Quick Hits on Top 10 Picks

By:  Bobby Shores

Wow! What a first round! While most of the picks in the top 10 were not much of a surprise, but this was probably the most exciting first round I have ever witnessed. There were an unprecedented number of trades, with only the Colts not moving in the Top 10, while picks were coming in at a rapid fire pace. I loved not waiting the full 10 minutes for each pick, and I must admit I was getting quite frustrated with the “worst commissioner in all of sports”, Roger Goodell, as I was quickly spoiled and wanted the picks to be made much faster, it seemed he was the bottleneck. I loved the fans continually booing Goodell, it shows that we are not happy with his approach to fundamentally changing the game of football (Editor’s Note:  I will take repeated blows to the head for millions of dollars, FYI), while also abusing his power with his constant fines and suspensions of players.

With no further ado, here are my first impressions of the first 10 picks. Editor’s Note: I am typing this on a plane with broken WiFi (Thanks American Airlines), so these are not in the correct order and I may get a name misspelled or a fact just slightly off (I guess if it’s off, then it’s not a fact), but my opinion is the important part, and you will understand the gist of what I am trying to say.

Colts & Redskins – We have known for months that Luck and RG3 were the picks, they have been analyzed and discussed to death, I have nothing new to add or anything to just make up so that I can be different and pretend to have a new thought like the no less than 500 NFL talking heads at ESPN….

Browns – Trent Richardson(RB) – I did not think they needed to move up one spot because I do not believe there was any team trying to trade up for Running Back Trent Richardson. Yes, he was far and above the best prospect at his position, but this is a passing league, and in 6 months we will be talking about some random late round pick that is leading all rookie running backs in yards and touchdowns. But with 13 picks in this draft, there is no way they could use them all, if they did there is little to no chance that they would all make the team. Remember the Cowboys 2009 “Special Teams” draft, they had 12 picks, like 6 of them were cut before the season ended and there were no real contributors taken.

Vikings – Matt Kalil(OT) – I give them credit, they were aggressive in moving back and getting what they could while still landing the guy they would have most likely taken at number three. I think they will be very pleased with Matt Kalil as they now have their franchise left tackle to protect their franchise quarterback which will give him more time to throw which will take pressure off of their franchise running back. Luckily for them wide receivers like Stephen Hill and Rueben Randle are still there and if they can grab one of them at the top of the 2^nd round I believe they can make a dramatic jump this year.

 

Jaguars – Justin Blackmon(WR) – In my opinion, Blackmon wasn’t even the best receiver in this draft, but I understand what they were trying to do. Their problem now is that they have nobody to get the ball to him, Gabbert is a complete and total bust and hopefully they will realize that sooner rather than later, otherwise Blackmon’s development could be greatly stunted.

Dolphins – Ryan Tannehill(QB) – They haven’t had a franchise quarterback since Dan Marino left, they have wasted probably seven 2^nd round picks trying to find one, I understand what they were doing and I can’t really argue with it as I am a Tannehill fan. Joe Philbin is known for developing quarterbacks just like Tannehill, and offensive coordinator Mike Sherman is already very familiar with him from their time together at A&M, if he can be successful anywhere it will be in Miami. Now the Dolphins just have to get some receivers for him to throw to.

Cowboys - Morris Claiborne(CB) – Read my article here on my Morris Claiborne thoughts. The only thing I will add is that I am a big fan of 2^nd round picks and I don’t like giving them up. I also feel that cornerback is the deepest position in the draft and that there are multiple great ones that are still on the board and will be when they pick in the 2^nd & 3^rd round (Janoris Jenkins, Brandon Boykin, Casey Heyward, etc). The only thing that would have made me happier was taking Mississippi State Defensive Lineman Fletcher Cox, I feel that he is this year’s JJ Watt, a 5-technique DE that is dynamic enough to rush the passer.

