MMQB Review: Peter's 2012 NFL Draft Bite-Sized Nuggets Edition

After last week's moral discussion on whether Sean Pamphilon should have released the Gregg Williams audio for the world to hear, Peter has decided he will focus a little bit more on the NFL Draft this week. Peter also takes the time to defend QB Jets (shocking, no?) and tells us who is rising and falling on team's draft boards, even though he doesn't have access to a team's draft board to know who is rising and falling. Even though there is a lot of misinformation out there about which player each team wants to draft, so even the "experts" probably have it wrong or won't tell the truth. The good news, for those of you who love good news, is Peter not only will tell us ten things he thinks he thinks (like he always does) about life and sports, but he will also tell us ten things he feels good about in regard to the NFL Draft. So this week we TWENTY things that Peter thinks! I'm not sure what we all did to deserve such a fortunate turn of events. I've not said anything negative about QB Jets lately, so maybe that's it.

After a long weekend of fact-finding (and misinformation-farming) for my Sports Illustrated mock draft, which was put to bed Sunday, here are the 10 things I feel good about 10 days before the first round of the draft:

1. Tim Tebow has the best smile in the NFL.

2. Brett Favre has the roughest, manliest, most blue-collar hands in the NFL.

3. The Red Sox need to spend more money to improve their pitching.

4. The Red Sox need to stop throwing money at bad players just to improve their pitching.

5. Who is this Daniel Bard guy? Peter had never heard of him before.

6. That Joey Votto. He has quite a future in baseball doesn't he?

7. Peter talked to your mom on Sunday Missy Taylor. Congratulations on getting your period. You are so close to being a woman now.

8. Brett Favre. Tim Tebow. That's all.

9. Peter King was eating a burrito, staring at a couple who were talking loudly while pointing at their computer, and walking to catch his airplane on Sunday, and this guy bumped into him getting sauce all over Peter's shirt. The guy didn't even apologize. Can a person not walk around in public, stare at perfect strangers and eat Mexican food without getting a mess all over him? People are rude and need to pay attention to their surroundings.

10. Peter hasn't watched any NBA games this year, but he saw a great center play the other day on television. If Andrew Bynum isn't the greatest center in the history of the NBA, then he doesn't know who is.

What, did you think the list of what Peter felt good about prior to the draft had something to do with the draft? I'm kidding of course, Peter's thoughts were all about the NFL Draft and Andrew Luck's arms.

1. Andrew Luck has put to rest questions about his arm strength.

The only reason I questioned his arm strength is because I wasn't sure he was strong enough to pick up a razor to shave his terrible, terrible beard. Shave that beard!

(Luck shaves his beard)

You know what...umm...actually, Andrew Luck should probably grow that beard back out. He doesn't want to scare the children at the press conference introducing him as the Colts new quarterback.

I wrote a Luck/Robert Griffin III piece for the magazine this week and unearthed this tidbit from his March 21 workout on the Stanford campus. It was windy that day, with gusts around 15 mph, and Luck chose to throw into the wind.

What? I thought you weren't supposed to throw into the wind? (remembers the lyrics to the song)

Oh yeah, that was you're not supposed to spit into the wind. Throwing into the wind is perfectly fine. Nevermind, carry on.

"But I think he wanted to show everybody who had any question about his arm that they shouldn't. The great thing was, his last throw of the day, into the wind, was a go with the ball snapped from his own 30. He dropped back and released it around his 24. That ball went all the way to the goal line, about 75 yards in the air. Perfect spiral.

That throw makes Andrew Luck very happy. Andrew Luck and his creepy stalker in the Eskimo hat are very happy about that throw. Give us another big smile Andrew. Ok, now...make a silly face. Wait, hold on hands away from nose Andrew!

You know they say some people have a face made for radio? Andrew Luck has a face built for selling birth control. You don't want this guy to get your daughter pregnant do you? Go buy some birth control.

And someone said, 'That's saying take that to Phil Simms.'

That's a go---

You know, because Simms said he didn't have a great arm.''

Yeah, we get it. If you have to explain the joke, then it isn't that funny.

Simms actually said last fall he didn't see "big-time NFL throws ... and not a tremendous amount of power.'' I didn't see much of it either, watching Luck tape last week from Stanford's game against Oregon last season; Stanford plays a lot of power football and a move-the-chains game. But this throw shows some of the power. Take a look.

