The 2006 NFL Draft Thread

[Guest Princess Leena]

I'm not so high on the Cards' picks.

 

Leinart, obviously...

 

Lutui is a good kid, but is a big reach in the 2nd round, and is overrated because of the USC connection. He has technique problems, and is your usual fat, unathletic guard. Unless an OG is insanely strong like a Larry Allen, or something... I'm against taking them in the early rounds, because taking the type of guards you want depends on your blocking system, and a team can get away with weak links at guards if they have strong tackles... doesn't work the other way around.

 

Pope, I feel was an excellent pick. Cards needed a TE, and if Pope can improve his blocking, they could have a very solid "big target, tough catch" type of TE.

 

Watson's a lazy fuck, but he probably had at least 2nd round talent if he constantly showed effort at Michigan. Typical Denny Green type of pick. In the 4th round, why not.

[Damaramu 0]

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.

 

It was about where their players were drafted and measuring a conference on where they're drafted. So yes it was appropriate. Stop starting shit.

[UZI Suicide 0]

I think the Bills did turned their draft from bad to average by getting Ashton Youboty and Ko Simpson. Those are two big steals because both are guys who have first round talent and were seen going in the first in many mock drafts.

 

I don’t think the Whitner pick was terrible either. They probably could have moved down a few spots and still gotten him, but overall I like him as a player and I agree with Mel Kiper when he said if a guy turns out great, it doesn’t matter if you pick him at 8 or 18, he’s going to be great regardless.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Speaking of Eslinger and Blue, here's another Greg that I think will do really well and satisfy a lot of Green Bay fans, now that Walker's gone: Greg Jennings, their 2nd round WR pick from Western Michigan. This guy was great all last year, basically that team's one weapon. He's small, but he just finds the ball.

[Vampiro69 0]

The only thing about Jennings that I have a question about is his speed. In the clips that I saw, he didn't seem to have breakaway speed.

[2GOLD 0]

I don't think the Packers will mind if he keeps the chains moving. Every team needs a guy who they know will get open and catch the ball for a first down. He doesn't need to break it for a touchdown, just keep the offense on the field and moving forward. In the games I saw of the Packers, they didn't have receivers making those kind of simple chain mover grabs.

[the pinjockey 0]

Interesting little note on Chris Gocong, the Eagles 3rd round pick.

 

Jets | Team might have traded away Gocong

Tue, 2 May 2006 11:55:16 -0700

 

Randy Lange, of the Bergen Record, reports the New York Jets might have committed a gaffe when they traded their No. 71 overall draft selection to the Philadelphia Eagles for their No. 76 selection and a seventh-rounder. The Eagles picked DL Chris Gocong with the selection, after showing no pre-draft interest in him. The Jets had visited with the swift defensive end and might have been considering picking him. Gocong said, "I was talking to my agent and we actually expected the Jets to draft us with the 71st pick, but we didn't really know if it was going to happen."

 

They had to think they were moving up for one of the remaining receivers or something. Apparently the Pats were interested in drafting him at 74 as well, so he may not have made it to the Jets anyway.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I don't think the Packers will mind if he keeps the chains moving. Every team needs a guy who they know will get open and catch the ball for a first down. He doesn't need to break it for a touchdown, just keep the offense on the field and moving forward. In the games I saw of the Packers, they didn't have receivers making those kind of simple chain mover grabs.

That's exactly the kind of player Jennings is, so he ought to fit nicely.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Since I haven't chimed in on the Bush pick yet, I think he's going to be most dangerous as a return man. With vision like his, he's going to be feared by special teams coaches. Houston is fucking stupid for not picking him. Put a playmaker on that team, and they might be worth a shit.

 

Also, can you imagine what they could've got if they entertained trade offers? They could've got an entire defensive line.

[the pinjockey 0]

Something like the Houston debacle is what makes me hate the idea of having a certain "value" on a pick.

 

Houston eliminates the value of the number one pick when they pick the second best, arguable, player on the board. They have enough holes that if they weren't going to take Bush, the rumored Jets deal made a ton of sense (both 1s and a 3rd). But because the no. 1 pick is worth 3000 points, they had to push for next year's number one as well thus killing any deals. Trading down to four and getting Williams or Ferguson plus picking up another 1st and 3rd in a deep draft can set you up for years.

 

Look at how the draft fell. You do that deal, if Williams goes no. 2, you still end up with Ferguson plus you can pick up Winston Justice and immediately the previous decade's worth of OT problems are hopefully solved for the next decade.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Yeah, the "value board" stuff is garbage. Heck, they could have gotten Abraham and the fourth pick, and maybe another late pick if they acted early enough. Abraham, a proven pass rusher, would have more of an immediate impact than Williams, and they could have still gotten Ferguson at 4 and Justice at 33.

[the pinjockey 0]

NY Times article about the draft coverage

 

Kiper Jr. Slips on Draft Board. The No. 1 Pick Is Mayock.

 

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: May 2, 2006

Remember this name: Mike Mayock. On Saturday, faced with better-known and certainly higher-paid analysts at ESPN during the National Football League draft, Mayock, the NFL Network's draft guru, lapped them all.

 

A former Giants defensive back and college football analyst for ABC, CBS, ESPN and Fox Sports Net, Mayock used superior insight to catapult himself beyond any voice at ESPN, which has carried the draft for 26 years.

