As you all know by now, I enjoy going back and re-grading the grades that Mel Kiper has given teams after each NFL Draft. It's a pastime I enjoy and I have regraded every draft grade column Mel has posted from 2001-2006. I have already re-graded Dr. Z's 2007 draft grades back when I didn't know this would be a thing I would do for Mel Kiper, but screw it, I'll do the 2007 draft grades for Mel too. I enjoy this stuff too much. So I found Mel's draft grades on this message board where a person posted ESPN Insider columns like this on the board. I'm sure the punishment for this is 3-5 years in jail, but he risked it anyway.
Mel is famous for not really taking risks with the grades he gives. He gave out B's and C's for this draft. No really, the only grades he handed out were some variation of a "B" or a "C." There is no draft grade that is an "A" or a "D." There are certainly no "F's." Zero NFL teams did very well or very poorly in the draft. This is what Mel seems to believe. Why the fuck would you even have draft grades if you are just going to say every team did slightly below average to slightly above average? It's a wasted effort, but Mel doesn't care. The best part is he wrote nothing that would come back to haunt him. That's all that matters, being right in retrospect by not outright bashing a player or team. What a farce.
Arizona Cardinals: GRADE: B-
Once Joe Thomas was gone, the Cardinals had to make a decision whether to take Adrian Peterson or Levi Brown.
Should I eat pizza or dog shit? Pizza has few nutrients in it and I already had pizza this week, so maybe I'll go with the dog shit because it has to have nutrients and I haven't had dog shit lately.
Peterson would have been a luxury pick, which they couldn't afford to do, and Brown fills a hole.
Because when you have J.J. Arrington and Edgerrin James, there's no need for a running back. The Cardinals did just sign James, but still, an offense with Kurt Warner, Adrian Peterson, Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald, and Steve Breaston. That's a pretty good offense.
There were quite a few teams that didn't think there was a lot that
separated Brown from Thomas. Brown has a nasty streak and can play
either tackle position.
But he can he play either tackle as well as Adrian Peterson can play running back? Brown was decent, but man, passing up Peterson...
Tight end Ben Patrick is a potential steal in the seventh round. He
needs to work on his concentration and catching the ball, but Patrick
could have gone in the third round and no one would have argued.
Other than getting distracted while he's on the field and not being able to catch the ball, Ben Patrick would make an excellent tight end.
This is just the beginning of a lot of "B's" and "C's." What an embarrassment.
Atlanta Falcons: GRADE: B
Defensive end Jamaal Anderson was really the only option with Joe Thomas and Levi Brown gone.
(Bengoodfella coughs) Darrelle Revis, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch.
I really liked what Atlanta did Sunday.
Okay, great. So when is a "B" grade, which is a grade that signifies the Falcons did "above average" mean that Mel Kiper really likes the draft? What is an "A" grade reserved for? Does there have to be another "really" thrown in there?
Baltimore Ravens: GRADE: B
Mel says literally nothing negative about the Ravens draft. Nothing negative. He loves it all. Every pick, yet the draft gets a "B."
Ben Grubbs:
Ben Grubbs is a great pick and pure guard.
Yamon Figurs:
Yamon Figurs has speed to burn and will be the returner the Ravens need
with B.J. Sams coming off an injury and being a free agent after 2007.
Marshall Yanda:
Marshal Yanda possibly also could start at guard or right tackle.
Antwan Barnes:
Antwan Barnes is a typical hybrid combination between a defensive end and outside linebacker.
Le'Ron McClain:
Le'Ron McClain was the best pure fullback in the draft. Not only does
he fill a need, but he could start since the Ravens lost Ovie Mughelli
in free agency.
Troy Brown:
This was a good organization for Troy Smith to go to as a developmental
quarterback. He also could push Kyle Boller, who will be a free agent
after 2007.
Prescott Burgess:
Prescott Burgess had a nice career at Michigan, and getting him in the
sixth round is a nice move because Burgess should have a solid NFL
career.
So how in the ever-living hell is this a "B" draft and not an "A" draft? Mel likes EVERY SINGLE PICK the Ravens made. What a joke. Why even have grades? Why even evaluate a team's draft if he is just handing out "B's" and "C's"?
Buffalo Bills: GRADE: B
Down the road, Trent Edwards could give J.P. Losman some competition.
To be fair, there are a lot of college quarterbacks who could have given J.P. Losman some competition.
And if Edwards develops in two or three years, the Bills could trade him, similar to what Atlanta did with Matt Schaub.
Ah yes, 2007 when there was a possibility the Bills had such an embarrassment of riches at the quarterback position that they could trade their backup quarterback.
Hey look, a "B" grade. Oh, look another "B" grade coming up! There are five outright "B" grades in a row, not counting the "B-" he gave the Cardinals. Such creativity from Mel.
Carolina Panthers: GRADE: B
I'm not enamored with linebacker Jon Beason, but he has the ability to be a team leader because he has a great attitude.
I love Jon Beason, but someone should create a Jon Beason Doll that signs a new contract and then immediately gets injured when you pull his string.
The Panthers did a good job in the second round, getting WR Dwayne
Jarrett and center Ryan Kalil. I thought Georgia defensive end Charles
Johnson was a steal in the third round.
I'm shuddering at the thought of Dwayne Jarrett. He was so horrible. Mel was correct about Charles Johnson though.
Dante Rosario is a backup tight end;
As are most tight ends drafted in the 5th round. Great analysis, Mel.
"This guy drafted in the 5th round, try to stay with me here, but I think he may end up being a backup. That's how I project him and feel free to argue with me if you would like. I would give your ability to make an argument a 'B' grade."
Chicago Bears: GRADE: B
The Bears didn't expect Greg Olsen to be available that late in the
first round; he'll give Rex Grossman a solid pass-catching tight end.
Or he will be underused during his Bears career. You know, either way.
Defensive end Dan Bazuin is perfect for the Bears' scheme.
As a 2nd round pick, Bazuin never played a regular season snap for the Bears.
Corey Graham will fight for a roster spot at cornerback and on special teams.
Or he will still be in the NFL in 2015 and have played in 125 games while having returned one kick on special teams during his career so far.
Cincinnati Bengals: GRADE: C+
WHAT? A "C+" grade? You don't say?
Mel likes every pick the Bengals made, except for Jeff Rowe, because:
Jeff Rowe was a system quarterback at Nevada, and I didn't like this
pick because there were better quarterbacks still on the board;
This is a good call by Mel, because Matt Moore, Tyler Thigpen, and Troy Smith were still out there. Still, it's a 5th round pick that Mel didn't like and also he knocked the Bengals' grade down because he didn't think they helped themselves enough on defense. This despite the fact Mel had nothing negative to say about the players the Bengals chose instead of focusing on defense.
Picking Michigan CB Leon Hall without having to trade up to get him
turned out to be very good value for the Bengals. Running back Kenny
Irons could have been a first-round pick but couldn't stay healthy his
senior season at Auburn. Safety Marvin White was not a bad fourth-round
pick;
The Bengals didn't have a 3rd round pick because they chose Ahmad Brooks in the 2006 supplemental draft. They used three of their first four picks on defense, but that wasn't enough for Mel. They got a "C+," or otherwise as it's known, they did just slightly worse than the Ravens did when Mel loved every pick the Ravens made.
Cleveland Browns: GRADE: B+
The Browns were going to use the third overall pick on Wisconsin tackle
Joe Thomas or Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn. At the end of the day, the
Browns came away with both players.
Again, pizza or dog shit for dinner?
The Browns did, however, give up a lot of picks in this draft.
