One of the many reasons why the Browns hired Mike Holmgren to help turn around their franchise was because he knows the quarterback position. He knows what kind of player it takes to run his offense and he understands value when it comes to spotting players in the draft.
Take Texas quarterback Colt McCoy for example. He has enough talent to have been selected anywhere in the second round, yet he fell all the way to the 85th overall pick in the third. The Browns could have selected him at the top of the second, but Holmgren gambled that McCoy would fall and that’s exactly what happened. Not only did the Browns get great value, but they also took the best player on the board and one that fits their system well.
McCoy isn’t an elite prospect, which is probably why he fell all the way to the third round. He doesn’t have a strong arm, isn’t a real big kid and he was exposed by Ndamukong Suh in the Big 12 Championship Game. But he’s the perfect fit for the West Coast Offense because he reads defenses well, is extremely accurate and makes good decisions.
To be honest, I would have liked McCoy to the Browns at No. 38. So for them to land him at No. 85 represents tremendous value. Again, he’s not an elite prospect, but that could work to his advantage. He has no pressure to start with Seneca Wallace and Jake Delawful ahead of him, so he can learn the offense and mature at a natural pace. Plus, Cleveland fans should love him. He’s a great kid, a hard worker and a winner.
Many pundits thought that Clausen would be long gone by the 48th overall pick, yet there he was, prime for the taking when the Carolina Panthers were on the clock in the second round. Despite the need for a wide receiver, the Panthers saw value in Clausen, who might be the most NFL-ready quarterback in this draft.
Rumor has it that Clausen’s toe injury scared teams away. There’s also concern over his attitude and leadership abilities, but no matter how you slice it, he shouldn’t have fallen as far as he did. He has decent arm strength, good decision-making and is a fairly accurate signal caller. The Panthers got great value for a player that might turn out to be their franchise quarterback.
While Matt Moore is still expected to be Carolina’s Week 1 starter, Clausen will likely push for the job in preseason. Even if Moore wins the job, Clausen could see time if Moore struggles.
I’ve given it a day. I’ve tried to see it from their point of view and play devil’s advocate. I’ve allowed things to sink in and tried to look at the decision from a couple of different angles.
It didn’t help. I still have no idea what the hell the Broncos were thinking when they traded three picks in order to draft Tim Tebow with the 25th overall pick in Thursday night’s first round.
Make no mistake: the Broncos drafted Tebow to be their starting quarterback of the future, despite the fact that they traded for Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn in each of the last two offseasons. They want him to eventually become their No. 1 guy and considering what they gave up for him, he better pan out as a quarterback or else the words “epic failure” will come to mind when this trade is reviewed in the future.
Regardless of whether or not you believe Tebow can be a NFL quarterback is irreverent. The Broncos gave up three draft picks (a second, a third and a fourth) in order to select him where they did, meaning they gave up three potential starters for the former Heisman winner. Teams don’t give up that kind of compensation and deem the trade a success unless that player turns out to be special. That means if Tebow turns out to be an H-back or a Wild Card specialist, then Denver wasted three picks on a role player.
This is the guy that people often refer to as the greatest defender to have ever played the game. And somehow, I’m fine with that in the wake of this clip.
Even though the Lions and Titans have dropped out of the running, the Redskins remain open to trading Albert Haynesworth and according to Jason Reid of the Washington Post, the Saints have inquired about the defensive tackle.
The Saints have the No. 64 overall pick and it would take at least that selection and possibly one more to acquire Haynesworth from Washington. That said, he has already voiced his displeasure over playing nose tackle in the Redskins’ new 3-4 alignment and the team recently acquired Adam Carriker from the Rams. Thus, maybe the Skins would be willing to take less value for Haynesworth, even though they just forked over $21 million in bonuses earlier this month.
While neither played poorly, the Saints didn’t get a lot of production out of either Tony Hargrove or Sedrick Ellis last season. Ellis is the better pass-rusher while Hargrove is sounder against the run, but neither is the player Haynesworth is. He would instantly upgrade the interior of the Saints’ defensive line and would cause panic for contenders in the NFC that already have a hard enough time keeping up with New Orleans’ potent offense.
I’ll admit – I was skeptical, even down right venomous about the NFL’s draft format. I hated it. I thought, “How stupid is it to turn the draft into a Thursday night prime time special? For the love of Pete Rozelle, this isn’t “Dancing with the Stars.”
But I was wrong – the new format actually works.
An hour into the draft last night, teams were already picking in the middle of the first round. Normally an hour into the draft, the first six or seven picks haven’t even been announced yet. In previous years, I have often felt like I had just got done running a marathon after the first round, instead of witnessing an exciting event. But this year has changed much of that.
While the new format doesn’t come without its flaws (how was it to be a Bears, Panthers or Vikings fan last night and not see one pick?), it’s hard to argue that it isn’t better for the causal fan. (Or even the diehard draft fan, for that matter.) The selections were made faster, the trades were more exciting and the coverage was tighter. (I don’t need to hear 10 different former athletes or coaches talk about players that they clearly know nothing about, when Todd McShay, Mel Kiper and Mike Mayock are more than enough.)
The nice thing about all of this (which is something I hated when the new format was announced) is that there is still a lot of action remaining for true NFL draft fans. It’s exciting knowing that there are two more rounds tonight and four more on Saturday. It’s fun getting caught up in a new batch of rumors and allowing the hype of the second round build up. If you’re a draft nut like myself, think of another time when the second and third round was more exciting than this year.
