Could 2010 Be the Best Defensive Tackle Draft of All Time?

Good news for teams in need of a defensive tackle in this upcoming draft: they are stacked.

Very rarely is an NFL Draft dominated by defensive tackles. In fact, there have never been more than 10 defensive tackles taken in the first two rounds of an NFL draft. Depending on which juniors declare eligible this year, we could see up to 12 off the boards.

When looking at the best classes of all time, I looked at the amount of defensive tackles taken, and also the amount of quality players to come out of them. Some of the best classes include…

 

1970

Three first-round picks, seven second-round picks. Some notable players were
Mike Read and Jerry Sherk. 1970 had the most quantity, but the quality wasn’t there. They didn’t have the big names that other draft classes had.

 

1975

Four first-round picks, three second-round picks. Some notable players were Hall-of-Famer Randy White, Gary Johnson, Louie Kelcher, and Doug English.

There were some real quality players and a Hall-of-Famer in this class. Johnson and Kelcher were both three-time All-Pro players, and English made four Pro Bowls.

 

2001

Six first-round picks, two second-round picks. Some notable players were Richard Seymour, Marcus Stroud, Casey Hampton, Kris Jenkins, and Shaun Rogers.

2001 not only had the most defensive tackles picked in the first round in NFL history, it also was stacked with quality players, most of which are continuing to have NFL success to this day.

2010 could be next on this list, and even top them all. The number of top defensive tackles is there, and the quality of those players has never been seen before in a draft in NFL history before.

I’ll start out with the name that everyone knows, but nobody can pronounce, Ndamukong Suh .

Suh has taken over college football this year. There aren’t many defensive tackles that have ever had the type of impact that Suh has had.

Suh became the first defensive player since Charles Woodson in 1997 to even be invited to the Heisman ceremony, and Woodson also played offense and special teams that year, too.

Suh’s season this year was as dominating as a defensive player has ever had. He is the clear-cut No. 1 player on almost everyone’s big board, and will likely be either the first or second player selected in the upcoming draft.

The next defensive tackle who is eying a top 5 draft selection is Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy . He has had an amazing year, overshadowed by Oklahoma’s disappointing season and Suh’s dominating season.

McCoy has constantly drawn double teams and still put up a productive season. At 6’4 and 300 pounds, he’s sure to be a top 5-10 pick to a team that runs a 4-3 defense.

I’ll continue with the primarily 4-3 defensive tackles with Jared Odrick of Penn State. Odrick had another solid season, being named to the second-team All-American list. He’s likely another first-round pick in April, and a good combine showing could put him in the top 20.

The best of the 3-4 nose tackles is Terrence “Mount” Cody of Alabama. At 6’5, 355, Cody fits his nickname well. For a guy his size, he moves very well.

He was a key factor in Alabama’s defense, and really freed things up for linebacker Rolando McClain. Cody also blocked two fourth-quarter kicks in a 12-10 win against Tennessee to assure Alabama’s spot in the National Championship game.

Cody was the third defensive tackle on the 1st team All-American team this year. Cody will most likely be an early-mid first-round pick for a team running a 3-4 defense.

Another nose tackle moving up the boards is Tennessee’s Dan Williams . Now Williams can also play in a 4-3 defense, but he is getting a lot of attention from teams who run a 3-4 defense, particularly the Miami Dolphins.

Williams is 6’3, 330, and is likely to be the anchor of a defense for a long time in the NFL.

There are two quality underclassmen this season who may or may not come out in the draft. But if they do, they will likely be first-round picks. The first is UCLA’s Brian Price .

Price has been talking as if he was going to enter this year’s draft, and he is shooting up the draft boards fast. Price was voted by Pac-10 coaches as the Pac-10 defensive player of the year.

He led all defensive linemen with 22.5 TFL this season. He’s best suited for a 4-3 defense, has climbed into the late first round, and is continuing to move up.

The second is Marvin Austin of North Carolina. Austin is ranked right around the same area as Brian Price and is also moving up. We don’t know if he is going to declare for the draft, but if he does, he’s likely a first-round pick.

Austin had two of his best games in his last two games, getting three sacks in them. Austin is in a good position because he can play in both a 4-3 and 3-4 very effectively.

The biggest question mark in the group is Syracuse’s Arthur Jones . Jones was set to have another great year in his senior season until he tore his lateral meniscus. He had surgery on it and was forced to miss the remainder of the year.

How Jones comes back from that injury will be very telling to where he will be selected in the upcoming draft. He could be a first-round pick or he could fall into the third or fourth round.

He’ll be a 4-3 defensive tackle in the pros, and a lot of people are saying he is a good fit to the Colts late in the first round.

The most intriguing is Allen Bailey of Miami. Bailey is a freakish athlete for his size. He has even played some linebacker this year.

I am almost positive that he’ll be going back to school for his senior season, but if he doesn’t, expect a team to jump on him earlier than expected because of his workouts.

Now there are the prospects who could be second round picks in the draft. The first is Tyson Alualu of Cal. Alualu is a very strong player, who despite only being 295 pounds, could play in a 3-4 defense in the pros with a little added weight.