The Browns wanted Joe Thomas and Brady Quinn at #3. They traded picks to get Brady Quinn at #22 and Mel didn't like this strategy. Of course he didn't. Mel also didn't like how many picks the Browns gave up, but thought they did better than the Ravens in the draft. So there's that.
Dallas Cowboys: GRADE: B
I really liked the pick of tackle Doug Free in the fourth round because he has a lot of talent.
I'm not all negative. This was a good call by Mel.
Dallas took place-kicker Nick Folk when Mason Crosby was still on the board;
They are both kickers and it was the 6th round. Let's take it easy with this type of criticism.
Courtney Brown has the necessary skills to be a developmental cornerback.
So Brown has the necessary skills like arms/legs/hands/a head, he played college football in college AND played college football at the position at which he was drafted by the Cowboys, so he may one day become a cornerback who can be developed into a backup or starter? Thanks Mel, that's really, really enlightening to know.
Denver Broncos: GRADE: B-
The Broncos tried to strengthen the
defensive line, starting with Jarvis Moss in the first round. In the
Broncos' system, he has a chance to get 10-12 sacks next season.
Or 6 sacks for his entire career. That too.
Offensive tackle Ryan Harris had a
first-round grade in August, but his stock dropped and Denver grabbed
him in the third round.
What does this sentence even mean? It's interesting Harris had a first round grade in August, and yes, we know Ryan Harris was drafted in the third round. Is there a conclusion to be drawn based on these two bits of information? Mel is getting so lazy with his grades he's just going to allow his readers to guess his conclusions rather than spend the precious time he has actually writing one more sentence for the Broncos' draft grades.
Detroit Lions: GRADE: C
Drew Stanton will be measured against Brady Quinn because the Lions could have taken the Notre Dame QB.
Dog shit or meat that isn't quite spoiled yet, but getting there quickly? Which one for lunch?
A.J. Davis could be a good nickel or dime cornerback;
Davis could be or could not be a good nickel or dime cornerback. Maybe or maybe not. Stop asking Mel tough questions and just let him finish giving every team a "B" or "C" grade.
Manuel Ramirez was a nice fourth-round pick who will be a starting guard in the NFL;
Mel was correct about this.
Johnny Baldwin was a good small-school linebacker at Alabama A&M who will be a good backup and special-teams player.
Mel was not correct about this. But hey, it's a draft where Mel didn't like one of the Lions 2nd round picks, thought another 2nd round pick had low upside, and stated the other 2nd round pick was too raw. Sounds like a "C" draft according to the dartboard that Mel has which determines his draft grades. By the way, this dartboard only has "B" and "C" on it and Mel determines if a "+" or "-" will be added by the color of the dart he throws.
Green Bay Packers: GRADE: C+
Defensive tackle Justin Harrell didn't fill need, but the Packers chose the best available player over need.
This was a tough pick for the Packers. Harrell had injuries, was overweight and only ended up with 28 tackles and 0 sacks over his career with Green Bay. The list of players taken within 30 picks of Harrell is depressing for Packers fans. It's probably easier to sleep knowing they have Aaron Rodgers and a Super Bowl ring since 2007.
James Jones was a decent third-round pick, a good wide receiver with natural receiving skills;
Great analysis here. The Packers drafted a wide receiver, who just happens to have natural receiving skills. I'm starting to wonder why a team would draft a wide receiver who doesn't have natural receiving skills by the time he reaches the NFL, but that's probably a question better not asked.
WR David Clowney has a lot of speed, and inside linebackers Korey Hall and Desmond Bishop should make it in the NFL as backups.
Bishop ended up being a starter in the NFL. You know Mel is starting to get bored when he just describes a guy as "having a lot of speed" and then noting that 6th round picks should be backups in the NFL. I would say he's mailing it in, but the variety of draft grades already shows that.
Houston Texans: GRADE: C-
A "C-" is an "F" based on Mel Kiper's grading curve.
The Texans took defensive tackle Travis Johnson in 2005, and he hasn't played up to his potential. They took DT Amobi Okoye
It seems the Texans wanted a pair of defensive tackles who didn't play to their potential.
when they should have been looking at a cornerback such as Leon Hall or Darrelle Revis.
Yeah, probably.
Wide receiver Jacoby Jones played at Lane College,
This is all Mel has to say about Jacoby Jones. Why even mention him if you are only going to mention what college Jones went to? This is hilarious to me. What is the reader supposed to ascertain from reciting Jones' college?
This turned out to be a typical Houston draft. The Texans didn't help
David Carr when he was their QB, and they didn't do much to help Schaub. Cornerback Fred Bennett was a good pick in the fourth round, and I
really like linebacker Zach Diles. He had two productive years at Kansas
State and might have flown under some teams' radar. Getting Diles in
the seventh round was a good move.
Diles was productive for a 7th round pick. It seems like Mel hated the Texans draft, but he just couldn't bring himself to actually grade the Texans on his feelings about their draft. And why would Mel give a draft grade based on how he felt the Texans did in the draft in acquiring talented players who fit the team's needs? That's not the purpose of draft grades apparently.
Indianapolis Colts: GRADE: B-
The Texans should take a page from the Colts. They win the Super Bowl
and what do they do in the first round? Give Peyton Manning another
weapon on offense by taking WR Anthony Gonzalez. This was a great pick,
replacing Brandon Stokley in the Colts' arsenal.
Gonzalez really didn't do much to replace Brandon Stokley and was out of the NFL by 2012. If you ask me, while Mel likes the strategy of the Colts, I think they should have spent more time drafting for defense than giving Manning more weapons on offense. Manning has the ability to make decent receivers look greater than they are. He can't help the defense like that. That's just my opinion.
Tony Ugoh could be the heir apparent to Tarik Glenn at left tackle,
He was not.
and I really like wide receiver Roy Hall, Gonzalez's teammate at Ohio State.
He caught one pass in his NFL career.
fifth-round pick Michael Coe has the chance to be a good developmental cornerback.
One day, MAYBE, Michael Coe could develop into a cornerback. He has a chance.
Jacksonville Jaguars: GRADE: C
The Jaguars needed a playmaking safety. They not only got Florida's Reggie Nelson
Eh, can't win them all.
Not only do I like punter Adam Podlesh's strong leg, but he runs a 4.45
40 time, which will force defenses to always be thinking about a fake
punt.
I have never heard this type of evaluation about a punter. Credit to Mel for at least being creative about it. There could be a chance that Podlesh runs a fake punt, so that's important to know I guess.
Uche Nwaneri as a guard or center made sense in the fifth round.
Nwaneri (who turned out to be a good player) made sense as a guard or center, mostly because he played these positions in college. Mel likes to write, "Player X made sense in Y round" and then lists the player's position at some point in the sentence. Yes, it does make sense to draft a guy who played guard and/or center in college as a guard or center in the NFL. It does sound counter intuitive, but sense has been made. Probably more sense than liking a punter who was drafted because he's fast.
"Ah, fuck it, here's a 'C' grade. You know what? Here's another one."
Kansas City Chiefs: GRADE: C
Wide receiver Dwayne Bowe is a good player, and he filled a need for the Chiefs.
The Chiefs first round pick is a good player AND he filled a need? Why did the Chiefs do that?
Justin Medlock is a good place-kicker, but I would have taken Mason Crosby.
Yes, we know. Mel Kiper would have taken Mason Crosby #1 overall because it filled a need and Crosby can run fast in case there are any fake kicks the Raiders were looking to run. Actually, Crosby would have probably been a better #1 overall pick than JaMarcus Russell, but that's beside the point.
