USC Draft Tracker: Five Selections on Day One

Two rounds of the 2009 NFL draft are now complete. It was a day that featured some surprises and head-scratchers, but most projections were accurate or at least close to being so.

The University of Southern California delivered another four players to NFL rosters, including three first-round selections to increase their record total to 74.

And though the program flirted with history, they failed to set a new mark, with only two of three linebackers going in the first round.

 

THE 12-STEP PROGRAM FOR QUARTERBACK SELECTION

It was rumored that the Jets had interest in drafting quarterback Mark Sanchez, but it didn’t appear possible without him falling or the Jets surrendering a wealth of picks and personnel to jump into the upper portion of the order.

New York achieved the latter, using the Cleveland Browns as a trade partner to nab their franchise quarterback with selection No. 5.

To take the necessary 12 steps, the Jets handed the Browns the 17th pick of the first round, their 52nd selection in the second round, quarterback Brett Ratliff, defensive end Kenyon Coleman, and safety Abram Elam.

In essence, it’s a 5-for-1 trade, which will likely add to the Big Apple’s expectations for immediate success.

The New York press is known to be brutal, but if I had to choose one quarterback in this class best suited to handle a pressure cooker, Sanchez would be my man.

 

THE LONE STAR STATE ADDS ANOTHER

It was no secret that the Houston Texans were going to select a linebacker with the 15th overall pick, and Brian Cushing became their man.

The selection completes a long journey for the Cushing family, as a New Jersey native is educated in Southern California, and will soon receive a paycheck in Texas.

With continuous rumors of steroid use flying, though he’s never failed a test, Cushing maintained his value and will now join the young talents of DeMeco Ryans and Mario Williams on a Texans defense that allowed 366 yards per game in 2008.

 

MAKING THE LAMBEAU LEAP

The incredible story of Clay Matthews’ rise from a walk-on at USC to a first round selection by the NFL is now complete. The Green Bay Packers traded up to fulfill their hybrid need.

With Dom Capers joining the coaching staff, the Pack will switch to a 3-4, and used their ninth selection of the first round to acquire Boston College’s B.J. Raji, a nose tackle for the scheme.

They then moved back into the first round, at No. 26, adding Matthews as his support. Matthews can play any of the four linebacker positions, but will likely compete for an outside spot.

In the trade, the Packers sent New England the 41st pick of the second round, and the 73rd and 83rd picks of the third round.

 

REUNITED

Rey Maualuga’s draft slide showed evidence of the obvious concerns about his play in coverage. Two-down linebackers aren’t typically drafted in the first round, and USC’s man in the middle dropped to 38, where he was chosen by the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals’ selection reunites Maualuga with Keith Rivers, who was selected by Cincinnati in the first round of last year’s draft. The selection also places him on a roster with former Trojans Carson Palmer and Frostee Rucker.

 

MOALA GALLOPS INTO INDY

The Indianapolis Colts made the run stopping Fili Moala the 56th pick, in the second round. Stopping the run is something the franchise has struggled with, and personally, I think this is a steal.

Many of the early projections had Moala slotted for the first round, with some making him the first pick overall.

As the college season moved along, and the big defensive tackle faced double teams, his name faded from the list.

In time, Moala, like Maualuga, will make many GMs regret that their talents were passed over.

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Leroy Hill Now a Free Agent

The Seahawks drafted LB Aaron Curry from Wake Forrest fourth overall in the 2009 NFL Draft. A lot of people around the league were saying that adding Curry with Tatupu and Leroy Hill would be one of the best LB corps in the league.

That idea ended Saturday night when the Seahawks removed the Franchise tag from LB Leroy Hill. The move saves Seattle $8 million in cap room.

 

This happened because Seattle and Hill could not come to a long-term contract agreement. They offered Hill a six year 36 million dollar contract but he declined it. So now Leroy Hill is a unrestricted free agent and can now sign with any team.

I don’t see Hill getting more than five million because he hasn’t made any pro-bowls and was arrested for marijuana in Atlanta Georgia almost a month ago.