Buccaneers – Mark Barron(S) – They were desperate for Safety help and they were desperate to stop the run, so having the best Safety in the draft, who specializes in stopping the run is not a horrible choice. I am probably the last holdout who still does not see Mark Barron as anything other than average in pass coverage, and with my thoughts of Safety being a dying breed, picking him before the 20’s was a reach. I think he will have a short career and in 5 years they will wish they had gone a different direction. I think he will help against the run heavy teams like Panthers and Falcons in his division, but Drew Brees will exploit him.

Bills – Stephon Gilmore(CB) – The Bills have completely revamped their defense in basically one calendar year, they have a solid front seven with Mario Willams, Mark Anderson, Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Kelvin Sheppard and adding Gilmore to McKelvin and George Wilson will definitely give them a better chance to slow down the Patriots aerial attack and his size should help him against the run heavy teams like the Jets and Dolphins. I am not a big fan of Gilmore’s cover skills, and he is one of those guys who shot up draft boards AFTER the college season, which means that people became enamored with his measurables. His film was average in my opinion and the Bills should have gone either offensive line (DeCastro or Martin) or gone with the best wide receiver in the draft in Michael Floyd. Both options would have upgrade their offense and helped out quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, which should have been their top priority.

Panthers – Luke Kuechly(ILB) – Another team that could have gone in numerous directions, they might wish they had taken Floyd to give Cam Newton a weapon to grow with as Steve Smith is near the end of his career. The Panthers are weak in the middle of their defense, starting with Defensive Tackle and continuing on through MLB and Safety. Obviously there was no safety in this draft worthy of a Top 10 pick (even Barron) and I can’t argue with taking Kuechly over Cox. Kuechly is going to be a tremendous  linebacker in this league, I think we will look at him as a slightly weaker hitter but far superior in coverage in 10 years. He can play in any scheme, and would be one of the top MLB’s in any one (I think he would be excellent playing Urlacher’s position in a Cover-2 scheme). The Panthers have found the leader of their defense for years to come, he will work hard, make everybody else work harder, call the plays and get the defense lined up; all while making plays and earning All-Pro nods.

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Fine NFL, You want to cut 2 Preseason games, then do this!

I am going to attempt to justify keeping the standard 16 Regular Season Games + 4 Preseason Games format that the league currently uses.  I already addressed this briefly in a previous article, but I feel the need elaborate on it some more. One thing we know for sure though is that the NFL, its team owners and the players union (or association or whatever it is called now) care about one thing and one thing only, MONEY!  I do not blame them for being as greedy as they are, but I feel that if they shorten the preseason, even if they lengthen the regular season, the quality of the product consumed by the fans will be diminished.  The NFL needs the preseason to sort out which players are capable of playing under the lights and pressure during the regular season, to find out which guys are just scout team superstars and which ones can contribute on Sundays.  Since it appears fairly obvious that the NFL is going to have to cut the preseason down by half (4 games down to 2) I have found a way for them to do this and at the same time increase the quality of the product on Sunday's,  create more jobs at all levels of the organization, and most importantly (to the league, owners, and players) increase the revenue.

As previously stated, the main reason why the NFL needs the preseason is to see which players can perform in game situations and potentially contribute if called up on Sundays.  If you are an NFL player that was not drafted in the top rounds of the NFL draft, the only way that you get to show that you can play in the league is during the preseason.  During the regular season, if you are on the 8 man practice squad, and not part of the 53 man active roster you only get a chance to shine running the opposing teams offense and defense during practice while going against 1st and 2nd stringers that typically run half speed in practice, and on game days the practice squad does not even suit up, they spend the games watching in street clothes on the sideline, or if it's an away game they usually watch them at home like you and me.  Even if you do make the 53 active man roster you may only have a chance to show what you can do on a few special teams plays during the game, if you are not a starter or part of the regular rotation.  Your only true chance to shine may be because someone gets injured.  I think that there are a lot of guys that can play in the league, and play well, they just never get a chance to show it because of limited opportunities.  As a fan I enjoy the preseason games for 2 reasons: #1 because it's football, and #2 because I like trying to see if I can pick out a player that I might want to keep on tabs for fantasy football or mainly to see if I can spot the next guy that will make an impact in the league.  So how does the NFL solve these problems?  How do they cut the number of preseason games, improve the quality of the product on Sundays (and Thursdays and Mondays), while increasing revenue and keeping the regular season at 16 games?  Here is how....