Mel liked most of the Chiefs picks and he gave them a "C." I have to wonder how they could have gotten a higher grade from Mel.
Miami Dolphins: GRADE: C
Passing on Brady Quinn was ridiculous.
It turns out drafting him in the first round was equally as ridiculous.
The Dolphins were fortunate that QB John Beck was still available in the
second round and they were able to salvage their quarterback situation.
Yep, consider the situation now salvaged. Wait, Mel wrote "salvaged"? I thought he meant the QB situation was "savaged." Nevermind.
Drew Mormino made sense as a backup center; Kelvin Smith has a chance to be a starting linebacker someday;
Ah yes, boring filler analysis. Mel's great at this type of thing.
and Brandon Fields has a strong leg but is inconsistent.
BUT HOW FAST DOES HE RUN IN CASE THE DOLPHINS WANT HIM TO RUN A FAKE PUNT?
Brandon Fields has made a Pro Bowl and is still the Dolphins kicker by the way.
Minnesota Vikings: GRADE: B+
Vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman had an outstanding weekend.
But not outstanding enough to earn an "A" grade of course. That would be ridiculous to say the Vikings had an outstanding draft and then actually grade them based on this opinion.
Brian Robison is a pass-rushing defensive end and a very good Day 2 selection.
This was true. Robison has 43.5 sacks in his career.
and Tyler Thigpen is more of a developmental, third-string quarterback.
What? You mean in the 7th round the Vikings didn't draft a capable backup or a sure-fire starter?
Outstanding job by Rick Spielman! Here's a grade that states you did above average, which in Mel's world is pretty much the same thing as doing outstanding.
New England Patriots: GRADE: B
Of the six picks the Pats had in the sixth and seventh rounds, they'll
be fortunate if two of them pan out. The reason for giving the Patriots a
B grade is they utilized the draft process by getting Randy Moss for a
fourth-round pick as well as acquiring the 49ers' first-round pick in
2008.
That's true, but I find it interesting that Mel grades the 2007 draft based on players the Patriots didn't select and them having the chance to select another player (a player who Mel had no idea whether he liked at this point or not) in the next year's draft. He grades this draft based on another draft basically. Just interesting. Brandon Meriweather was the only player the Patriots drafted who was on the team after the 2008 season.
New Orleans Saints: GRADE: B-
New Orleans went with Robert Meachem, the best available player on the board.
Other than Joe Staley, Ben Grubbs, Greg Olsen, Eric Weddle, and LaMar Woodley of course.
Antonio Pittman will give New Orleans more depth at running back;
Which basically means Mel thinks a fourth round pick who plays running back will make the 53-man roster. Thanks for the contribution, Mel.
Jermon Bushrod is a quality prospect at left tackle; and David Jones from Wingate was a good sleeper pick.
Bushrod was a good pick and Jones was a huge sleeper because he didn't even make the Saints roster during the 2007 season.
New York Giants: GRADE: C-
I would have gone differently with the Giants' draft.
Every single pick the Giants made was still on the roster until after at least the 2009 season. I'd be interested to know how the Giants could do better than that, in terms of depth of their draft, while having 8 picks.
Cornerback Aaron Ross has very good ball skills but not great catchup
speed. I was surprised they didn't take left tackle Joe Staley because
they need someone who can protect Eli Manning's blind side. The Giants
took offensive tackle Adam Koets in the sixth round and even passed on
left tackle Jermon Bushrod. If they had taken Staley, they could have
drafted Eric Wright from UNLV instead of WR Steve Smith. I would rather
have had Staley and Wright,
Yeah, maybe. It's not like the Giants made a huge mistake or anything drafting the way they did.
but Smith is a good receiver and will be someone who holds onto the ball.
That's always a nice quality for a receiver to have. Also, the Giants got Ahmad Bradshaw in the 7th round of this draft and Mel doesn't mention him at all. Definitely not a "C-" draft and this is why Mel doesn't like to take chances with his grades. There's a chance he could be wrong.
New York Jets: GRADE: B
it was quality over quantity for the Jets, who drafted only four
players. They traded up to get their first two picks, CB Darrelle Revis
and linebacker David Harris. I had Harris going in the first half of the
first round, so this is a great pickup for the Jets.
And they were two good picks. Not good enough for an "A" grade of course.
Jacob Bender has a chance to be a nice developmental prospect at tackle.
He has a chance to one day become a tackle. See? I told you Mel likes to write shit like this that may not mean too much.
Oakland Raiders: GRADE C+
JaMarcus Russell was a no-brainer because he has the chance to be a franchise quarterback.
"No-brainer" is how I would describe JaMarcus Russell too.
The Raiders have been trying for years to draft a tight end, and they took Zach Miller in the second round.
I'm confused by this. Who was stopping the Raiders from drafting a tight end? The team was handing in draft cards with a tight end's name on it and the NFL was changing the pick to another position that wasn't tight end? Was this all Todd Christensen's doing? Let's blame JaMarcus Russell for this too.
safety Eric Frampton was a solid fifth-round pick out of Washington
State; and Orenthal O'Neal is a good lead blocker for a fullback.
O'Neal is a good lead blocker for a fullback? That's nice to know considering a fullback's main role on the field is to be the lead blocker. I don't think Mel even knew where he was going with this sentence.
The Raiders did everything right except for one pick Mel didn't like, got a guy who had a chance to be a franchise quarterback and only got a "C" grade.
Philadelphia Eagles: GRADE: C-
It's the Mel Kiper version of an "F".
First, they made a trade with the Cowboys, who used the pick on
defensive end Anthony Spencer. Then, the Eagles used the 36th overall
pick (their first pick in the draft) on Houston QB Kevin Kolb when QBs
Drew Stanton, John Beck and Trent Edwards were all still on the board.
Yeah, that was probably a smart move in retrospect.
C.J. Gaddis, I thought, would have been a priority free agent instead of
a fifth-rounder; Brent Celek is an average tight end prospect;
Gaddis probably should have been a priority free agent, while Brent Celek is still being average on the Eagles roster and has 344 catches, 4300 plus yards, and 27 touchdowns on his NFL career so far.
Pittsburgh Steelers: GRADE: B
For the 3-4 defense, Lawrence Timmons was a good pick in the first round
and using their second-round choice on LaMarr Woodley will give the
Steelers some versatility in that Woodley could play as a defensive end
in four-man fronts. I'm not sure how effective he can be as an outside
linebacker in a 3-4 scheme,
57 sacks, 9 forced fumbles, and 5 interceptions. He seems like he's been pretty effective as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme.
I liked the fourth-round pick on Daniel Sepulveda, a left-footed punter with a big leg;
BUT HOW FAST CAN HE RUN? FAKE PUNTS HAPPEN, YOU KNOW!
Another boring "B" grade...
St. Louis Rams: GRADE: C+
I really like the pick of Brian Leonard in the second round because he
gives St. Louis options on offense. He can spell Steven Jackson at
running back, play fullback when necessary, and also be used as a move
tight end or H-back.
Unfortunately, Leonard seemed to do more of that type of thing with the Bengals than the Rams.
Former wide receiver Jonathan Wade is still raw as a cornerback but was a
decent third-round pick; center Dustin Fry is an overachiever; and
Cliff Ryan should be able to contribute along the defensive line.
That's it. If the "C+" grade didn't tip you off, then the lack of interest shown by Mel in evaluating these picks is a tip off that he was bored at this point in this draft grades. Mel just hands out "C's" and "B+" from here on out. Which really isn't straying too far from the grades he handed over this entire column.