It’ll be interesting what he weighs in at the combine, that could be telling of where he’ll be selected. His on-field production is there, earning a first-team All-Pac 10 selection and recording 7.5 sacks this season.

One of my personal favorite prospects at defensive tackle is D’Anthony Smith . Smith may get overlooked by some scouts because he plays for Louisiana Tech University. Smith is very athletic and very talented. He is also very raw, which will drop him in the draft.

He is a senior, but is still only 21 years old. His production wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t bad either. His numbers don’t look as good as his Junior season when he broke out onto the scene, but he was fighting double teams all year long this year.

Smith will participate in the Senior Bowl, and I think he’ll move up the boards into the mid-second round with a good showing there.

Lamarr Houston out of Texas is another interesting prospect. Most of his production came against lesser competition (All six of his sacks were either non-conference games or games against Big 12 bottom feeders Baylor and Kansas).

Houston is the anchor of a much improved Texas defense this year, and is a bit of a surprise this year.

What he does in the National Championship game will tell where he goes in the upcoming draft, but a good showing could possibly sneak him into the end of the second round.

2010 may be the last year before a rookie salary cap is implemented into the NFL. So this draft may be one of the bet drafts of all-time with all of the players declaring eligible.

Defensive tackles highlight this impressive draft class both in quality and quantity.

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Big Kickoff Returns a Thing of the Past

One of the most exciting plays in football, the kickoff return for touchdown, could be a thing of the past in the NFL. There is nothing more exciting than seeing your team’s player taking a kick and breaking away from the pack, with only the kicker to beat. Then putting on a quick move, making the kicker fall on his back and knowing that your team just instantly put seven points back on the board. This year, Roger Goodell has taken that excitement away.

Roger Goodell decided that the wedge will no longer be a legal football formation. Instead of having four players lined across protecting your return man, opening up holes, teams are now only allowed to use just two.

Teams can run a 2-2-1 blocking formation, where you have two blockers first, then two more five yards behind them, and then the one personal blocker going whichever direction the return man is going. The problem with this formation is the gunners coming from the side can get in very easily and stop any return from forming.

The other formation they can run is two people on the left, two on the right, and a five yard gap in between them to compensate for the no wedge rule. This has an obvious flaw of the one player in the back trying to block the three biggest players coming right up the middle.

Neither of these formations have had any success so far in preseason. I have only seen one return go past the 35 yard line out of many, many returns. Almost every return is shut down before it starts. What’s even worse is that the return men are just getting creamed. What Goodell intended to prevent injuries could actually be causing more injuries.

I haven’t seen many injuries on kickoffs in the past five years; there was no reason to make the rule to break up the wedge. All it is doing is removing the wall in front of the kick returner and giving the gunners free lanes to hit the return man as hard as they can. Goodell is taking a whole part of the game away, and causing injuries while doing it.

This rule is a big mistake, and it’s going to take one of the most exciting plays out of the game for good. These exciting return men like Devin Hester, Joshua Cribbs, Leon Washington, and others, will have all the excitement taken away when none of them have touchdowns this season. Say goodbye to the art of kick returning, it died in 2009.

Surprise Running Back Aaron Brown Can Seemingly Do Lots For the Detroit Lions

When the Lions selected Aaron Brown out of TCU in the sixth round of the NFL draft, they weren’t expecting much. The thought was that maybe he could contribute to Special Teams. In his first game action with the Lions, Brown proved that he can do more than that.

Aaron Brown had an up and down career at TCU. He was the 2007 preseason Mountain West Conference player of the year before he sprained his ankle and had a disappointing season. His senior season was much better. He had 547 yards on 5.5 yards per carry.

There’s no doubt that Brown has the talent, but it’s been the off the field issues that had teams scared in the draft.

In his senior year of high school, he was suspended all but one game for a graffiti incident. He was also suspended three games in of his senior season at TCU for violating team rules.

The Lions decided to overlook that and select Brown in the sixth round. Brown showed up to camp and right away impressed the team with his speed.

Brown slowly moved his way up the depth chart and went from being a player who was battling for a roster spot to a player who was batting for playing time at running back as a rookie.

In Brown’s pre-season debut, he shined, breaking a 32-yard touchdown run and then later in the game catching a short pass and going 45 yards for another touchdown. Brown may only be a rookie sixth round pick, but he is already making a push for playing time this year.

The touchdowns weren’t the only impressive thing Brown did that day. After his second touchdown, Brown pulled a perfect roundoff backflip and stuck the landing.

Brown commented on the celebration after the game saying, “The first one I thought about it and said, ‘Nah’. I hadn’t done one since high school. The second time I was really excited and felt confident. I had to stick it, it would have been dreadful if I didn’t.”

Brown should be a very energetic and exciting player to watch as he goes along his career. Hopefully, he can stay out of any off-the-field trouble that he’s run into in the past so he can show his football skills off on Sunday.

Lions fans, be happy with your draft selection, he could be making a big impact sooner than you think.

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