 

The Seahawks can still try and sign him. I think Seahawks fans should give it a few weeks and the Seahawks and Hill will come to an agreement. Otherwise this is a huge lose for the Seahawks. Now you just have Tatupu and Curry. That’s a great duo but having Hill makes it even better.

Shock and Awe: The Winners and Losers for Day 1 of the 2009 NFL Draft

It’s a little bit folly to declare winners and losers for a draft that isn’t even finished, much less a day old. Players haven’t even stepped onto an NFL field yet, and some may not pay off for several years to come, let alone this season.

Still, by the end of Saturday, it’s a worthwhile endeavor to examine some teams who have ended up looking smart and others….

Well, not so much.

So with the realization in mind that we still don’t know everything, here are the teams who made our jaws drop, though not always for good reasons.

 

The Shock

Oakland Raiders

Maybe Al Davis and his Raiders will prove us all wrong, but right now their draft can be summed up in an exchange I saw between Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times (where the Raiders once resided) and Raiders beat writer Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee (which is close to Oakland, I suppose).

Farmer: Why were the Raiders reaching like that in the second?

Jones: They reach because that’s what they do.

They weren’t going to go offensive tackle, despite the need, because that’s not really the Raiders way.

And I knew they weren’t going to grab Crabtree, whether or not he was the best wide receiver on the board at the time. Crabtree’s lack of timed 40 speed made it impossible, because Davis is crazy for speed like the bird in that cereal commercial is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

But I never thought he would bypass Missouri’s Jeremy Maclin, who had the speed and a more developed game? I’m a little nonplussed.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish Heyward-Bey a failed career, and he will probably turn out okay. But picking him up at No. 7, when they could have traded back and picked him late in the second?

That’s just not achieving maximum value.

Worse, the team manages to follow it up with an even bigger reach in choosing Ohio Safety Michael Mitchell, a guy most people didn’t even have ranked in their drafts, much less the second round.

Mitchell also may develop into a solid player, but right now he looks like a workout warrior and a huge reach as the third safety off the board behind Patrick Chung of Oregon and Louis Delmas of Western Michigan.

It’s one thing to fall in love with a player. It’s another to waste a pick five rounds early.

The Raiders have five picks on Sunday, two in the fourth round. They can recover, given the tremendous value still on the board, but if they keep picking like this, they might as well throw darts at a list on the wall.

Dallas Cowboys

How can I say it’s a bad draft when they didn’t draft anyone?

Bad enough the Cowboys didn’t have a pick for the first round due to last year’s wheeling and dealing, but they then traded out of the second.

Meanwhile, value continued to tumble by them in the form of solid safeties, wide receivers, and defensive ends.

Maybe it’s not bad in the sense the Raiders draft was on Saturday but it’s shocking to watch the usually wheeling Cowboys neutered and missing out on the value on the board.

Cleveland Browns

The Browns made a big move back when the Jets traded for the fifth pick and Mark Sanchez (more on that in a minute) and were poised to grab some great value all day long.

Instead, they kept moving backwards, accumulating more and more picks. And when they did spend them, it’s questionable whether they took the best value on the board.

I can’t argue with the selection of Alex Mack. The center from Cal is a versatile lineman who can work at almost any position along the line.

And Brian Robiskie is a polished, fast receiver who runs a solid route tree and will contribute early, especially if Braylon Edwards is traded on day two.

But the Browns can’t rush the passer and need a linebacker or top-flight defensive lineman.

I say need because while Mack is a great center, USC linebackers Clay Matthews and Rey Maualuga as well as Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitus were on the board still.

Maualuga was in fact still on the board when Robiskie was picked. While offensive line and wide receiver were needs, the pass rush was a bigger one and with several very good linebackers on the board, the Browns chose to fill less important needs.

They also bypassed shoring up their need at cornerback by letting Vontae Davis and Alphonso Smith sneak away as well.