#1 - They sell their NFL Network Thursday night slate of games to one of the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, or ESPN).  From what I have read the league could easily create an extra $350 million in revenue by doing this.  This would not only increase profits, but allow for extra broadcast space for idea #2.

#2 - They purchase the UFL, the struggling football league that for the past couple of years has been trying to be a haven for guys who are either a few years removed from contributing to an NFL team, guys that are not even good enough to make the practice squad, or guys that may have been overlooked.  This would essentially be the NFL's version of minor league (I know they have their own free farm system called the NCAA but you cannot "call" players up from college on a need basis).  By purchasing this league the NFL could relegate their practice squad or scout team players to the UFL where they would be on 1 of 5 UFL teams (and they can add or subtract as they see fit) and teams can call up the players they sent down there whenever they want to, and put them back down there whenever they want.  And if the Dolphins wanted to pull a player that the Cardinals sent down to the minor league than the Dolphins would have to keep them on their active roster the rest of the season, and if the Dolphins place a "tender" on the player than the Dolphins have to give up certain draft picks, cash, etc.  The main benefit of this "minor league" to the players would be:  speed up the development of players by getting them live reps at full speed, create more jobs for players, and it would keep players in game shape by getting them live action.

The league would broadcast the UFL games on NFL Network so fans like myself could scout players that potentially could help out a team, and coaches would be able to see how the players react in game type situations at full speed.  These games would be played during the regular NFL season, and while details still need to be worked out, I imagine a system where a player spends half their time with their respective team and the other half with the minor league team.  The minor league teams would basically run simple vanilla offenses and defenses so that we are not giving the minor leaguers to much conflicting information, but the systems would allow them to call audibles and adjust coverages.   The ad revenue and stadium revenue would be split equally among the NFL teams, and this would create more jobs for NFL players, referees (almost like training), coaches, stadium personnel, network jobs (NFL Network broadcasting them and ESPN and other sports entities that would report and evaluate it), etc.  I do not see a downside to this, and I believe it would be very profitable. 

Now I know what you are thinking, "the NFL already tried this with NFL Europe and it failed".  This would be nothing like that, this would be American football, in American cities, where we know football is popular.  Fans would watch these games, maybe not on as regular a basis as the games that count, but they would always be looking for the next Tony Romo playing on the Florida Tuskers.  It would be a fan and family friendly venue that would be much more affordable then NFL games currently are.  I mean we already know that the most popular player in an NFL town is the backup QB.  Now think of the debate this would cause if a team like the Seahawks are struggling with either Matt Hasselbeck or Charlie Whitehurst at QB, but their 2nd round draft pick Jake Locker is setting the minor league football world on fire!  All of a sudden you would have every fan of every team with a poorly performing QB watching the minor league games that Locker is playing in, and writing their teams website and local newspaper, calling into talk radio, shouting at the top of their lungs that "X" team needs to steal Jake Locker right now and replace their current QB.  And hypothetically Jake Locker would be exclusive property of the Seahawks for 1-2 years possibly, or even 1/2 of the season, and if another team wanted to pick him up then they would have to give up two 1st round picks as compensation (or something of value to an NFL team).  Man the possibilities of this are endless!!

I am going to cut this off right here, I think I will follow up on this at a later date with a more detailed plan of how this could and should work.  To be honest the more I think about this, the better I feel that this idea really is.  The development of players would be increased 10X, the amount of jobs that would be created at all levels are enormous, the interest and debate this would cause amongst football fans, talk show hosts, newspaper writers, bloggers, tweeters, etc is ENDLESS!!  And the reason why the NFL should consider it, is because the additional revenue this would create for all sides is limited only by their creativity. The downside to this?  I just thought of it, and now they would have to give me a cut of it.....