the Super Bowl) they had a killer defense. With Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, and a lockdown secondary, I'm excited to see this.
#2 Robert Griffin III goes to the Redskins. Again, no real surprise. I'm curious to see how Griffin deals with Shanahan's system. Now the NFC East has two speedy big armed quarterbacks (Vick). Washington also needs to work on a defense.
ESPN has four selections for who the Chiefs will take at #11. The People's Choice is Courtney Upshaw, DE/OLB from Alabama. Not a bad choice either. Expert Todd McShay choses Kuechly; Mel Kiper chooses David DeCastro, OG from Stanford.Kent Babb of the KC Star also says DeCastro because he doesn't think the DE that they want (Upshaw) will be there.
While I do like to watch a great defense, and the Chiefs have a young one going into the next season. They're going to have to brush up on pass defense with Manning, Palmer, and Rivers as opposing QBs in their division. I've made no secret of my disdain for Matt Cassel. But now, he is undoubtedly the worst starting QB in the division.
#3 Cleveland selects Trent Richardson. Another no-brainer. The Chiefs just took the Browns disgruntled former starting RB and Richardson is the best RB on the list. They have a QB up and coming in Colt McCoy, so now they have a more dynamic offense instead of allowing linebackers like James Harrison to just key on (and unload on) McCoy. My question is why did they trade away draft choices to move up one spot in the order? The Vikings had this pick and already have a franchise RB in Petersen. They've been looking at Kalil the whole time. The only reason I'm thinking they made the trade is because they knew Minnesota was going to shop their spot. If they had traded it to TB, then another team in dire need of a RB would have jumped in front of the Browns for Richardson.
Almost out of the predicted picks. 1, 2, 3 are almost all certain picks and not catching you off guard (Edgerrin James in 1999 notwithstanding). This year, though, I'll say the first four picks are pretty obvious. While the Vikings are next and need just about friggin everything but a running back, they've been looking at Kalil a lot. He's probably the best offensive lineman in the draft. ESPN says they'll draft a OT. This makes sense since they were tied with most sacks allowed last year. They have a decent quarterback when he's not on his back and a stud running back (who is still rehabbing an injury). They also need a corner (and are in a division with KILLER wide receivers), a safety (see previous aside), and a wide receiver.
#4 Minnesota took Matt Kalil, the OT that ESPN predicted. SI also predicted Kalil, but said that they should have taken Morris Claiborne. I would agree with that, but I'm defensive biased and Claiborne is a great college corner who is fun to watch. He won't have to wait long for a phone call.
Jags have the next pick (seriously these trades up and down are messing up my magazines here). Note to self, blog about the strategy of trading up and down for draft picks. There is a strategy here that rivals most complex board games.
Jacksonville has this pick after trading with Tampa Bay. To move up two slots Jacksonville gave up a 4th and 7th round pick.
#5 Jacksonville took Justin Blackmon out of Oklahoma State. Can't say I blame them. They were a one dimensional offense last year behind Maurice Jones-Drew. Jones-Drew is a beast, but when a defense can ignore your quarterback and put 8 men in the box, your team isn't going to win many games (and they didn't). I like this pick. And apparently I agree with Jon Gruden on that. He's a great WR.
Dallas has traded up to get pick #6. Seriously, the only draft pick that was in the original order was the Colts at #1. Every other one has been a swap to move up or down. Dallas gave up a second round pick to move up to the Rams spot at 6 (where they originally traded down from #2). The Rams have made off like bandits out of this draft. Which is good because they need pretty much a new team. The Cowboys are gunning for someone. It makes me wonder why these teams take so long to announce their picks.
#6 Dallas takes Morris Claiborne. I'm glad my favorite team isn't in the NFC East now. The Cowboys have some deadly corners now. They paid a ransom to Brandon Carr, one of the Chiefs high notes last year, at one corner and just took the best corner in the draft to line up on the other side. They'll face RGIII twice a year, but they'll also see Vick and Eli Manning twice a year. Although apparently Claiborne is going to be like another Deion Sanders. Great at interceptions, but a liability on rush defense and not a great tackler. He also doesn't really jam receivers at the line. A strictly cover corner....but a damn fine cover corner.
With all these trades and waiting for the announcements, how do they get the players' names on the right jerseys so quickly?
Tampa Bay on the clock at #7, originally 5. I'm guessing they're going to take a safety. Yup, they just took Mark Barron of Alabama. That's two Tide players drafted in the top ten. Surprised? Not really, they're the national champs. Barron is a hybrid, playing safety, but also showing the ability to move up to linebacker. He also gave LSU fits in the championship game with some lock down defense.
Why didn't Kansas City trade up or down? Maybe they will by the time #11 rolls around. It might not make sense for the Chiefs to move around since a lot of the players they were looking at aren't predicted to go much earlier than 11.
Miami on the clock at #8, the second pick not to move around. It is predicted they'll take Tammehill, Texas A&M's QB. If they do, he'll be the first QB drafted in the first round by Miami since a guy named Marino. Gregg Easterbrook's latest Tuesday Morning Quarterback was analyzing playoff teams from last season. He found that almost all of them were led by a first round drafted quarterback.
Miami just took Tannehill I'm not sure about this. He was rumored to be looked at by Kansas City, but I wasn't sure then. He doesn't seem like a top echelon quarterback. He only played 19 games at QB. I don't think he has the experience to face the NFL's defensive backs. Granted, Miami needed a quarterback badly. And Kiper has Tannehill as the third best QB in the draft. I don't think he is the savior of Miami. The Dolphins are struggling to draw fans back in and, unlike during Marino's first year, they aren't the only sports franchise in town. Between then and now the NBA expanded with the Heat and MLB just moved the Marlins to town. I don't think he's going to start right away and will sit a year. This is a draft pick that probably should have been traded down. They probably could have taken Tannehill in the teens or twenties and gotten a bunch of other draft picks for the #8 slot.
Carolina is up. With Cam Newton (last years #1 overall) they've got some great offense.
Carolina just took Kuechly...Damn, there goes KC's best pick. He's the first linebacker to be drafted. He's toted as a throwback to the ideal middle linebacker. They just compared him to Brian Urlacher. That's going to really help Carolina's middling defense. On a good note, only the Bills stand between the Chiefs and the rest of the draft board. The Chiefs are also looking for a gigantic defense lineman and ESPN's predicted Carolina pick, Quinton Coples, is now still there. I'm starting to think that the teams take so long to make selections that they're almost surely to make in order to give ESPN time to babble at me.
The Bills just took Stephon Gilmore out of South Carolina. Another cornerback picked in the draft. I don't know much about this guy. He wasn't on anyone's draft board for Buffalo. Everyone thought they'd need a wide receiver or defensive line.
I do like that Gruden just said that KC is set when everyone is healthy. I DON'T like that he likes Cassel. KC just took Dontari Poe, their big beefy nose tackle out of Memphis.
I don't like this pick at #11 of the first round. Poe is too much of a risk. If he's good, he's going to be great, but if not, then this is a bust. There weren't really a lot of other teams looking at him and Kansas City could have followed the pattern of the evening and traded this pick away for a boatload of later rounds. I think if they were going to keep this pick, they should have gone for one of the offensive linemen still on the board or one of the good linebackers. Poe probably would have been a better pick with the second round selection.
Those are my thoughts on the first 11 picks (and mostly the Kansas City Chiefs). It is the end of the semester and I have projects to do otherwise I'd probably keep going with the draft.
Although, I'll be curious for Friday's second round (Rams have 3 picks thanks to first round trades. Hopefully that pays off).
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