And as much as I think Hawaii defensive end/linebacker convert David Veikune will be a good upside pick, wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi was a luxury, especially behind the Robiskie pick.

Massaquoi may become a good possession receiver down the road, but they could have grabbed a corner, safety or even replaced Kellen Winslow at tight end.

For a team with so many holes who is rebuilding, it seems like they filled few of them with four picks in the first two rounds.

The Browns have four more picks on Sunday: one in the fourth and three in the sixth. Lots of defensive talent remains on the board and I hope they can recover from a lackluster day one.

The Awe

New York Jets

Jet Nation is a tad split over the selection of USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, especially given the talent that slid out of the first round and through the second. But when you look at the price they paid, it’s more than reasonable for a possible franchise quarterback.

Defensive end Kenyon Coleman, quarterback Brett Ratliff, and safety Abram Elam were players who in all likelihood would get cut before camp or in Ratliff’s case, clearly hadn’t impressed the new regime all that much.

Aside from that, adding the second rounder to a swap that spanned 12 spots between first rounders is a marginal price to pay.

The Jets have put themselves in a position where they cannot make many mistakes on day two, though. They have four more picks on Sunday spread across four of the five rounds.

As I said with the Browns, there are many value picks to be had but the Jets have to be conservative to a great extent. They already rolled their dice once and that’s as much as they can risk.

Detroit Lions

I will openly admit, and it’s a shock to nobody who has read my work the last few months, that I do not agree with the Stafford pick. It’s not an awful pick, just not one I believe had to happen this year.

Yet, Stafford could develop into a nice franchise quarterback and he is far from awful. While I may not agree with the strategy to rebuild the franchise, it’s a solid pick.

On the surface, Brandon Pettigrew at 20 made me wince as well. But, like Stafford, Pettigrew is considered the best at his position and on top of it, he’s a tremendous blocker.

He’s no offensive tackle, but he will be able to stay in and protect Stafford. This is a pick that is more shrewd than I gave it credit for at first. As Stafford and the O-line get better, Pettigrew can release and become more of a pass catching tight end.

Finally, hard hitting cornerback Louis Delmas. Again, top at his position. And Delmas is the type of hard-nosed player who could help give this defense a personality, something it greatly lacks.

The Lions are looking to become more physical on the defensive side of the ball and Delmas will bring that in spades. They also need some help in the secondary, and this fills that hole.

Three picks. Three players arguably at the top of their class. They may not have filled all their needs, but the ones they did fill were given top talent.

With five picks on day two, including the first in round three and another later in the same round, the Lions stand to pick up some very good value. They could easily pull someone like Jarron Gilbert or Michael Johnson to help fill the defensive line hole, pick up the top guard on the board in Duke Robinson or even a decent tackle like South Carolina’s Jamon Meredith.

New England Patriots

The rich get richer. And richer. And richer.

How the organization ended up with the same amount of picks they started with, but also an embarrassment of riches in players is beyond me, but that’s how they end up being the great team they are every year.

Four picks in the second and every one a value.

Patrick Chung, second best safety in the class, brings some thump to the secondary and will make receivers pay dearly.

Defensive tackle Ron Brace got overlooked a bit with BJ Raji getting the love at Boston College, but he will stuff the run as well as anyone in the draft class and is likely to take over for Vince Wilfork at the nose tackle.

Darius Butler, one of the top corners in the draft, probably won’t start this coming season but will take over in the aging secondary within the next year or two.

And while Sebastian Vollmer is a project for the offensive line, he will develop into a nice right tackle and used to play tight end, so he has the versatility to move around for trick plays if need be.

And, oh by the way…they have seven more picks. By the end of the draft, they may have multiple picks for next year’s draft as well.

Before I let you go, dear reader, here are a few teams I am on the fence about. Today could be pivotal for them.

San Francisco 49ers

One pick, but what value. But you better build on Crabtree; use your remaining six picks wisely.