My only gripe is that our great troops don’t have the opportunity to watch the draft without having to wake up in the middle of the night. I know at least one diehard draft fan that got up at 1:30 a.m. yesterday morning just to see what his Lions would do at No. 2. Maybe next year he can watch the draft with us again from the comforts of his own couch. (Best of luck Jon – we thank you for all that you do.)
In no other year has the No. 33 pick held so much value than it does in the 2010 NFL Draft. That’s because general managers will have nearly 24 hours to think about how the player they covet is still on the board and there for the taking.
In the NFL’s new draft format, the second round will take place tonight at 6:30PM ET. Normally, the first and second rounds are back-to-back, leaving teams little time to wheel and deal at the top of the second round. But thanks to the lapse in between the first two rounds, the Rams have probably been fielding calls for the past two days about the No. 33 overall pick.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the Bills and Browns have contacted the Rams about trading up to the top spot in the second round. Buffalo has its eyes set on Jimmy Clausen, while Cleveland wants Colt McCoy. Both teams are probably desperate, seeing as how they want to get ahead of Kansas City at No. 36. That’s great news for St. Louis, which can leverage their pick, pit the Browns and Bills against each other and not fall back too far in the second round. (Cleveland has the No. 38 pick, while Buffalo has No. 41.)
Of course, if the Rams don’t trade the pick, they’ll have some pressure on their shoulders to nab an eventual starter. After all, somebody wants that pick and if St. Louis doesn’t parlay it into extra selections, then it better land a damn good player.
Imagine you’re USC safety Taylor Mays on Thursday night, sitting patiently by the phone waiting for a team to call to tell you that you’re headed to the NFL.
But the phone never rings. Then you watch as two safeties (Eric Berry and Earl Thomas) are selected in the top 15, one of which (Thomas) by your former coach at USC, Pete Carroll.
Granted, Thomas was a better prospect than Mays and would have gone ahead of him in most scenarios. Plus, had Seattle taken Mays at 14 it would have been viewed as a major reach. But it nevertheless must be unsettling that the man that scouted Mays at SC decided to go with a Longhorn when it came time to address his needs in the secondary.
A year ago, Mays was considered a top-10 prospect. But scouts knocked him for not making big plays last season and then flat out ignored the fact that he ran a sub-4.4 40 at the Combine. He’s tough as nails, durable and has a ton of experience versus elite completion.
So what’s the problem then?
The problem is that teams don’t know whether or not he’s a safety or a linebacker. He’s brutal in coverage, doesn’t play the ball well and takes bad angles. Those aren’t exactly great qualities to have in a safety – even a strong safety that would likely play close to the line of scrimmage. Plus, he’s not the most reliable tackler, so even as a linebacker he has some major question marks as well.
That said, Mays is an all-around solid football player and as previously mentioned, he was once viewed as a top 10 pick. He knows how to play the game and if he gets in the right system (Chicago, Minnesota, San Francisco, Cleveland), then he might wind up being a steal in the second round. (Although the Bears would have to trade up for him or hope he falls to the third because they don’t have a second rounder.)
The buzz heading into Round 2 of the NFL draft seems to be centered around the Chiefs possibly moving up to take Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis will spend tonight trying to convince the rest of Kansas City’s staff to take his former QB when the draft resumes at 6:30PM ET.
This news might be surprising to some, seeing as how the Chiefs committed a six-year, $63 million contract to Matt Cassel last season. But the feeling in Kansas City is that 2010 will be a make or break season for the 27-year-old Cassel, who struggled running Todd Haley’s offense last year.
Weis had a fair amount of success (at least statistically) with Clausen at Notre Dame, as the QB racked up 3,722 yards, 28 touchdowns and just four interceptions last season. If anything, Clausen could provide insurance in case Cassel struggles again.
The problem, however, is that GM Scott Pioli has already stated that the Chiefs aren’t in the market for a quarterback. And when the team is on the clock in the second round, it’ll be Pioli and not Weis that makes the final decision. Plus, let’s not forget that it was Pioli that orchestrated the trade to acquire Cassel from New England, so he’s going to give the former Patriot every opportunity to succeed before throwing another quarterback into the mix.
Schefter is always reliable with his information, so we’ll see what transpires tonight when Kansas City is on the clock.
That’ll do it – the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft is in the books. All in all, even the most die-hard draft fans would have to admit that the move to prime time was a success. The action was quicker, the coverage was tighter and the event was interesting throughout. I was skeptical about the new format at first, but I admit tonight was entertaining.
Below is a recap of the first round, including head-scratching moves, valuable picks and more. I also preview the second round by listing my top 5 players that are still available.
Head-Scratcher: Broncos trade three picks for Tim Tebow.
Tebow fans will certainly criticize me for this, but this was the worst draft-day trade I’ve seen in recent memory. Inexcusably, the Broncos parted with a second, a third and a fourth round selection to trade up to the 25th overall pick to take Tebow, who may or may not wind up being a quarterback at the next level. He’s the ultimate developmental project, so hopefully Denver is willing to wait three-plus years while he works on his throwing motion, his footwork and his release. And here’s the thing: if he doesn’t become a quarterback, then how bad does this trade wind up looking? Let’s say he becomes an H-back or is only used in the Wildcat, then the Broncos just traded three picks for a role player. Think about that for a second. There’s a good chance that Denver was afraid of someone else taking Tebow before they had the chance to select him in the second round. (Buffalo was apparently trying to move up as well.) But three picks in exchange for one of the biggest risks in the draft? Don’t get me wrong – Tebow is a pure football player, a winner and a worker. There’s something about him that makes you want to throw conventional wisdom out the window and predict success for him. But I can’t justify what the Broncos gave up here. It just doesn’t make sense.