San Diego Chargers: GRADE: C
Wide receiver Craig Davis was a slight reach in the first round, but he does fill a major need.
The need to draft a guy nicknamed "Buster" who ends up being a little bit of a bust?
Tight end Scott Chandler is a good pass catcher but a marginal blocker, and WR Legedu Naanee has long-range potential.
I guess there's not much to say about Naanee other than "He may be pretty good one day."
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B+
The 49ers got Patrick Willis, Joe Staley, Ray McDonald (for better or worse), Dashon Goldson, and Tarell Brown in this draft. It sounds like an "A" draft to me now.
After the 49ers took a tackling machine in linebacker Patrick Willis
with the 11th pick, I liked seeing them move back into the first round
(trading for New England's second first-round pick) and get Joe Staley,
one of the best offensive tackles in the draft. QB Alex Smith needs
someone who's going to protect his blind side, and Staley could do that
for years to come.
And he did. He also protected Colin Kaepernick's blind side.
Dashon Goldson is more of a backup cornerback;
Or a starting safety. Either way.
Seattle Seahawks: GRADE: C
Mansfield Wrotto (4th round) went a little high for a player I think will be a backup;
A 4th round pick is too high for a player who will be a backup? Mel thinks NFL teams are expected to still find starters in the 4th round? I don't see how that's a reasonable expectation.
wide receiver Jordan Kent, son of Oregon basketball coach Ernie Kent, also has some ability.
It's always nice that the Seahawks drafted a wide receiver with some ability. Mel's ability to give a fuck is growing weak right now.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: GRADE: C
This was a bad luck draft. Gaines Adams never really produced for the Buccaneers and never got a chance to redeem himself with the Bears before he passed away. The Bucs 2nd round pick, Arron Sears had to retire due to a neurological condition.
Tanard Jackson is an aggressive cornerback who could move inside to safety;
And he did.
linebacker Adam Hayward is a marginal prospect;
He's still in the NFL.
and offensive tackle Chris Denman is underrated and an overachiever and I like his chances of making the team.
He did not. He was placed on injured reserve, then released prior to the 2008 season.
Tennessee Titans: GRADE: C-
Vince Young needed help at wide receiver, and the Titans had Robert
Meachem staring right at them. Michael Griffin is a nice safety, but he
was a luxury pick and the Titans couldn't afford to take a safety when
they needed help at other positions.
What's the deal with Mel Kiper and luxury picks? The Titans needed to take the best football player that was available to them and not try to shoehorn a need into a player who plays that position, especially in the first round. Maybe later in the draft they should draft for need, but drafting for need and not finding the most talented player is a good way to miss on a first round pick. Michael Griffin is a two-time Pro Bowler, has made an All-Pro team and has had a nice career with the Titans.
The Titans also needed a running back, but Chris Henry wasn't productive
in the Pac-10, so I'm not sold on taking him in the second round. Wide
receivers Paul Williams, Chris Davis and Joel Filani are good but not
great.
These statements all ended up being accurate. Though I have to question why Mel was so worked up over the Titans passing on getting Vince Young weapons at wide receiver when they drafted three receivers and a running back. They didn't draft the right wide receivers and running back of course, but at least they tried.
Tennessee could have done a better job of helping the offense around Young.
What's funny is Mel is so worried about the Titans offense he didn't talk about four players (Leroy Harris, Antonio Johnson, Jacob Ford, and Mike Otto) who were drafted by the Titans and had productive NFL careers. Instead, Mel gave the Titans a Kiper "F."
Washington Redskins: GRADE: C-
Washington had only one pick in the first four rounds and made the most
of it, getting LaRon Landry. (You could argue Landry was the best
defensive player in the draft). Drafting Landry will allow Sean Taylor
to play center field and roam the middle of the field. Landry will be in
the box, and that will negate his weakness, which is judging the deep
ball.
Poor Sean Taylor. He was going to be considered such a great player by the time his career was over.
linebacker HB Blades was a decent sixth-round pick although a bit
undersized; and QB Jordan Palmer never really emerged as a potential
starter.
How does Mel know that Jordan Palmer never really emerged as a potential starter? It's true, but was Mel sent from the future to evaluate football players and tear down our very fabric of society by having the world laser-focused on the NFL draft so that the machines from the future can come and attack Earth while everyone is watching the draft? If so, he revealed himself here by using the future tense when discussing Jordan Palmer.
The least Mel could do if he really is from the future is be more risky with his draft grades (since he knows the outcome already) and not simply give every team some variation of a "B" or a "C." It's pointless to just say every NFL team did slightly above average or slightly below average when his only job at ESPN is to evaluate these players. He's supposed to have strong opinions based on watching tape over the year, not give out half-ass grades in order to avoid being seen as incorrect. I'm not asking for hot takes, just grades that seem to reflect his true attitude towards a team's draft.
Showing posts with label second guessing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label second guessing. Show all posts
Friday, December 25, 2015
Friday, May 29, 2015
2 comments Grading Mel Kiper's 2006 NFL Draft Grades
From time to time I like to go back and look at what kind of draft grade Mel Kiper has given a team's draft in a certain year. I have graded NFL draft grades for Mel's 2001 draft, the 2002 draft, the 2004 draft, the 2005 draft, and also covered Dr. Z's 2007 draft grades. For some reason, the 2005 post about Kiper's draft grades is one of the most read posts in the history of BotB. Go figure.
It's nearly impossible to be a draft expert since there are so many variables that affect whether a draft prospect succeeds or not in the NFL. Yet, Mel Kiper has made his living guessing at who the best players in each draft would be while kindly handing out "C" and "B" grades to the teams who draft these players. Mel seems to be pretty lukewarm on nearly every team's draft. In his 2006 draft grades he gives zero draft grades that aren't some form of a "B" or a "C." That's right, the guy who is paid to evaluate draft-eligible players and evaluate how teams performed in the NFL Draft thinks EVERY SINGLE team did average or slightly above average. There's no risk in taking a risk and actually evaluating a team's draft I guess. Here is where I got Mel's draft grades from since I am not an ESPN Insider.
I'll start in alphabetical order and give Mel's grade along with some of my comments on Kiper's draft grade. I promise I won't give every team a "B" or a "C" like Mel Kiper does. It's absolutely unfathomable to me he thinks every NFL team did average or above average in the draft. He's hedging like crazy and if I were ESPN I would want a draft expert on my payroll who actually has an opinion other than, "Man, I hope I am not wrong about this draft grade so I will ensure I'm not by refusing to give a realistic grade."
Arizona Cardinals: GRADE: B
I give them an A for the first day and a C for the second day.
What do you know? Kiper gave them an "A" for one day and a "C" for the other day and it equals a "B." Don't go too far out on that limb, Mel. You might fall.
The Cardinals' QB of the future, Matt Leinart, fell into their lap at No. 10 (I had Leinart as the third best player in the draft).
I'm not even sure Leinart was the third-best guy named "Matt" in this draft. Actually, there was only one guy named "Matt" drafted, so Leinart is the winner by default. Matt Prater was undrafted so Leinart is the second-best Matt in this draft among players who were drafted and undrafted.
OLB Brandon Johnson and DT Jon Lew could be good backups.
They weren't. The best player out of this draft for Arizona was either Gabe Watson or Deuce Lutui, so given the fact they missed on two of their first three picks this ended up not at all being a "B" draft. It's more like a "C-" draft.
Atlanta Falcons: GRADE: C
You have to factor in the trade that brought them defensive end John Abraham.