Houston Texans

Methodically took care of two key needs with picks of LB Clay Matthews and DE Connor Barwin. Six more picks to shore up the corners and get a back to complement Steve Slaton.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Almost made the Awe list, but as much as I loved watching them grab two very good offensive tackles in Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton, passing on Crabtree and Maclin and then a host of good defensive line prospects makes me wonder if last season’s O-line injury woes didn’t get in their head too much.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Did you really need to leap up and pay the price you did to move a few spots? Especially since nobody in front of you was likely to grab your choice of Josh Freeman? Six picks on day two and like the Jets, you’d better make them count.

Unlike the Jets though, your new franchise quarterback is a far bigger project and has more question marks.

2009 NFL Draft: Day One Winners, Losers, and More

Day One of the 2009 NFL Draft is in the books and while it has been one of the more predictable drafts in recent years and has included just one dynamic trade (Mark Sanchez) but it has definitely had its moments including winners and losers:

Winners: (There are a lot to choose from in this category as a lot of teams did well)

Philadelphia Eagles – After filling their need for an offensive tackle by trading for Jason Peters, the Eagles filled their need for offensive playmakers with WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.  McCoy in particular was an excellent selection and heir apparent to Brian Westbrook in the backfield.

New York Jets – The Jets entered the draft needing a quarterback more than anything else and were able to get their guy in Mark Sanchez without overpaying.  Giving up a first, second, and three veterans who were no longer in their plans is a small price to play to get your franchise quarterback.

Getting Sanchez without giving up a 2010 pick was especially impressive.

Cincinnati Bengals – As usual the Bengals stood pat with their picks but filled their offensive tackle need with Andre Smith and received one of the biggest draft day steals in MLB Rey Maualuga.

It had to be tough for the Bengals to pass on highly rated C Max Unger but taking Maualuga was the right move and gives Marvin Lewis the MLB he has always wanted.

Miami Dolphins – The Dolphins did not get the wide receiver everyone expected them to take but managed to get two physical corners in the Parcells mold while also adding the ultimate Wildcat weapon in QB Pat White.

Cleveland Browns – They were able to accomplish what Kansas City’s Scott Pioli was not and traded out of the top five adding an additional second rounder in the process.  The pick of C Alex Mack brought back memories of Mangini’s Nick Mangold pick from 2006 and while also adding one of the drafts top possession receivers in Brian Robiskie. 

You can debate the Mohammed Massaquoi and David Veikune picks a little bit but the hidden gems of their day were the collection of role players they received from the Jets including S Abram Elam (fills a need) and Brett Ratliff (a darkhorse candidate for their quarterback derby).

Other teams that did well include the Colts, Packers, Baltimore, Jacksonville, and Minnesota.

Losers:

Denver Broncos – They did well with first rounders Knowshon Moreno and Robert Ayers but baffled with their trades in round two including giving up a 2010 first round pick for Alphonso Smith and trading up to get mildly regarded blocking tight end Richard Quinn. 

When you have the bounty of pick the Broncos had there is no reason to give up a first round pick the following year.

Oakland Raiders – They reached for speedy WR Darrius Heyward-Bey at seventh overall (not a big surprise).  Not satisfied that they had reached far enough they made the day one version of last year’s William Hayes pick by selecting lightly regarded workout warrior Michael Mitchell.a safety out of Ohio University. 

The networks did not have film on a day one selection which has to be a first.  Kudos to Sonny Jacobs for actually writing an article on Bleacher Report on April 24 requesting them to draft Mitchell.  Of course, I doubt Jacobs meant for them to do it on day one.

Buffalo Bills – I liked the team’s focus on the offensive line with C Eric Wood and G Andy Levitre but I am not sold on Aaron Maybin at defensive end (esp. at 11th overall money) and CB Jairus Byrd was a bit of a reach (and not a great scheme fit).

Anquan Boldin and Chad Johnson—both veteran wide receivers wanted to relocate to get new contracts but after watching the teams with wide receiver needs select receivers in round one they are both resigned to playing under their current deals once again.

