Month: April 2008 (Page 5 of 30)

Unsurprisingly, Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe thinks the Atlanta Falcons – a franchise in dire need of a makeover – got it right with the third overall pick by selecting former Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan.

The kid gets it. You can be very sure he’s been paying attention to what’s been going on in Foxborough during his five years in Boston. He has had the perfect role model for a young quarterback, not just because of Tom Brady’s obvious talent, but because of Brady’s unerring instincts inside both the locker room and the huddle.

Atlanta had the most complex needs of any team in the draft. Matt Ryan may not have been the best player available. But he was surely the right pick.

Terrence Moore of the AJC doesn’t disagree with Bob Ryan, but he isn’t sold on Matt Ryan being the answer, either.

Second, if you go by logic when it comes to trying to change the momentum of a reeling franchise, the Falcons just blew it, especially with the extraordinary Glenn Dorsey sitting there on the draft board as the defensive tackle that they really need. That’s because they don’t have any defensive tackles worth mentioning. Not only that, franchises such as the Falcons with offensively and defensively impaired lines should start by building those lines.

With all of those picks for the Falcons (11 overall, including four among the top 48 to start the day), they could have selected Dorsey at No. 3 and taken a chance later in the draft on John David Booty, Chad Henne or Andre’ Woodson becoming their Tom Brady. After all, those quarterbacks aren’t that much more of an NFL gamble than the one they got.

Moore has a point that the Falcons should have taken Dorsey at No. 3, but he’s incredibly off about why. The Falcons didn’t need Dorsey because they don’t have any DT’s worth mentioning (they don’t have any QBs worth mentioning either, Terrence). They should have taken Dorsey because he was the best defender in the draft and they could have gotten a decent risk like Brian Brohm in the second, without giving up two second round picks to land him. (I’m flabbergasted Moore didn’t mention Brohm in his article, but he mentioned Henne and Woodson. Yikes.)

Sporting News.com’s Dennis Dillon thinks the Rams’ choice of defensive end Chris Long was the absolutely right decision over LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.

But in the end, the Rams said it was a slam-dunk. A no-brainer. No difference of opinion at all. And so they selected Long with the No 2. overall pick in the NFL draft.

It was a smart choice. And it was the right choice.

Dorsey is a solid tackle who could become a force in the middle for the Chiefs, who took him with the fifth pick. But Long satisfied a bigger, more immediate need for the Rams: an outside pass rusher who can also stop the run.

“At the end of the day, Chris was really what the doctor ordered,” said coach Scott Linehan.

And boy does St. Louis need an RX for its anemic pass rush. Of their 31 sacks in 2007, ends accounted for only five, including a total of three and a half from starters James Hall (two and a half) and Leonard Little (one).

Dorsey would have been an outstanding pick for the Rams too, but something that shouldn’t be overlooked is that with the selection of Long, the team now can keep 2007 first round pick Adam Carriker at defensive tackle, instead of moving him back outside (he played DE in college) to make room for Dorsey. Plus Long appears to be a great kid and if he’s anything like his father, he’s going to have a very long, productive NFL career.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr

Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald followed around Dolphins’ No. 1 pick Jake Long on draft day and it was quite the experience. The question is – is Long ready to help turn around a sinking ship in Miami?

Can Long play? No one knows. I don’t know. You don’t know. Mel Kiper doesn’t know. And Parcells doesn’t know. Rare is the business that spends this much money on something this inexact and unscientific. Long may be bust Robert Gallery or Hall of Famer Johathan Ogden or something in between. There is nothing in sports that has this kind of disparity between how little we know and how much we talk about it. You won’t know if what the Dolphins did Saturday is good or bad for a very long time. Years, maybe. There is nothing guaranteed except Long’s $30 million.

All you can do is hope.

Those six words are what Saturday’s big party was all about.

Actually, that’s five words to many.

All you need is the last one.

Hope, for a betrayed and hostile fan base, is the beginning of the bridge back from sickness to health.

LeBatard is right – no one knows if Long can play in the NFL. Nobody really knows if any of these prospects can play in the NFL. But the Dolphins did make a solid, safe pick and they invested a ton of money (and eventually time) in a young man that’s worth it in my opinion. He’s got a great work ethic and excellent character – he should become a pretty damn good player, too.

One of the more quiet selections towards the end of the second round was the Packers’ pick of Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm. Are the Packers unsettled about Aaron Rodgers being Brett Favre’s replacement?

He’s a great West Coast offense fit because of his smarts, touch, and accuracy. While he doesn’t jump out physically, Brohm fell too far due to system concerns. Aaron Rodgers will be the unquestioned starter this year, but a QB controversy is not far away. It’s a good problem to have and smart to have depth with Rodgers’ durability questions. Keep in mind that Mike McCarthy was not around when Rodgers was drafted.

My thoughts on why the Pack decided to take Brohm in the second (in no particular order):

1. The Packers have absolutely nothing behind Rodgers, so bringing in Brohm will foster competition at the quarterback position and will essentially push Rodgers to have to earn the job in preseason. Sure, Rodgers will be the unquestioned starter, but he’ll now have to earn it.

2. The Packers don’t have a ton of pressing needs and Brohm was arguably the best player left on the board.

3. Here’s the biggie: Outside of a decent relief appearance in Dallas last year, Rodgers has not shown that he can be a caliber starting quarterback. He’s struggled mightily in preseason opportunities and the general consensus seems to be that the Packers aren’t thrilled with his development.

Obviously it’s way too early to tell, but there’s a chance that we’ll look back at this draft and comment how Brohm was the best quarterback in this class. And he was the third signal caller to come off the board.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr

Don Banks of SI.com shared his snap judgments from Day 1 of the NFL draft.

• Long live Goodell. The first two rounds of the draft flew by on Saturday, and we’ve got the Commish to thank for that with his new edict for up-tempo picking. Last year’s record first round took an agonizing six hours and four minutes, while the first two rounds this year were done in just 5:50.

Somehow, some way, NFL teams conducted their business more quickly, and the union still managed to survive. Praise be.

• If there was a position that got over-picked, it was offensive tackle, where a whopping eight players went, led by No. 1 overall selection Jake Long of Michigan. Five of the first 17 picks were tackles, counting Albert, the Virginia guard, who was taken by Kansas City and is projected as a left tackle in the NFL.

Nobody I talked to had any quibbles about the first six tackles taken, but many eyebrows were raised around the league by Atlanta trading back into the round at No. 21 with Washington to select USC’s Baker, who was seen as a second-round pick. Even more surprising was Houston taking Virginia Tech’s Brown with the 26th pick that once belonged to both Jacksonville and Baltimore on Saturday.

“Both of those guys, Baker and Brown, they’re not first-round picks,” a league scout told me. “They were second-round tackles. I was shocked by how quickly all those offensive tackles came off the board. I think once Gosder Cherilus went (to Detroit at No. 17), I think some teams panicked and overpaid for a tackle.”

Two excellent points. With the shorten time, Day 1 seemed to have a better pace and was more enjoyable (at least from a fans’ perspective). The shorten time between picks obviously didn’t keep teams from trading, either, which is big because how teams maneuver on draft day is a huge part of the event.

As far as the offensive tackles are concerned, I thought teams reached big time. The trade the Falcons made to get back into the first round and select Sam Baker was ridiculous. But then again, if these tackles pan out, it doesn’t matter how teams got them on draft day – the thing that matters is that they got them.