The 2006 NFL Draft Thread

[Guest]

I'm very happy with Jacksonville's draft. Good change of pace back, and a good TE.

 

They're probably the biggest team in the league.

[Guest StylesMark]

Vick says he's better than Leinart and Cutler. Oh man.

 

Michael getting him on board in Atlanta may rip that team apart. Not to mention take Michael's focus off winning games and whatnot.

[Guest]

Marcus Vick is the best

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

soundbyte.

[Brett Favre 0]

The Madden 2007 First Round picks screens are cool..Vitamin X has influenced me to do the same.

[Damaramu 0]

What's Young look like?

[Brett Favre 0]

Looks like Steve McNair, without looking battered, and with the number 10. They don't closeup on his face.

 

http://www.easports.com/madden07/index.jsp

[Urban Warfare 0]

Speaking of McNair...

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Steve McNair's tenure with the Tennessee Titans could be over within the next 24 hours, according to his agent. Team officials don't agree, even though they gave permission for McNair's agent to talk with the Baltimore Ravens.

 

Agent Bus Cook said Sunday the team was considering releasing McNair or trading him to the Ravens, with something possibly worked out by Monday.

 

Link

[Brett Favre 0]

McNair and Young together would have been cool. That sucks.

[Guest]

Vince Young is going to need LenDale White if he plans on being a successful pro. That's really odd.

[The Robfather 0]

[SpikeFayeJettEdBebop 0]

I don't think McIntosh would have been around at 53 only because I think he would have been taken by whatever team took Thomas Howard quickly after McIntosh was taken.

 

Although, I still don't see any way how that trade was worth it. A second rounder, sixth rounder AND next years second rounder to move up 15 spots??? Granted, 15 spots is a lot but I still dont see it being worth a second next year. Then again, since when do the Redskins need to draft?? They can just overpay all the players that aren't retained by their teams 5-6 years after each draft.

[Guest Vitamin X]

The Madden 2007 First Round picks screens are cool..Vitamin X has influenced me to do the same.

 

Thanks, I suppose. I just remember doing them the past couple years around draft time as well.

 

This year is also the first that I'm really happy with the Packers' draft since the Ron Wolf era. I'm ridiculously psyched about A.J. Hawk becoming the leader and face of the defense.

[The Robfather 0]

The Mike Shanahan-Jay Cutler marriage is going to be one of those 15-year unions. I said to Shanahan Sunday night: "If Cutler's right when he says he hasn't talked to you guys for two months, how in the world did you end up taking him with the 11th pick in the draft?'' Shanahan laughed.

 

"The first time I talked to him was yesterday, after the pick, and we met here today,''' Shanahan said from Denver. "I studied him and watched him and looked at the draft board and didn't say very much to anyone. I said, 'I'm just going to shut up and hope it works out.' I've been in this thing long enough. You don't give anyone your hand. Don't give anyone an idea, or it's out very quickly. Keep it to yourself.

 

"I did call [Tennessee Titans coach] Jeff Fisher, who I'm very close to, and I know Jeff to a T, and I just said to him, 'Give me Cutler's good points and bad points.' And he said, 'Mike, there are no bad points.' Jeff knows football players. And I thought, if I could get up there around 11, I'm going to try to get him. When I really got to thinking about it, I asked myself, 'How often am I ever going to have the chance to do something like this again, to get a guy like this?' Maybe never.''

 

But, I said to Shanahan, 'You have never spoken to the man. How can you pick a guy who is a total stranger?'

 

"Well, you watch his interviews on tape, and you feel you know the guy,'' Shanahan said. "You pick up the phone and talk to him or his agent, and all of a sudden it's going to get out, and I just couldn't risk that.''

 

I also wondered, as does all of Colorado, about the psyche of Jake Plummer after the move.

 

"Haven't talked to him yet,'' said Shanahan. "The draft just ended. We'll talk. But if you're a guy who's afraid of competition, you're not made of the right stuff. A guy's got to compete and win the job.''

 

link

[Guest Vitamin X]

I don't know what to think of Cutler with the Broncos. Seems to me like a waste of a pick.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Plummer had a good year last year to be sure, but he hasn't shown long-term consistency yet. It'd be nice to have a good backup just in case Jake can't maintain his form this year. And it isn't like the kid would be getting killed out there, their offense is perfect for him.