Awards:

Biggest Reach: Michael Mitchell by Oakland

Surprised to See Fall to Round Two: Rey Maualuga

Trader Jack Award: Cleveland—entered the draft with just five picks and managed to get three more while also adding three solid veterans in the process.  The multiple trade downs for two extra six rounders was a nice display of managing the draft.

Nothing to Show for Day One Award: Dallas and Chicago both elected to trade out of day one altogether.  Nothing wrong with it, but just wanted to mention how odd it was to have two teams come out of day one empty handed (aside from additional day two picks).

Best Available Entering Day Two According to NFLDraft101.com:
TE Shawn Nelson
CB DJ Moore
DT/DE Jarron Gilbert
G Duke Robinson
ILB Darry Beckwith
DE Michael Johnson
DE Lawrence Sidbury
TE Cornelius Ingram
OT Fenuki Tupou
S Rashad Johnson
TE Jared Cook

Be sure to check out NFLDraft101.com for Live Coverage of Day Two of the NFL Draft including Live Chat and Pick By Pick Commentary.

Chris Maier is Senior Editor for NFLDraft101.com.  He can be reached at cmaier@nfldraft101.com

Buffalo Bills 2009 Draft Day One Wrap-Up

With Day One of the 2009 NFL Draft in the books, some questions have been answered about what the Buffalo Bills needed to do and some new questions have been asked as well. So let’s look back on the first day of the draft and see what happened.

With the 11th overall pick, the Bills drafted defensive end Aaron Maybin out of Penn State. Maybin has the potential to be an elite pass rusher, but it remains to be seen if he can become a three-down defensive end.

However, the Bills’ need at end was a pass rusher, and Maybin provides that in spades.

He is fast, tenacious, and incredibly productive. He did add weight prior to the combine so he is closer in size to a 4-3 defensive end than when he was playing, but it will be interesting to see if the extra weight will affect his play.

I expect that it will be beneficial, making it harder for tackles to push him out of the way. A good pick that addressed one of the biggest needs.

With the 28th pick, the Bills took interior offensive lineman Eric Wood from Louisville. He brings an element of physicality and a mean streak to an offensive line that was the biggest in the NFL, yet rarely played like it. He will certainly be a factor in getting the ground game going again.

He is physically gifted and a very smart player who finishes plays well, driving his block into the ground often. Over the last two seasons of his college career, unofficial count has him with 164 knockdown blocks.

That is a man who plays a physical game and can certainly get a ground game going. Maybe he can be a catalyst for returning the Bills offensive line to the glory years of the 90’s or the Electric Company.

With the forty-second pick of the draft, the Bills selected cornerback/safety Jairus Byrd from Oregon. At first, I was displeased with the pick until I took the time to do some research and read about what scouts had to say.

The Bills are shifting him to free safety with the ability to sub into corner positions. This masks his lack of elite speed and allows him to use his football intelligence to continue producing.

In college with Oregon, he picked off 17 passes, including one in the 2009 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl against Oklahoma State. To watch the tape on him shows a very intelligent defensive back with a knack for finding the football in the air and making a play on it.

17 interceptions in college is definitely a stat that will get attention. Hopefully he will continue to produce at that level with the Bills, we could certainly use more defensive playmakers.

In a surprising move, the Bills traded their third round pick and their first of two fourth round picks to move back into the second at the 51st overall pick. With this pick, the Bills took offensive lineman Andy Levitre from Oregon State.

A tackle in college, scouts predict that due to his physical stature he will translate into a guard in the pros. He further bolsters the interior of the line which had little to no depth after the season.

He brings more physical play and good footwork from manning the tackle position. He and Wood will provide a sorely lacking physical presence on the interior of the offensive line.

So on the first day of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills spread four picks evenly between the offense and defense, picking up two defensive playmakers and two physical interior offensive lineman.

A good start to the draft, and on Day Two, they should be looking at strong-side linebacker and tight end to start with more offensive and defensive line depth as well. Let’s go Buffalo!