I don't have to factor this in, but I will. The Jets drafted Nick Mangold with the selection that sent Abraham to Atlanta. I'd say that wasn't a bad trade on the whole. Still, I don't think I factor that into my grade since I prefer to grade a team's draft on the players drafted and not on what they received for draft picks traded away.
Cornerback Jimmy Williams will help the secondary and was a good second-round pick.
Williams was out of the NFL by 2009 and had not been on an active roster since 2007. He was one of Roger Goodell's earlier personal conduct policy victims. This is better than the Falcons fifth round pick Quinn Ojinnaka who was fairly productive for the Falcons, but was arrested in 2009 after allegedly trying to throw his wife down the stairs. Though in his defense, she was trying to stab him with a pen and a 300 pound man has a right to defend himself. It probably wouldn't shock you to learn the argument was over Facebook, would it?
I was prepared to hate this draft, but while the Falcons didn't do great and missed on their second round pick, they had three guys (Jerious Norwood, Ojinnaka, and D.J. Shockley) who hung around until 2010 as backups and occasional starters. Not bad overall, but not great. I think Kiper was right..sort of. Bump the grade down to a "C-" and it's correct.
Baltimore Ravens: GRADE: B+
Their first-round pick, DT Haloti Ngata, will help right away on the interior of the line and, they hope, will free up MLB Ray Lewis. Chris Chester will help on the offensive line,
It's always nice that an offensive lineman that is drafted in the second round will be able to help on the offensive line.
On the second day, the Ravens helped themselves with WR Demetrius Williams, RB P.J. Daniels, TE Quinn Sypniewski and OLB Ryan LaCasse of Syracuse, who will be a good special-teams player.
And we all know most NFL teams are eager to draft two players in the fourth round who will be good special teams players. The Ravens got Ngata, Chester, Dawan Landry, and Sam Koch out of this draft. That's pretty good. Considering Ngata would possibly be the #1 overall pick if this draft was re-done, then I'd say this is an "A-" draft.
Buffalo Bills: GRADE: C
While it was a reach to take safety Donte Whitner with the eighth pick, he is a great prospect and I like him.
I don't understand this. Whitner was a reach, but Mel Kiper likes him and he's a great prospect. So was it really a reach if the Bills liked Whitner as much as Kiper liked Whitner?
Cornerback Ashton Youboty lasted longer than I thought
That's what she said.
Safety Ko Simpson and defensive tackle Kyle Williams are solid. Overall, the Bills reached on both of their first-round picks but drafted players who will help the team.
Remember, Mel Kiper gets paid to evaluate a team's draft and he just wrote the sentence, "The Bills reached on both of their first round picks but drafted players who will help the team." That's good to hear they drafted players that will help the team. This is analysis.
I don't know if I'm being overly-kind here, but Whitner was decent in his time in Buffalo, while McCargo was a bust. Still, the Bills came out of this draft with Kyle Williams, Brad Butler (who quit the NFL to pursue his other passions in 2009) and Keith Ellison. That's not bad at all in the last rounds. Kyle Williams is a really good player and I don't think he always get enough credit for how good he is.
I think this draft deserves the Mel Kiper special ("A" for the late rounds and a "C" for the early rounds)...a "B."
Carolina Panthers: GRADE: C
Carolina didn't draft a wide receiver and didn't take a tight end until the fifth round.
Oh my. Have you told the cops about this? What did they say?
Taking RB DeAngelo Williams at No. 27 gives the Panthers good security behind DeShaun Foster. Getting CB Richard Marshall makes up for the loss of Ricky Manning to the Bears. The Panthers made some reaches on OLB James Anderson, OT Rashad Butler and FS Nate Salley,
Anderson is still in the NFL, so he wasn't a huge reach in the 3rd round, right?
but Jeff King could be a serviceable tight end.
Jeff King was the kind of tight end who conveyed absolutely no threat in the passing game, so that's why he ended up catching over 150 passes in the NFL. Teams could leave him open because he wasn't a threat. I guess that's "serviceable." Overall, the Panthers had players like Will Montgomery and Rashad Butler who made bigger impacts for teams other than the Panthers. It wasn't a bad draft, but also not a very impactful draft for the Panthers. Mel's grade is about right.
Chicago Bears: GRADE: B
The Bears traded out of the first round and were still able to get secondary help in Danieal Manning.
And here I thought all of the cornerbacks and safeties would have been taken by the second round.
Devin Hester is a great athlete, but is he a cornerback or wide receiver? Hester will help the Bears in the return game.
Well, this was a massive understatement. Hester helped in the return game by becoming possibly the greatest return specialist in NFL history.
I really like the pick of defensive end Mark Anderson in the fifth round.
Props to Kiper because this was a great pick. Let's see, the Bears got the greatest return specialist in NFL history, a safety who was an All-Pro once, and a guy with 36.5 career sacks in the fifth round. Their third round pick missed time due to injury and the Bears didn't really miss on a player until the 6th round. Mel's grade might be a little low, but almost accurate.
Cincinnati Bengals: GRADE: C
CB Johnathan Joseph was a solid first-round pick and OT Andrew Whitworth was good value in the second round, but DE Frostee Rucker was a reach in the third round. LB A.J. Nicholson slid because he has had off-the-field issues but is good with the pads on.
Interestingly, A.J. Nicholson wasn't in the NFL long enough to cause problems because he wasn't good enough with the pads on. The Bengals got Joseph, Whitworth, Rucker, and Domata Peko out of this draft. Two of these guys are still playing for the Bengals. There's no way this is a "C" draft. This is an "A-" draft if I have seen one.
Cleveland Browns: GRADE: B
First-round pick Kamerion Wimbley will be a perfect OLB in the 3-4 defense,
Wimbley has had as much success in a 4-3 system as a defensive end as he did as an OLB in the Browns 3-4 defense. Phil Savage drafted Wimbley over Ngata because he wanted to pressure the quarterback. So there's a clue as to why the Browns are where they are now.
Wide receiver Travis Wilson could be a third or fourth option in the passing game.
He was more like the third or fourth option to be cut when it came time for cuts in 2008. Wilson did have two catches during his career, so...that's not a lot of catches. The Browns did draft Lawrence Vickers, Jerome Harrison, and D'Qwell Jackson, so this wasn't a complete bust draft for them. I think Kiper's grade ended up being slightly high. I wouldn't give it a "B."
Dallas Cowboys: GRADE: B-
In the first round, they drafted a very versatile and talented OLB, Bobby Carpenter.
Or not. Though Carpenter was one of the players out of this draft (along with Anthony Fasano) that Bill Parcells was reunited with when he joined the Miami Dolphins organization. I have no idea what this means, but Carpenter was versatile only in how many curse words Cowboys fans could use in referring to him. The Cowboys got Jason Hatcher out of this draft and there wasn't a ton more long-term (and by long-term I mean "on the team in 2008") Dallas Cowboys out of this draft. This isn't a failing draft grade, but it is close. I'm guessing Mel just picked a grade out of a hat at this point in his draft grades.
Denver Broncos: GRADE: B
You have to factor in the acquisition of WR Javon Walker when grading the Broncos.
So you want me to lower my grade because of this?
I wasn't as high on QB Jay Cutler as much as some people were -- Denver took him at No. 11 -- but he is going to a well-coached team.
