NFL Draft

We love the NFL Daft. Always have. Our fondest memory was the 1986 draft, when we were a senior in high school. Back then our town did not yet have cable (and wouldn't for another four years). However, Our Parents belonged to the "tennis club" -- which did have cable. Our Dad suggested that the two of us go and watch the draft and see who the Eagles selected with their first pick (the 9th pick overall). There was great excitement around the Eagles because Buddy Ryan had just become their new head coach. Back then the draft was a one day event. And get this -- it was held on a Wednesday morning. So we were at the tennis club by 8 AM to watch Pete Rozelle start the draft. The Bucs selected first and took ... wait for it ... Bo Jackson. The Eagles ended up taking bruising running back Keith Byars from Ohio State. In the second round they took Texas A&M fullback Anthony Toney. (After the draft, Buddy boasted: "Let's see the Giants try to blitz us now.")

Now the draft has, of course, gone Big Time. We understand putting it in prime time at 8 PM, but couldn't they do it on Friday night?!? That way kids like The Playmaker could stay up late and watch the first round. As it is now, we will let him stay up 'til 9 PM (which will get him to about pick #6) before making him go to bed. We will DVR it and watch the entire first round on Saturday (after his 9 AM baseball game).

A few randoms:

1. Cam Newton will be an NFL bust! Not a total washout, but a bust in terms of being the top pick overall. He is the next Vince Young. Like VY, he dominated at the college level because he was a physical freak. He outran DBs. And he ran over linebackers and linemen. In the NFL, DBs will track him down and linemen and 'backers will concuss him if he's dumb enough to try to bowl them over. Our first glimpse of Newton was late last September. He threw the ball something like 7 times the whole game. Every third and long resulted in Auburn running a quarterback draw. Every pass was a telegraphed-wobbly-duck. He had no passing skills at all. Sure he got better over the course of the grueling SEC season, but at best he will be a mediocre thrower in the pros. More than that, though, are the intangibles. The guy seems like a total phony. His smile is too fake. His teeth are too white. He's too well dressed. It all seems like he's the creation of a public relations firm. And did you watch him on ESPN at Jon Gruden's QB Camp?!? Gruden asked him to call a play from the Auburn playbook. And get this. NEWTON COULDN'T DO IT!!!!!! He said their plays all had numbers. Like play 6. Play 52. Etc. Great. And now you expect him to digest an NFL playbook?!? That's frigging classic. Cam Newton will be an NFL bust. He will NEVER even come close to being a GOOD quarterback.

The Eagles! The Birds should pick one or two offensive linemen and then spend every pick on the defensive side of the ball. Of course, Andy Reid is a total Draft Dolt. So he'll take more offensive linemen then he needs. He'll take a running he ends up cutting before the season. And it's a given he'll take an undersized defensive linemen that no one else likes and he'll talk about the kid having a "great motor." And there's a good chance they'll trade down in the draft because owner Jeff Laurie is a cheap bastard. The one hope is that Adam Schefter is right when he says the Eagles may move up to the #5 spot. If so, we can only hope they take Patrick Peterson of LSU.

Speaking of which! Peterson is the top player in the draft. He's the best punt returner. The best kick returner. The best corner. And the best safety. No one outside of The Bayou watched more LSU football the last three years than we did. This kid will be an instant All-Pro.

The Patriots! Sports Illustrated has New England nailing Clemson pass rushing beast Da’Quan Bowers at number 17 and Heisman running back Mark Ingram at 28. His bad knee not withstanding, getting Bowers at #17 would be an A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E steal. And while we love Ingram, do they really need him?!? Woodhead. BJGE, Faulk. Is Faulk done as a Pat?!? If so, then Ingram makes sense -- with Woodhead taking over Faulk's 3rd down role.

Von Miller! We saw him play a ton in the Big 12. We always viewed him as a nice college player. But honestly, we NEVER viewed him as a top 10 pick. He was undersized in college and seemed to only be interested in taking an outside rush to get the QB. We read one report today that said he will be made into a SAM linebacker. That's damn near the dumbest thing we've heard in the history of the world. Miller is a lot of things. But a strong side linebacker ain't one of 'em.

Ryan Mallett! Wow. The stories being floated about this kid are downright scary. The strongest rumor we read was about him allegedly being a drug addict. Yikes. Beyond that, we think he just plain sucks. We NEVER saw him do a damn thing of significance at Arkansas (or Michigan before he transferred). He's too tall and too uncoordinated to be a good NFL QB.

Then again, we'd certainly take him over Cam Newton.