NFL Draft: Pothead Harvin?

With the 22nd pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, The Minnesota Vikings select…

Percy Harvin.

WR/RB/KR/INJURY-PRONE/TWEENER/POTHEAD.

Where’s the logic? What happened to drafting character guys? What is Brad Childress doing?

I cannot argue the fact that Harvin has game-breaking skills and if he pans out, Percy Harvin combined with Adrian Peterson is a dangerous offense.

I for one, supported Brad Childress before today’s draft. Even throughout all of the flak he’s been catching for the current quarterback situation and his plain jane offensive attack.

BUT,

This April’s Day One of the Draft has put me under though, the only player I didn’t want Childress to select was selected anyways.

Now, I knew that Percy Harvin was the most likely selection for Minnesota.

Then I caught wind of Harvin’s combine drug test failure and I soon became very confident that Minnesota would shy away from a player with off-the-field issues such as these.

Oh, did I mention that Michael Oher was still available as well?

Yeah, you really got it pegged this time, Brad.

I had no doubt in my mind that, coupled with his troubles going into college at Florida and the recent “hot pissing” at the combine, that Brad Childress would wisely pass on the Pothead from Florida and grab one of the elite tackles in the draft, in Oher.

But, in a move that left me extremely surprised, they chose him anyways.

The failed drug test is one of many reasons not to draft Percy Harvin.

Multiple suspensions in high school, durability concerns, trouble all throughout college, and a positive testing for marijuana at the NFL COMBINE!

???

Most Viking fans were thinking the same.

If the Vikings are now in pursuit of these sort of players, then why are Childress and Wilf not seriously considering former superstar QB Michael Vick?

Round One of the Cleveland Browns’ Draft

As soon as the Browns started trading down, I knew the Dawg Pound would be clamoring to voice their opinions on how Mangini has sunk us deep into a hole we’ll never climb out of. Yes, it appears our new coaching has let us down again right fans?

Take a step back a minute, I realize missing out on BJ Raji, Brian Orakpo, and Michael Crabtree put everybody a little on edge. But let’s look at what we picked up in the first round.

-C Alex Mack CAL

Mack will be our starting center for the next 10 years, he was the best in the draft at his position. The Steelers were set to take him with their first-round pick, so maybe it’s not such a dumb pick. By tightening up the offensive line, it creates more holes for the run-game.

-SS Abram Elam, DE Kenyon Coleman, and QB Brett Ratliff

Abram Elam is a class-act player and a hard hitter capable of filling a huge hole in our secondary.

Kenyon Coleman was a starter last year on the Jets and could replace injury plagued DE Robaire Smith, assuming Robaire is even healthy enough to play this year.

Brett Ratliff is a practice squad surprise that apparently impressed Mangini enough to package him in the deal, if you YouTube some of his performances, its definitely a step up from the Dorsey/Gradkowski third string we had last season.

-No. 52, 191, 195

What do Tom Brady, Matt Cassel, TJ Houshmandzadeh all have in common? They were all chosen past the picks we acquired. The top 200 is full of unknown talent, so trading one pick away for four picks, two potential starters, and a backup QB in the process is fine by me.

Sure I’d love to have gotten BJ Raji too, but we had a lot more needs to fill then one and I think we’re off to a good start with some solid roleplayers.

Raiders “Al” in to Prove Experts Dumb

The NFL draft is nothing if not a crapshoot.  After all the evaluation, hype, horse trading and strategizing, all NFL teams selections are at best, best guesses on the future.

The NFL and ESPN convert the entertainment value of professional football and this spring rite frenzy for new blood into big dollars.

To justify their expensive productions of a glorified job fair, the NFL and ESPN enlist “experts” to market players, evaluate and comment on picks the only way they can, subjectively. 

In all forms of gambling, the NFL draft included, the main elements are risk and payoff.  The NFL draft is televised for the same reasons poker is, and on the same channel. For NFL owners and GMs the gamble involves real money and real consequences, but network experts only have their marginal reputations at stake. 