A well-coached team? I thought Cutler was drafted by the Broncos? I'm kidding of course. Every single one of these draft picks, except for one (out of seven) made an impact in the NFL. The problem is every draft pick but two made an impact for the Broncos and another NFL team. Tony Scheffler, Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Domenik Hixon all had as much of an impact for other NFL teams as they did the Broncos. The Broncos did get Elvis Dumervil and Chris Kuper in this draft as well. It's pretty hard to grade the draft. Based entirely on the talent they drafted this is an "A" draft, but based on the impact this draft had for the Broncos over the long-term it was probably a "B" draft. I have said a lot of negative things about Mike Shanahan, but this was a really, really good draft for him. The Broncos may have had the second-best draft to the Saints in 2006.
Detroit Lions: GRADE: C+
I thought I'd be higher on the Lions,
"I can't believe my thoughts don't reflect the thoughts that I thought I might have."
but what concerned me was that they passed on Leinart.
In retrospect, this wasn't concerning at all. This was one of Matt Millen's smart moves. Not picking Leinart doesn't save this draft though. The Lions came away with Ernie Sims, Daniel Bullocks, and Brian Calhoun from this draft. That's still not very good. I wouldn't fail the Lions, but it is somewhat close. Mel's grade is another cop-out.
Green Bay Packers: GRADE: B
I gave Green Bay an A after the first day.
But then you realized you are going too far out on a limb and needed to push the grade back to a "B" or a "C" like every other draft grade you gave for 2006?
The Packers had a lot of picks (12), and some were definitely reaches.
And when a team has 12 picks there is zero room to reach for a prospect the team likes. Of course in keeping with his tradition of not wanting to be wrong, Kiper doesn't tell us which picks he thought were reaches.
Linebacker A.J. Hawk, their first-round pick at No. 5, will give the Packers a much-needed face on defense.
Unfortunately, this is the face he gave the defense.
Offensive tackle Daryn Colledge needs to get stronger and become a better run-blocker. I really like WR Greg Jennings, LB Abdul Hodge and C Jason Spitz. Will Blackmon was both a wide receiver and cornerback at Boston College, but reportedly he will get a chance to play corner initially.
The Packers got Hawk, Colledge, Jennings, Spitz, Blackmon and Johnny Jolly out of this draft. They also drafted Dave Tollefson but he didn't make the active roster. That's not a terribly bad roster of draft picks, even with having 12 of them. The Packers really only missed on three of these picks. I'm inclined to grade this draft highly. I would probably give it an "A." It appears Mel pulled the grade "B" out of a hat, so that's what he gave the Packers.
Houston Texans: GRADE: B+
I would have taken Reggie Bush with the first overall pick. But I have to respect the pick of Mario Williams,
Rest easy Houston Texans, Mel Kiper respects your pick of Mario Williams. Wipe the sweat off your brow now.
DeMeco Ryans at linebacker was a solid second-round pick, while Charles Spencer and Eric Winston will help out the offensive line.
Again, it's great to hear this analysis that offensive linemen drafted by an NFL team will help out that team's offensive line. Very refreshing to hear these offensive linemen won't help the team's concession stands increase their sales of popcorn.
The Texans came out of this draft with three players who have made a Pro Bowl, as well as Eric Winston. Of course, now Mario Williams and Ryans are playing for teams other than the Texans, but they did a pretty good job in drafting and I would say taking Mario Williams over Reggie Bush worked out. I think Mel's draft grade is correct, if not slightly low.
Indianapolis Colts: GRADE: C
First-round pick Joseph Addai (at No. 30) is a good blocking running back, but he is not all that dynamic running the ball. Tim Jennings will be a solid nickel cornerback, and I like the pick of LB Freddie Keiaho in the third round.
Drafting a blocking back in the first round and a nickelback in the second round is worth a "C" grade? I wonder what kind of grade Mel would have given the Colts if he felt they had actually drafted a starting player with their first two picks?
The Colts drafted three guys in this draft who had made a Pro Bowl, but Jennings didn't make the Pro Bowl while a member of the Colts team. I'm inclined to be kind to this draft considering the Colts got Antoine Bethea and Charlie Johnson in the sixth round and Addai was a key member of the 2006 Colts Super Bowl winning team. This wasn't a "C" draft and I think based on his comments Mel should have graded it lower than that. Of course, that would have made him even more wrong when evaluating the talent the Colts acquired through the 2006 draft and he can't have that. This is one of many times Mel's comments don't reflect the grade he gives a team's draft. I think this is a "B+" draft.
Jacksonville Jaguars: GRADE: C+
First-round pick Marcedes Lewis (No. 28) will get a great opportunity to be the pass-catching tight end the Jaguars need.
This type of comment means absolutely nothing. Yes, Lewis was drafted in the first round and he is a tight end, so he will get the opportunity to be a tight end that catches passes for the Jaguars.
The Jaguars only had six picks in this draft and they only really hit on three guys in the draft who had any kind of impact on the team. I still can't decide if Marcedes Lewis was a disappointment in where he was taken or not. I lean towards saying he has earned his status as a first round pick, especially since the last three years he hasn't had a decent quarterback throwing him the football. Plus, the Jaguars came out of this draft with Maurice Jones Drew in the second round. Mel's grade might be a little bit high.
Kansas City Chiefs: GRADE: C
I thought the Chiefs would go with a cornerback, but you can't argue with their first-round pick at No. 20, DE Tamba Hali. S Bernard Pollard is a hitter but is questionable in coverage.
This is the part where Bill Simmons would write BERNARD KARMELL POLLARD and I would get annoyed. The Chiefs got Tamba Hali, Pollard, and Jarrad Page out of this draft. Of course they also got the non-quarterback of the future Brodie Croyle out of this draft, so I should probably knock them down a grade for that. I think one of the many "C's" that Mel gave was right in this case.
Miami Dolphins: GRADE: C
This was a Dolphins draft when Nick Saban was the head coach. The Dolphins didn't really do great on any of their picks. Jason Allen was pretty good and the rest of the draft (Derek Hagan, Fred Evans, Devin Aromashodu) had more success with other NFL teams. This is a "D" draft, bordering on an "F" draft if you ask me.
Minnesota Vikings: GRADE: C+
Linebacker Chad Greenway was a very good pick at No. 17, while Cedric Griffin is a solid defensive back who needs to play the ball better.
Fortunately he is a cornerback so he won't have to play the ball very much or anything like that.
QB Tarvaris Jackson went a bit high, but he has a chance to be the Vikings' future quarterback
Again, it's always nice to see a quarterback drafted in the second round has a chance to be the quarterback in the future for the team that drafted him. Overall, the Vikings did pretty well. They got Chad Greenway, Cedric Griffin, Ryan Cook and Ray Edwards in this draft. Tarvaris Jackson was also taken in the second round. Not a great showing, but also not average like Mel's grade reflected. I thin Mel's grade is too low.
New England Patriots: GRADE: B
Laurence Maroney, selected at No. 21, gives the Patriots a security blanket at running back. WR Chad Jackson was a nice pick in the second round and could have gone in the middle of the first.
Ugh, I shudder at that thought.
Kicker Stephen Gostkowski was a reach in the fourth round (I didn't think any kickers would get drafted).
Gostkowski was in no way a reach and he has become one of the best kickers in the NFL. That's worth a fourth round pick. The Patriots sort of hit on Maroney in the first round and Chad Jackson was an absolute bust. Overall, the best player out of this draft was probably Stephen Gostkowski and they drafted Jeremy Mincey, but he had his most success with Jacksonville. The Patriots had 10 picks and only two of them were on the team after the 2008 season. Definitely not a "B" draft.
New Orleans Saints: GRADE: C
The Saints got the top player on the board in running back Reggie Bush, but I don't understand the pick of safety Roman Harper in the second round when they needed help at cornerback and linebacker...I do like guard Zach Strief in the seventh round, especially since he could have gone as high as the third round.
