It All Starts Now!
My own personal holiday is fast approaching and I’d like to share a few thoughts with you, my friends. Its April now, the month of the NFL draft. Cue the orchestral music.
The off-season has proceeded along as its supposed to: Senior Bowl, Combine, Pro Days, Free Agency, and the Owner’s Meeting. The later of which is wrapping up with week in Palm Beach, Florida. It is with the closing of that meeting that the most important aspect of draft preparation begins. The stacking of the boards, that is by the professionals, the front offices.
It’s from here on out that scouts, coaches, and general managers will spend nearly endless hours pouring over tape, arguing over potential vs. production, and avoiding sunlight at their own professional peril. The hope is that the isolation from the outside media hype machine of certain prospects can uncover the true diamonds in the rough. It’s in this final process that the draft will truly take hold.
Up until this point, its been Mel Kiper, $10.99 magazines, draft websites, and the average draftniks (like me) hitting every blog and message board on the internet to proclaim how their hero is destined to be a first round pick. Well, its April now, and its time for the cream to rise to the top. The hype may roll on outdoors here in the real and virtual worlds, but it’s the goings-on in those front offices that certainly will have some team’s fans standing table top on April 22nd, wondering what happened.
How many of us really thought that it wouldn’t be Reggie Bush drafted No. 1 overall instead of Super Mario? How could the Dolphins draft Ted Ginn with the 9th overall pick? The reason such seeming anarchy happens on draft day is because what’s going on in the media world is not necessarily what’s going on behind the doors the NFL teams. This final valuation stage will have front offices looking at their own individual needs, what players are available at the premier positions, who are the top-flight athletes, and of course, following the perennially changing trend of how to building your team (nearly always the result of how the Super Bowl team won it all).
Now, some of these questions have too many answers. But, the premier positions, though open to some debate are Left Tackle, Quarterback, Right Defensive End, and Cornerback. Those are the positions that teams will focusing on because their importance to production is so much higher. As far as the trend to building your Super Bowl team? Well, after the Bears Super Bowl, it was all about building a two running back system, and getting a ridiculous kick return specialist. So everyone ran out and got themselves two backs to spell each other, and Tedd Gin made a ton of money off of Devin Hester’s production. This year, you can expect an early run on pass rushers as team salivate over the destruction that the Giants laid on the supposedly infallible Patriots.
So, expect the final draft order to be considerably different from what you’re thinking right now. The true prospect evaluation period is just now beginning. Don’t be surprised to see some of the bulletproof prospects that you’ve been hearing about, take a tumble. Will a right tackle prospect (Jake Long) be chosen ahead of a premier left tackle prospect (Ryan Clady), maybe not. Will Darren McFadden, a 4.33 40 running back with thin legs and a penchant for off field trouble, get a taste of top 5 money? Maybe not. Will Brian Brohm, who had his best college career in 2007 really fall into the second round after being considered for a top 5 pick last year? Maybe not.