"Sure, Andrew Luck hasn't made a ton of power throws, but this one time he did make a really good power throw. That shows he can do it at least once over two NFL seasons. So if you look at the game tape, Luck doesn't have great arm strength, but let's still call Phil Simms out for being wrong."

All this talk about Andrew Luck's lack of arm strength makes Andrew Luck very, very angry!

Then, Cleveland. I heard different things over the weekend from people I trust. GM Tom Heckert loves Blackmon and that would be his pick; president Mike Holmgren is still trying to decide with finality if Tannehill is the franchise quarterback worth taking here

Oh my God, Cleveland just draft a damn wide receiver. Just do it. You need a franchise quarterback, but draft a potential franchise wide receiver. You know you want to and you do need one. If you don't do it, then I will do it for you. Otherwise Ryan Tannehill will be throwing to Mohamed Massaquoi all year.

The safest pick? Richardson, at a need position, even though receiver is a bigger need.

So in terms of drafting strategy, we have the BPA (Best Player Available) strategy, the Biggest Need strategy, and the newly introduced Safety strategy, which apparently is for teams who don't really know how to evaluate players in order to improve their team so they just don't want to get the pick wrong.

Still, the most likely scenarios are Tannehill to Cleveland at four or Miami at eight. But why 11? Because teams around the league know how much Seattle loves Tannehill. And you can write this down: If Tannehill were to be there at 12, Seattle would take him, even though the Seahawks just paid medium dollar for Matt Flynn in free agency.

Oh geez. Why don't sportswriters call out Pete Carroll on his collecting quarterbacks? I feel like since Peter is into editorializing recently, shouldn't he mention it would be a terrible waste of resources to sign Matt Flynn and then draft Ryan Tannehill? Maybe it isn't stupid to everyone, but to me, it seems dumb to sign a young guy like Flynn to see if he can be the starter and then draft a quarterback in the first round. It doesn't matter to me what the Seahawks paid for Flynn, but if Tannehill were drafted by the Seahawks they would essentially be putting Flynn on notice that he isn't the quarterback of the future before he even takes a snap for them. Why even bother to sign Flynn if you draft a quarterback to replace him in the next year?

7. Michael Floyd's a major wild card. The Notre Dame receiver could go as high as 10 to Buffalo; Arizona (13), Cincinnati (17, 21), San Diego (18), Chicago (19) and Cleveland (22) all would love to have a shot at him. Two months ago, the receiver group was Blackmon alone at the top and then a big gulf. Now it's Blackmon edging Floyd -- and I talked to one team in the top 10 with a receiver need that had Blackmon just barely over Floyd entering the final week of board-shuffling.

Unfortunately, I think Kendall Wright may be end up being better than both of these guys. I've read quite a few NFL Draft guys who seem to have made a logical and well-thought through argument as to why Wright is the best receiver in this draft. Of course,Wright isn't very tall, which seems to be a problem many "experts" have with him even though there isn't any evidence that says receivers taller than 6'1" are better than receivers shorter than that height when it comes to production.

9. Falling: DE Melvin Ingram, T Riley Reiff, DE Quinton Coples, G-T Cordy Glenn, T Jonathan Martin.

How do we know these players are falling? We don't know where they are on a team's draft board because teams are constantly lying this time of year. So the "insiders" Peter talks to could very well be giving him misinformation. Not to mention, what are these players "falling" from? Coples was projected to be in the Top-10 at one point. If he goes at #14, does that mean he "fell" simply because the "expert's" perception of his talent in January didn't match reality? The only reason Coplese would fall is because teams have gained more knowledge about him. Maybe he was rising back in January, but now he is back in his rightful spot in the draft. It's just hard to know this time of year which prospects are actually falling and rising and I enjoy being argumentative about this.

10. Rising: CB Stephon Gilmore, S Mark Barron, DT Fletcher Cox, OLB Shea McClellin, QB Brandon Weeden, OL Amini Silatolu.

Again, "rising" to where? Peter mentioned this about Gilmore in this very column:

South Carolina cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the second corner on the board now that Janoris Jenkins' character has knocked him out of the first round, could go anywhere from 7 to 27,

So where is he rising from what spot and towards what spot? That's what I don't get. How do you know he is rising if he could get taken near the end of the first round?

Finally, it's fitting that, on Patriots Day in Massachusetts, Bill Belichick celebrates his 60th birthday. Time to wonder how much longer the 17-year head coach has on the sidelines.