 

It was Mayock who accurately predicted the Bills would select safety Donte Whitner with the eighth selection (while ESPN's Chris Berman hinted at a "curveball" coming, perhaps because the networks are told 15 seconds before the pick is announced), then said the Lions would take linebacker Ernie Sims with the ninth pick (while Berman said it would be the "highest-impact defensive player").

 

Mayock demonstrated his knowledge of the sport — matched at ESPN by only the terribly underused Ron Jaworski, tethered to a desk in Bristol, Conn. — early in the NFL Network's coverage. He produced a sophisticated analysis of the relative strengths of Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler, breaking down passing plays that underscored Leinart's better touch but Cutler's stronger arm.

 

Mayock was consistently more interesting than ESPN's draft maven, Mel Kiper Jr. Kiper is well informed, but Mayock interprets and explains better, perhaps because he was a player and has been in the broadcast booth.

 

What the NFL Network showed, in a side-by-side analysis of how it and ESPN covered the first 10 picks, is that less can be more. ESPN's formula — of more, more, more, from everywhere possible — needs tweaking. It bounced from its Radio City Music Hall set to Bristol to the "Cold Pizza" set, but could not outshine the surprisingly nimble NFL Network.

 

At Radio City, ESPN had Berman, Tom Jackson, Michael Irvin, Chris Mortensen and Kiper (with Steve Young chiming in by satellite), but this is an overwhelmingly pro football panel, not a college group. They can offer an N.F.L. perspective — if you can stomach Berman's weak attempts at humor and Irvin's refusal to speak in any tone less than a nearly incomprehensible shout.

 

Only Kiper is as knowledgeable about what these players did in college as Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Chris Fowler of ESPN's "College GameDay" program.

 

Meanwhile, from picks 1 to 10, the NFL Network stuck to one set, with Mayock; Rich Eisen, a comfortable host who did his job without unnecessary hyperbole or in the name of camaraderie; and Corey Chavous, a Rams safety who is something of a draft savant, and offered consistently good insights.

 

The NFL Network never strayed outside Radio City during those first 10 draft picks except for informative live interviews with Tennessee's coach, Jeff Fisher, and the recently hired New Orleans coach, Sean Payton. During that nearly two-hour period, ESPN had two of its best reporters, Ed Werder and Sal Paolantonio, in the field, but it did not have Fisher to explain why the Titans chose Vince Young with the third pick or how seriously the Saints entertained thoughts of trading the No. 2 pick to the Jets.

 

To his credit, Paolantonio reported the details of the Jets' offer, but Mayock explained the numerical "draft values" that the Jets were calculating in their attempt to lure the Saints into a trade they clearly would not make.

 

Mayock also gave the best explanation of the dynamics of the Titans' hierarchy that led to choosing Young; the ESPN analysts were too focused on why Norm Chow, who was an offensive coordinator for Leinart at Southern California and has the same job at Tennessee, will be tutoring Young.

 

Mayock then gave a fascinating assessment of Young's assets and flaws that went considerably beyond Kiper's. With video of two angles of a single play, he demonstrated how Young misread Southern California's pass coverage and threw right while his feet and hips were aligned to the left.

 

As sharp as Mayock was, he could not fix his network's tepid draft graphics, which the NFL Network knows must be improved. ESPN's were complete, omnipresent and sometimes dizzying. Graphically, ESPN was superior, although it need not herald each pick by scrawling "CURRENT SELECTION ALERT" on the screen as if it were an upgraded terrorism alert.

 

Visually, using pretty much the same material, the NFL Network showed more ambition, following drafted players around the legendary Radio City theater, and also using split screens of two players and of players and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. The split screen was most effective when D'Brickashaw Ferguson celebrated his selection at No. 4 by the Jets while Leinart looked befuddled at his slippage, but it worked poorly when Leinart was mistakenly seen in duplicate.

 

ESPN's on-site reporting was slightly better, most notably Suzy Kolber's interview with Leinart's agent, Tom Condon, as Leinart sat waiting to be drafted. And Mortensen quite rightly offered an early and cogent explanation of an investigation into a report that Bush's parents had been living rent-free in a house owned by a man who had hoped to market Bush.

 

I agree with the props for Mayock and the coverage of the early picks, but it is pretty apparent that all this guy watched was the early stuff. Saying that the "Current Selection Alert" was unnecessary couldn't be more wrong beyond the first round. That was the only way you could keep up with it.

 

I am also glad to see someone calling Berman out on tipping the picks early, that pissed me off beyond belief. Way to kill drama douchebag. There is a difference between predicting while not giving away (see Mayock) and indirectly giving away (see Berman).

[C Dubya 04 0]

Tuesday morning quarterback on ESPN page 2 had a pretty good article this week that rips Kiper. He correctly points out that Kiper just makes 20,000 predictions leading up to the draft, and then says that he is right, even though half of the things he says contradict his earlier points.

[Art Sandusky 0]

That article was cool until I saw that an agent was being interviewed on live TV. This kind of shit is going to kill football down the road, I'm telling you.

[Guest Princess Leena]

It's already done a fine job of ruining sports for me, and probably many others.

[Guest Felonies!]

I don't care what anybody says, Mel Kiper has fantastic hair. That Baltimore accent is strange, though.

[Vampiro69 0]

I will give credit to Kipers hair. When I get to his age I hope I have that much hair.