After all, if Charlie Casserly, Michael Lombardi and Mike Mayock were actually so good at evaluating talent for NFL teams, they’d still have real jobs, instead of peddling their “knowledge” as sales hacks for the networks.

To say nothing of Mel Kiper and Todd McShay who’ve never had real jobs in their lives (although McShay was once a Guess-Your-Weight carny.)

So after all that has been said about what has been done in the Oakland Raiders 2009 NFL draft room one thing clearly is going to come out of this:  Somebody is going to look really stupid. 

And for so many selfish reasons, I hope its the experts.

If the smug, blow-dried, clown-college, talking head ESPN/NFL network d-bags thought the Raiders taking wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey at No. 7 was a reach then they, and most Raider fans, weren’t even approaching ready for round two when Al Davis went all in selecting safety Michael Mitchell.

Indeed, so far Al Davis has played the 2009 Draft for exactly the crapshoot that it is.  The Raiders have taken the players they wanted in the order they wanted them.  Nobody can point fingers and say, “well the Raiders didn’t get their guy so they settled for so-and-so and all their talk about always wanting him is just spin.”  Not in this draft.

The consensus is that NOBODY in or out of their right mind, would take the players the Raiders took in the spots they took them.  Al Davis placed his bets, not only on the players he likes best based on his own standards, but has bet all-in against the field of “experts.” 

Some Raiders fans are left questioning themselves as fans on days like this.  And that’s too bahhahh-d for them.  They’ve allowed the clowns to gin up hysteria based on baseless expectations.

But its days like this that I celebrate being a Raiders fan.  I’m backing these bets, and why not, as a fan I have less to lose than any stupid expert.  And nobody is a bigger threat than somebody with nothing to lose.

So how about a kicker in Round Three?

Overall, a Successful Day One for Oz and the Baltimore Ravens

Vontae Davis Is…A Parcells Guy?

I had said in two previous Dolphin draft prediction articles that the Fins should select the best Cornerback in the first round that was not Vontae Davis.

Vontae Davis, conventional wisdom claimed, supposedly, that, while extremely talented and extremely physical, had work ethic and consistency issues on and off the field.

Davis, in other words, was a more talented Paul Soliai-type player, who would not play his best, and was definitely not a Parcells guy. That’s what I had said.

So what do Parcells-Ireland-Sparano know that I don’t, picking the guy I had said they should not pick in round one?

I was miffed at first when it was announced by the NFL Commissioner, “With the 25th pick in the NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins select Vontae Davis, Cornerback, Illinios.”

The first thought was, “Not another Jason Allen!”

You know, the round 1 near-bust in the really bad Miami 2006 draft.

But this is Parcells we’re talking about. Bill Parcells and his regime simply do NOT make round one (or two or three, etc.) draft mistakes!

So, maybe they know something I don’t. In fact, maybe Davis’s “issues” are just smoke and mirrors. Maybe the Fins were going to pick Davis all along, knowing or not knowing that Malcolm Jenkins would be gone by pick 25.

In fact, I may be completely wrong about Davis. In fact, given that the Dolphins must play the likes of Randy Moss, Wes Welker, TO, Lee Evans, and more fine receivers and tight ends, twice a season, the physical and big corner in Davis just might have been the best player available, period, for them to pick.

In fact, I am darned glad they did what I said they ought to do in picking to fill their biggest need, cornerback. And they also picked CB Sean Smith in round two.

Their other round two pick was a quarterback. Weird! They don’t need a quarterback.

But Pat White? Way cool! Now, when and if they do run the Wildcat, this guy in running it becomes not only a pass threat (Ronnie Brown was hardly a pass threat), but also a running and receiving threat as well.

Again, this is Parcells we’re talking about, so no doubt he and Dan Henning and Sparano have offense moves up their sleeves.

Thank goodness there are still some decent linebacker and defensive line possibilities for the later rounds, because Miami has another seven picks to go, with getting another fifth rounder in that Colts move-up deal.

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