Anti NFL Draft Thoughts

It’s the day before the NFL draft, and I’m thinking the following…

…this has been covered pretty much everywhere, including here, and yet still it can’t be mentioned enough: The NFL not only needs, they HAVE TO restructure the rookie salary scale for the first 7 picks. The NFL is the one league where drafted players are ready to step in and help right away (except QB’s, which we’ve covered), and yet the teams who so badly need the top players don’t want them because the cost too much. Does that make any sense? No, no it does not. I wonder how this hasn’t been rectified much earlier? I mean, other than 6 or 7 college draftees who have proven NOTHING, who does this system benefit? Why would the Players Association be so in favor of this in the past when again, IT ONLY BENEFITS 6 OR 7 PLAYERS WHO HAVE PROVEN NOTHING!?!?!?!? It’s just ridiculous and it needs to change.

…I don’t believe a single word any team says about who they’re drafting. Not one word. I feel bad for football reporters right now, because they’re trying to give us the readers nuggets and tidbits and insight when really? There’s none to give. Teams use these reporters to feed misinformation to the rest of the league, and that’s really it. Peter King is one of the best (maybe the best?) NFL reporter today, and yet he does the same thing in his column today.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/04/24/draft/index.html?eref=T1

He begins by saying “The Patriots are Fort Knox on draft weekend -- and, for that matter, on every weekend. Remember last year? New England traded down from seven to 10 in the first round and got the object of its affection, Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo, and no one ever knew Mayo was their man.”

Ok fine, yet he then says that two teams have told him that the Patriots are reportedly trying to move up to grab the 8th or 9th pick. Um, if the Patriots are Fort Knox and nobody last year had any idea they were moving up to get Mayo until after it happened, and nobody had any idea they were trading Matt Cassell to the Chiefs until after it happened WHY WOULD THEY MAKE IT KNOWN THEY TRADING UP?!?!?!? They have a history of doing deals quietly, so wouldn’t reason state that if they really WERE moving up, they wouldn’t have trade discussions until draft day? I’m not sayin’ I’m just sayin’

…All we know for sure right now is that two teams will make dumb picks, and one will make a smart one: the Lions will take Matthew Stafford (dumb), the Rams will take Jason Smith (smart), and the Raiders will take somebody who makes no sense whatsoever and who nobody had ranked in the Top 10 (this is what happens when your team is run by a senile old man in a track suit who still thinks it’s 1974). Otherwise? Your guess is as good as mine- or any of the “draft experts”.

…The only value of said so-called draft “experts” is to tell us who they like and don’t like. Do they like Matthew Stafford more than Marc Sanchez? Jason Smith more than Andre Smith? Any of the USC linebackers? Any receiver not named Michael Crabtree? Those are opinions I appreciate.

…I don’t care if Florida WR Percy Harvin was dumb enough to smoke pot knowing he’d have to take a drug test, I want the Vikes to take him if he’s there at 22. There, I said it. If Harvin’s not, I honestly have no clue. Take a WR or an offensive tackle. There should be a good one available.

…Non draft related but still sorta draft related- new Browns coach Eric Mangini is not enamored with QB Brady Quinn. If I’m the Vikings, I’m on the phone NOW and offer a 2nd round pick, and maybe a 3rd or a 4th. Or another pick next year? I wouldn’t give up this year’s #1, but I’d give up a 2 or later or a combo platter of 2 or later picks to get Quinn, who has had two years to learn in the NFL and is ready to go. Of course, because I’m not the Vikings, I actually think they desperately need a quarterback, so you know, it’ll never happen. Oh well. Watch Quinn get traded somewhere else and do well. Don’t say I didn’t tell you because I just did.