Whenever he is in doubt, Peter falls back on a chart or brief discussion that involves the Patriots in some way. I don't want to spoil the end of Peter's rambling "wondering" of how much longer Belichick will be around, but the answer is "We know he won't retire in the next few years, but he won't be coaching in ten more years."

"He beat Robert Griffin 59 to 24, he beat Andrew Luck in the Fiesta Bowl, he beat Landry Jones, he beat Ryan Tannehill. I like Brandon Weeden, as you can tell. I would find something for him to do.''

-- ESPN analyst Jon Gruden, on Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden.

What? Jon Gruden likes a quarterback? I never saw this coming. Usually Gruden LOVES a quarterback and he only LIKES Weeden. That's pretty much an insult coming from Gruden. You could find a quarterback who is a 5-foot-5 and can only throw a screen pass and Gruden would find something to love about that quarterback. Probably his moxie. Gruden would enjoy this undersized quarterback's moxie.

Also, it is silly to say Brandon Weeden "beat" these guys like it is a tennis match or another individual sport. Football is a team sport.

"I ain't going to say I was sad because the only thing they remember is that pass. You gotta go back and look at the rest of the games. I wasn't getting no balls, and you had to make some of these plays where some players were open and he is not making the throws. But I don't want to talk bad about Tim, but hey, I am happy we got Peyton."

-- Denver wide receiver Demaryius Thomas to WQXI in Atlanta, via sportsradiointerviews.com, talking about the loss of Tim Tebow and the addition of Peyton Manning.

Well now you've gone ahead and pissed Peter the fuck off. You don't insult QB Jets like that! How dare you insinuate that QB Jets missed open receivers! How are you such a damn expert on when receivers were open and when they weren't? Just because you play wide receiver for the Broncos you think you know which receivers were open and which weren't? Peter was watching the game on television with Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison. Let's just say they probably know who was open and who wasn't more than you do. You think you know more just because you were on the field...

I don't want to talk bad about Tim? Imagine what Thomas would say if he wanted to be really critical of Tebow.

It's not really critical of QB Jets to mention he missed open receivers. 10 minutes of film study would probably lead you to this same conclusion.

Interesting that the pass to which Thomas refers is so easily wiped away, minimized, forgotten, whatever. There are Hall of Fame receivers who don't have the kind of electric, scintillating, once-in-a-career moment Thomas had when he caught an 80-yard touchdown pass from Tebow on the first play of overtime to beat Super Bowl contender Pittsburgh in the playoffs in January.

Interestingly, in this paragraph Peter is actually proving the point Demaryius Thomas was trying to make. Everyone wants to talk about that electric, once-in-a-career moment play against the Steelers when discussing QB Jets' time in Denver, but tend to skip over the open receivers he missed and the fact the offense was very much dumbed down for him. Thanks for proving his point Peter by bringing up the exciting pass QB Jets threw while ignoring his larger body of passing game work. You are doing pretty much exactly what Demaryius Thomas says that people do.

Demaryius, the day you retire, ESPN will replay that 80-yard touchdown pass five times. You'll have to have an incredible career for any play you ever make to eclipse that forgettable, meaningless touchdown that made the earth shake on the field in Denver that day.

Don't get your panties in a wad Peter. Thomas didn't call the pass "forgettable" or "meaningless," these are just terms you are putting in Thomas' mouth to make him seem less grateful than he is because you are mad he is saying something negative about your American idol, QB Jets. Pretend to show a little journalistic non-bias and understand if anyone knows if QB Jets missed open receivers it probably was his receivers. If there is anyone who knows if receivers were missed, it is probably the Broncos receivers.

In other words, a little gratitude toward the departed thrower of that biggest reception of your NFL career might be nice.

Yes, be grateful to the quarterback who has such a poor throwing motion the Steelers felt comfortable placing 9 men in the box stop him. Be grateful to the quarterback who was capable of accurately throwing a slant, which any NFL quarterback should be able to do.

Apparently, it is not showing gratitude to insinuate or say that QB Jets as any sort of weakness at throwing the football. Thou shalt not bad mouth the QB Jets.

''Sounds like an article from The Onion.''

-- @Andy_Benoit, an NFL writer for the New York Times and CBSSports.com, responding to a ProFootballTalk.com item on Vince Young still seeing himself as a starting NFL quarterback.