Roman Harper is still on the Saints team, so that seems to have worked out. Overall this was an excellent, excellent draft for the Saints. They had eight picks and four of these picks are still on the team today, while Reggie Bush wasn't close to a bust and Rob Ninkovich bounced around a bit before landing in New England. A draft where the Saints landed Roman Harper, Marques Colston, Jahri Evans, and Zach Strief is an excellent draft. Mel missed on this draft pretty damn bad. This was the best draft class in the 2006 NFL Draft. I would give it an "A+."
New York Giants: GRADE: C+
DE Mathias Kiwanuka was a reach late in the first round, but he will get a chance to learn from Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora.
Oh, he "has a chance to learn" from these two guys. That's good to hear. I'm glad they aren't going to ignore him completely and no one on the Giants coaching staff will choose to not coach Kiwanuka.
Getting WR Sinorice Moss in the second round was one of the best picks in the draft; he could be the deep threat the Giants' offense needs.
Or he could be injured a lot and never turn into a productive receiver. So the Giants got Kiwanuka, Barry Cofield, and a couple of guys (Guy Whimper and Charlie Peprah) who were successful as much on other teams as they were the Giants. That miss on Moss in the second round and their third round pick being a specials team-only kind of linebacker doesn't help this draft classes's grade. Let's put a "-" in front of the "C" instead of a "+."
New York Jets: GRADE: B-
I thought the Jets reached late on the first day with LB Anthony Schlegel and S Eric Smith.
It turns out Schlegel was a reach, but Eric Smith wasn't a reach at all. He was productive for the Jets for a while. The Jets drafted Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Leon Washington, and Drew Coleman in this draft as well. They did miss on a second and third round pick, but overall not a terrible draft. I think Mel's grade is a bit low, but who is to argue with the letter grade drawn out of a hat?
Oakland Raiders: GRADE C:
Safety Michael Huff, their first-round pick at No. 7, and linebacker Thomas Howard will help the defense,
Defensive players drafted by the Raiders will help the Raiders defense! What a concept and I'm glad Mel Kiper is around to provide this kind of analysis to his readers. Without it, I would be lost.
while S Darnell Bing made sense in the fourth round.
(Mel Kiper looks through his notes after Bing gets drafted, sees that Bing plays football and is draft-eligible, then nods knowingly because choosing a guy who played football in college and is eligible for the draft does make sense)
Paul McQuistan and Kevin Boothe both had more success with teams that weren't the Raiders and Michael Huff was always a bit of a disappointment. The Raiders didn't exactly blow any draft picks, but they also didn't draft any guys who made a huge impact on the team over the long-term. Mel's grade is about right.
Philadelphia Eagles: GRADE: B
This is the year the Eagles drafted Jeremy Bloom, who was a downhill skier/wide receiver in college. He was quite the big deal for a day or two. Mel got excited about the hype and said Bloom would help in the return game, which he didn't do. The Eagles got Brodrick Bunkley, Winston Justice, Chris Gocong, Max Jean-Gilles, Jason Avant, and Omar Gaither out of this draft. They drafted eight guys, six of which were contributors to their team. That's a better draft than a "B" in my opinion.
Pittsburgh Steelers: GRADE: C+
I feel like the Steelers deserve an "A" for a draft that included guys named Willie (two of them!), Orien, Omar, Marvin, and Cedric. It sounds like the names in a boy band where every member is 65 years old or more. It doesn't look like Mel gave the Steelers extra grade points for this unfortunately. This was not a great draft for the Steelers and none of the picks are currently on the team and all but two were off the team by 2008. It's not even a "C" draft.
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B+
Mel starts to get board at this point and write stuff that's even more useless than what he had written earlier in his draft grades. The 49ers drafted Vernon Davis, Manny Lawson, Parys Haralson, and Delanie Walker out of this draft. I think Mel's grade is about right.
San Diego Chargers: GRADE: C
CB Antonio Cromartie (first round, No. 19) could be a great player and has tremendous upside. The Chargers needed a cornerback, and Cromartie is worth the roll of the dice.
Cromartie has "tremendous upside"? Is Cromartie an NBA player or something?
OT Marcus McNeill is good, but he plays tall and could have trouble with quick, smaller defensive ends.
It's weird that a guy who is 6'7" would play tall. Who would have thought it? Of course if McNeill was 6'2" then Mel would drop McNeill down his draft board for being too short and not playing tall enough. Despite playing too tall, McNeill managed to start every game he played in as an NFL player. I think a "C" grade is too low. McNeill retired due to injuries, Cromartie was traded for population control reasons to the Jets since he was singlehandedly responsible for re-populating the San Diego area, and Jeromey Clary is still with the team having started 89 games with the Chargers. Definitely a better grade than the one Mel gave. I would give it a high "B" grade.
Seattle Seahawks: GRADE: B
They had only six picks, but I like what the Seahawks did with each of them.
Mel liked every pick the Seahawks made. Naturally, liking every pick a team made isn't enough to get an "A" grade. I don't know what in the hell an NFL team would have to do to get an "A" from Mel, but I chalk the "B" grade up to Mel not wanting to even come close to going out on a limb. What would an NFL team have to do in 2006 to get an "A" grade from Mel if he doesn't give an "A" to a team whose every pick he liked? Would the Seahawks have to find a way to draft more players than they had draft picks to get an "A"?
Interestingly, Mel's grade is about right. The Seahawks got Darryl Tapp, Kelly Jennings, Ben Obomanu, and Rob Sims out of this draft.
St. Louis Rams: GRADE: C+
I like some things the Rams did -- like taking CB Tye Hill at No. 15 --
Not a very good move in retrospect.
They got two very good tight ends in Joe Klopfenstein and Dominique Byrd, although Byrd dropped because of concerns about his knees.
These two tight ends had 41 combined catches in their NFL careers. The Rams didn't get much out of this draft at all. The most successful player was either Hill or Klopfenstein. Not a "C+" draft in any way.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: GRADE: C+
I still think it is hilarious that Mel only gave out "B's" and "C's" in his draft grades. How useless can he be?
Tampa Bay went offensive line with its first two picks: OG Davin Joseph and OT Jeremy Trueblood. Joseph might have been high for the first round,
Well, Joseph is still in the NFL and hasn't failed a drug test so I don't think he was high for the first round.
while Trueblood is tall and sometimes plays upright.
Mel Kiper hates tall offensive linemen. If he was building a team he would only have offensive linemen who were 6 feet tall and hunched over all the time. That's Mel's perfect offensive lineman. One who isn't tall and doesn't play tall. The Buccaneers had seven picks that didn't last past the 2007 season. Possibly Jon Gruden should have stuck to simply drafting offensive linemen since Joseph and Trueblood were the two best picks here. the Buccaneers did get two starters out of this draft, but out of 10 picks I don't think I can give them quite a "C+" for this draft.
If I were Jon Gruden I would say, "Now this draft here. I like it a lot. If I had to choose one draft class the Buccaneers had in 2006, this would be the draft class I would choose. I just love those guys."
Tennessee Titans: GRADE: B
I would have taken Leinart, but Vince Young will be a very good quarterback.
Matt Leinart was Mel Kiper's Jimmy Clausen before there was a Jimmy Clausen available in the NFL Draft. I have a feeling somewhere there is a notebook with Mel's doodle-writing all over it with hearts around Matt Leinart's name. Actually, Mel has probably burnt that notebook by now.