 

I'm much happier with Reggie Bush going to the Saints than the Texans. As he said in an interview, it's a great morale boost for such an embattled franchise. Merrill Hodge (or however you spell it) was a exaggerating when he said that Bush'll be a top playmaker in the NFL by the end of the year, but it isn't out of the question for him to be a major force a couple of years from now. The draft's about the future, and no matter how nasty the players are, it's unrealistic to expect these dudes who have been college kids until now to go out there and play at the level of professional MEN, not boys.

 

As for the Packers, no complaints from me, as they mostly worked on the areas I felt they needed to shore up (O-line and defense), and they got a Furman QB with their last pick! Anyone familiar with Division II football knows Furman's a perennial powerhouse. Plus it's a pretty nice place anyway. After Favre's gone and if Rodgers gets hurt, you could do worse for an emergency QB.

[Fökai 0]

A funny bit from Deadspin...

 

2. New Orleans Saints: Reggie Bush, RB, USC

Deuce McAllister just became the highest-paid bench warmer in the league.

 

We’ll let the rest of the sports world scrutinize whether there was anything improper about Bush’s college career, and instead scrutinize his Pop Warner career. A December feature on Bush in the San Diego Union-Tribune included this paragraph:

 

In his first game for Pop Warner’s Grossmont Warriors on Sept. 3, 1994, Bush rushed six times for 203 yards and five touchdowns, according to team statistician Allen Barbour. On Oct. 22 that year, he rushed for 544 yards on 27 carries, kicked three extra points, scored eight touchdowns, caught one pass, made two tackles and recovered a fumble against the Kearny Mesa Komets.

 

This raises two questions:

1. Pop Warner clubs have team statisticians?

2. Did it occur to the Warriors’ coach at any time during the Oct. 22 game (like after Bush’s seventh touchdown) that maybe it was time to stop humiliating the Komets and give another kid a chance to play running back?

[yankovic fan 0]

As for the Packers, no complaints from me, as they mostly worked on the areas I felt they needed to shore up (O-line and defense), and they got a Furman QB with their last pick! Anyone familiar with Division II football knows Furman's a perennial powerhouse. Plus it's a pretty nice place anyway. After Favre's gone and if Rodgers gets hurt, you could do worse for an emergency QB.

 

 

 

No, Furman is a perennial powerhouse in division I-AA not Division II.

[Art Sandusky 0]

I'm sorry, I always call them Division I, II, and III because adding the A's sounds like a buncha high schools.

[Damaramu 0]

Matt Leinart's so hollywood he just got punk'd. I think I puked up everything I ate in the past week.

[Guest]

In his first game for Pop Warner’s Grossmont Warriors on Sept. 3, 1994, Bush rushed six times for 203 yards and five touchdowns, according to team statistician Allen Barbour. On Oct. 22 that year, he rushed for 544 yards on 27 carries, kicked three extra points, scored eight touchdowns, caught one pass, made two tackles and recovered a fumble against the Kearny Mesa Komets

That's fucking ridiculous.

[Damaramu 0]

See if anyone else agrees with this.

This guy on the radio today said that the lack of Big 12 players being drafted proved the conference was down this year.

Then the other radio host pointed out that OU and Texas had a decent amount of players drafted.

The original guy then proceeded to point out that OU and Texas don't count when talking about how good the Big 12 is, like Miami when they were in the Big East. He said something like "Well those teams will always be good so you have to look at the rest of the conference. They don't count."

So basically for the conference to not be considered good the other teams have to be able to take OU and Texas!?

[Guest Vitamin X]

Wrong thread, Dama.

[Damaramu 0]

No it was about players being drafted. This is the draft thread.

[Guest Vitamin X]

No, you're talking more about the Big XII. Your post mentioned nothing about the NFL, or its draft other than OU and Texas' involvement in it. Meaning, it's about college football.

[Vampiro69 0]

I think that the Broncos got a steal in the 6th round with the selection of center Greg Eslinger. The man is a beast on the field and does not get pushed around. I wish someone could explain to me how the Outland Trophy winner and Remmington Trophy winner warrants only a 6th round pick.

[Guest]

And all this USC shit means nothing.

 

Matt Leinart got punked. Who gives a shit?

 

I think I speak for everyone when I say, WE as a collective unit do not give a goddamn about USC. So stop.

 

Greg Eslinger and Greg Blue will be steals, both shouldn't have gotten picked that late.

[Bored 0]

Starting with the Heisman we know that winning college awards has no barring on where you are drafted and how succesful you are in the NFL. That being said Eslinger is the lowest an Outland Trophy winner has been drafted since Aaaron Taylor (Nebraska) was in the 7th round by the Colts in 1998. He never played a regular season game. The knock on Eslinger is he isn't big enough which always makes me giggle when we're talking about a 285 lbs. man but that's the way it is.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Eslinger was being knocked for his size and that scouts were projecting that'd he be more of a fit in a blocking system such as Denver's or Atlanta's.