In defense of Vince Young, QB Jets is probably going to have a chance to start this year. Really Young isn't that much worse than QB Jets would be. They are both quarterbacks who just win games aren't they?

3. I think being better than his brother on Saturday Night Live will be a tougher task for Eli Manning than beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. I'm serious.

Oh, you are serious? I thought you might have been joking by making this opinion-based completely subjective claim about whether one person is funnier than another person. I didn't realize such unprovable statements were supposed to be serious.

4. I think if you love the Saints (or you simply can't agree with the league coming down on them like a ton of bricks for the bounty scandal), know this: The number of players involved in concussion- or head-trauma-related lawsuits against the NFL now is 1,186. Someday those cases are going to get to a courtroom somewhere. And someday Roger Goodell is probably going to have to testify about what an attorney will say is the NFL's lax approach to player safety. Don't think those sanctions were made in a vacuum.

As I have personally stated as my opinion, the NFL are using the Saints as an example other teams do not want to follow. Again, this doesn't mean the punishment is overly harsh or wasn't deserved. The NFL is punishing the Saints harshly because they want to/have to get serious about concussions, but the Saints still broke a long-standing NFL rule against bounties. Don't forget this isn't entirely about concussions, but is also about three years of an NFL rule brazenly being ignored by the Saints organization.

7. I think the arrival of Lee Evans in Jacksonville -- Adam Schefter said over the weekend Evans will sign today -- means only one thing: The Jaguars still need another receiver.

I'd love to know how the arrival of one wide receiver on the Jaguars roster independent of any other knowledge means the Jaguars need another wide receiver? This is just a good sign the Jaguars may actually give Blaine Gabbert receivers to catch the ball this year. It sounds crazy to give a young quarterback offensive weapons around him, but it could just work.

I wouldn't expect that receiver to come in the first round 10 days from now either.

Knowing how the Jags have drafted of late they will draft two wide receivers consecutively in the first and second round in the upcoming draft.

a. To all at The Post, the independent student paper at Ohio University that birthed me in this business: Congrats on your 100th anniversary celebration over the weekend. Sorry I wasn't there to celebrate with you.

The staff of The Post will one day be able to shake the trauma caused by Peter King's inability to attend the 100th anniversary celebration of the paper and eventually go on to lead normal lives. It will take time though.

c. Why would Tebow get lustily booed at a Yankee game, which happened last night?

The same reason Peter would write that poorly grammar-tized sentence, which happened just right now.

So why would the fans boo QB Jets? Maybe the fans are Giants fans or they are just really, really, really, really siock of hearing about QB Jets already. I think Peter underestimates just how sick of QB Jets the public has become. He still has his dedicated fan base of course, and then a larger group of people who want him to just go away for a long time so they don't have to hear his name for a long time.

f. Best three hours I spent last week: sunny Friday afternoon watching Red Sox 12, Rays 2. Fenway spooks David Price.

David Price's career statistics at Fenway: 6-4 with a 3.43 ERA and 1.234 WHIP. Yeah, he's always been real spooked.

i. Best two hours and nine minutes I spent, non-baseball edition: Watching To Kill a Mockingbird, 50 years after its release. Remind me to watch it again next year.

Sure, as long as you remind me to remind you.

m. Wouldn't go handing the NL pennant to the Phils just yet, not with a 3 through 8 in the order Saturday against the Mets of Jimmy Rollins, Hunter Pence, John Mayberry Jr., Ty Wigginton, Freddy Galvis, Brian Schneider. Yikes.

The lineup looks a little better once/if Ryan Howard and Chase Utley come back. Also, Carlos Ruiz is the normal catcher for the Phils and Shane Victorino is the normal center fielder. I am well aware that Peter pays zero attention to other baseball teams, but this isn't the normal Phils lineup, even if Howard/Utley aren't in the lineup. A couple of guys were given the day off. Don't judge a lineup based on the one day you choose to tune into a game and assume it is the everyday lineup. Do research before saying the Phillies lineup doesn't scare you to ensure you don't sound uninformed.

n. Heath Bell's last three outings for Miami: 2.0 innings, 17 batters faced, 11 baserunners, six scored. Yikes.

But...but...the Marlins spent so much money this offseason. Doesn't that ensure team success?

p. Coffeenerdness: Finally found a restaurant in Manhattan with good post-dinner espresso. Montebello, on 56th Street in midtown. We'll be back.

And to think all my life I've been judging restaurants based on how good the food tastes. I'm so not a coffeenerd.