[naiwf 0]

The Giants signing Jai Lewis of George Mason fame was a bit puzzling, but the dude does look like a football player and if he even makes the practice squad that would be a nice little story.

 

Giants, George Mason basketball giant Lewis agree to deal

 

May 1, 2006

CBS SportsLine.com wire reports

 

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Jai Lewis played a major role in George Mason basketball's improbable run during the NCAA basketball tournament this spring.

 

For his next trick, he'll try to make it in the NFL after not playing organized football for five years.

 

Lewis, a forward on the George Mason hoops team that stunned Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut on its way to the Final Four, agreed to a rookie free agent contract with the New York Giants on Monday.

 

"I'm very excited that somebody's taking a chance on me and giving me the opportunity to go out there and show what I can do," Lewis said by phone. He said the Giants project him at tight end, a position he played in high school, or offensive tackle, a position he has never played.

 

The St. Louis Rams made a similar move Monday, signing Connecticut basketball player Ed Nelson to a free agent contract. Nelson, a 6-foot-8, 265-pound power forward, also has not played football since high school.

 

Lewis, 23, is listed on George Mason's roster at 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds but said he actually weighs 290. He has not played football since high school in Aberdeen, Md., though he was recruited by schools such as Virginia Tech and North Carolina.

 

At George Mason, he averaged 13.7 points and 7.8 rebounds last season and helped the Patriots reach the Final Four, where they lost 73-58 to Florida. Lewis scored 20 points in George Mason's 86-84 upset of Connecticut in the regional final.

 

Being in the Final Four "definitely helped" raise his visibility for NFL coaches, Lewis said. The Giants already knew about him, according to general manager Ernie Accorsi, and sent a scout to a workout Lewis held earlier this month. They were impressed with his footwork and overall athletic ability and envisioned him as a tight end if he loses some weight, or an offensive tackle if he continues to grow.

 

"He's a project. It's not going to happen overnight," Accorsi said. "Basketball teams are filled with great athletes. The question is, does he have the fortitude to play this sport, where you're getting hit in the mouth every play? It's going to depend on how hard he wants it and how hard he works."

 

If Lewis makes the Giants' roster, he will follow a similar path as that of Antonio Gates, the San Diego Chargers tight end who played basketball but not football in college at Kent State. Gates led all NFL tight ends last season with 89 catches and has been to two Pro Bowls.

 

"He did open the door a little bit," said Lewis. "A lot of power forwards are the right size to play in the NFL. But it's not going to be an easy task. It's a battle I'm going to have to fight for if I want to play in the this league."

[Failed Bridge 0]

Haven't had time to really chime in so here goes.

 

I loved the Pats first two picks but was pretty pissed to see them not grab Darnell Bing in the third round. That is until they picked up Mincey in the 6th round. How he dropped that far is beyond me but he's basically an OLB version of Ted Johnson. The guy just flat out kills the run but has no real pass rushing skills and only average pass defense.

 

5 teams coming out best from the draft

 

1.) Arizona - Leinart, Lutui, Pope, Jonathan Lewis and Gabriel Watson...all could have been first day picks any other year.

2.) Houston - So what if they didn't take Bush. Their defense is much improved now and they finally have some good o-linemen to keep Carr from getting killed. Domanik Davis is a fine back and will do much better in this new system anyways.

3.) New England - Maroney at 21 and Jackson at 36 are steals. They also landed the best kicker in the draft to replace Vinatieri and got quality picks out of O'Callaghan, Mills, Thomas, and Mincey.

4.) Eagles - Bunkley should help give them what they missed from Corey Simon last season and Winston Justice has all the tools to be a good RT in the future. Giles and Avant were too very good picks as well.

5.) Denver - They grabbed themselves Javon Walker and Jay Cutler. Its not everyday you grab yourself a pro-bowl WR and a guy being looked at as a franchise QB in the same draft.

 

Worst draft

 

The Bills - They reached for a safety with the 8th overall pick instead of trading down a bit to teams like the Ravens and Cardinals who had to have been offering alot to move up and grab Leinart. John McCargo was being looked at by other teams as a second day pick but the Bills thought he had late first round value. It looks like the front office took stupid pills that weekend because they ended up with next to nothing in a very deep draft.