RB LenDale White will be highly motivated coming in as a second-round pick.
This Titans grade should be subtitled "Mel Kiper's Worst Hits."
Don't forget that he's reunited with Norm Chow, the former offensive coordinator at USC who holds that position with Tennessee.
Oh, we didn't forget it. White scored 24 touchdowns in the NFL but calling him "highly motivated" seems to be overstating the case quite a bit.
A "B" is probably a little high for this draft. Vince Young was great for the Titans in the short-term, while Cortland Finnegan and Stephen Tulloch were also great picks. Considering their first, second and third round picks didn't last being on the team past the 2010 season I have a hard time thinking this is a "B" draft.
Washington Redskins: GRADE: C
The Redskins had only one pick on the first day,
Some things will never change. Ever.
McIntosh will come in and start at weakside linebacker.
He started two games in his rookie year at weakside linebacker. The Redskins had six picks actually still have two players from this draft still on the roster. Reed Doughty and Kedric Golston. Neither player are a star, but like Rocky McIntosh they were able to contribute to the Redskins team for more than just a few years. I think for having three picks the Redskins did decently in the draft. I think Mel's draft grade is about right.
If Mel gives enough (32 of them in this case) "B's" and "C's" then eventually he will be right about a few of them. That's all that matters with Mel's draft grades. Not saying anything that could make him look bad down the line, yet by not saying anything or taking a hard stance he looks even worse than he would if he actually had the guts to really grade the draft of these teams.
It's nearly impossible to be a draft expert since there are so many variables that affect whether a draft prospect succeeds or not in the NFL. Yet, Mel Kiper has made his living guessing at who the best players in each draft would be while kindly handing out "C" and "B" grades to the teams who draft these players. Mel seems to be pretty lukewarm on nearly every team's draft. In his 2006 draft grades he gives zero draft grades that aren't some form of a "B" or a "C." That's right, the guy who is paid to evaluate draft-eligible players and evaluate how teams performed in the NFL Draft thinks EVERY SINGLE team did average or slightly above average. There's no risk in taking a risk and actually evaluating a team's draft I guess. Here is where I got Mel's draft grades from since I am not an ESPN Insider.
I'll start in alphabetical order and give Mel's grade along with some of my comments on Kiper's draft grade. I promise I won't give every team a "B" or a "C" like Mel Kiper does. It's absolutely unfathomable to me he thinks every NFL team did average or above average in the draft. He's hedging like crazy and if I were ESPN I would want a draft expert on my payroll who actually has an opinion other than, "Man, I hope I am not wrong about this draft grade so I will ensure I'm not by refusing to give a realistic grade."
Arizona Cardinals: GRADE: B
I give them an A for the first day and a C for the second day.
What do you know? Kiper gave them an "A" for one day and a "C" for the other day and it equals a "B." Don't go too far out on that limb, Mel. You might fall.
The Cardinals' QB of the future, Matt Leinart, fell into their lap at No. 10 (I had Leinart as the third best player in the draft).
I'm not even sure Leinart was the third-best guy named "Matt" in this draft. Actually, there was only one guy named "Matt" drafted, so Leinart is the winner by default. Matt Prater was undrafted so Leinart is the second-best Matt in this draft among players who were drafted and undrafted.
OLB Brandon Johnson and DT Jon Lew could be good backups.
They weren't. The best player out of this draft for Arizona was either Gabe Watson or Deuce Lutui, so given the fact they missed on two of their first three picks this ended up not at all being a "B" draft. It's more like a "C-" draft.
Atlanta Falcons: GRADE: C
You have to factor in the trade that brought them defensive end John Abraham.
I don't have to factor this in, but I will. The Jets drafted Nick Mangold with the selection that sent Abraham to Atlanta. I'd say that wasn't a bad trade on the whole. Still, I don't think I factor that into my grade since I prefer to grade a team's draft on the players drafted and not on what they received for draft picks traded away.
Cornerback Jimmy Williams will help the secondary and was a good second-round pick.
Williams was out of the NFL by 2009 and had not been on an active roster since 2007. He was one of Roger Goodell's earlier personal conduct policy victims. This is better than the Falcons fifth round pick Quinn Ojinnaka who was fairly productive for the Falcons, but was arrested in 2009 after allegedly trying to throw his wife down the stairs. Though in his defense, she was trying to stab him with a pen and a 300 pound man has a right to defend himself. It probably wouldn't shock you to learn the argument was over Facebook, would it?
I was prepared to hate this draft, but while the Falcons didn't do great and missed on their second round pick, they had three guys (Jerious Norwood, Ojinnaka, and D.J. Shockley) who hung around until 2010 as backups and occasional starters. Not bad overall, but not great. I think Kiper was right..sort of. Bump the grade down to a "C-" and it's correct.
Baltimore Ravens: GRADE: B+
Their first-round pick, DT Haloti Ngata, will help right away on the interior of the line and, they hope, will free up MLB Ray Lewis. Chris Chester will help on the offensive line,
It's always nice that an offensive lineman that is drafted in the second round will be able to help on the offensive line.
On the second day, the Ravens helped themselves with WR Demetrius Williams, RB P.J. Daniels, TE Quinn Sypniewski and OLB Ryan LaCasse of Syracuse, who will be a good special-teams player.
And we all know most NFL teams are eager to draft two players in the fourth round who will be good special teams players. The Ravens got Ngata, Chester, Dawan Landry, and Sam Koch out of this draft. That's pretty good. Considering Ngata would possibly be the #1 overall pick if this draft was re-done, then I'd say this is an "A-" draft.
Buffalo Bills: GRADE: C
While it was a reach to take safety Donte Whitner with the eighth pick, he is a great prospect and I like him.
I don't understand this. Whitner was a reach, but Mel Kiper likes him and he's a great prospect. So was it really a reach if the Bills liked Whitner as much as Kiper liked Whitner?
Cornerback Ashton Youboty lasted longer than I thought
That's what she said.
Safety Ko Simpson and defensive tackle Kyle Williams are solid. Overall, the Bills reached on both of their first-round picks but drafted players who will help the team.
Remember, Mel Kiper gets paid to evaluate a team's draft and he just wrote the sentence, "The Bills reached on both of their first round picks but drafted players who will help the team." That's good to hear they drafted players that will help the team. This is analysis.
I don't know if I'm being overly-kind here, but Whitner was decent in his time in Buffalo, while McCargo was a bust. Still, the Bills came out of this draft with Kyle Williams, Brad Butler (who quit the NFL to pursue his other passions in 2009) and Keith Ellison. That's not bad at all in the last rounds. Kyle Williams is a really good player and I don't think he always get enough credit for how good he is.
I think this draft deserves the Mel Kiper special ("A" for the late rounds and a "C" for the early rounds)...a "B."
Carolina Panthers: GRADE: C
Carolina didn't draft a wide receiver and didn't take a tight end until the fifth round.
Oh my. Have you told the cops about this? What did they say?
Taking RB DeAngelo Williams at No. 27 gives the Panthers good security behind DeShaun Foster. Getting CB Richard Marshall makes up for the loss of Ricky Manning to the Bears. The Panthers made some reaches on OLB James Anderson, OT Rashad Butler and FS Nate Salley,
Anderson is still in the NFL, so he wasn't a huge reach in the 3rd round, right?
but Jeff King could be a serviceable tight end.
Jeff King was the kind of tight end who conveyed absolutely no threat in the passing game, so that's why he ended up catching over 150 passes in the NFL. Teams could leave him open because he wasn't a threat. I guess that's "serviceable." Overall, the Panthers had players like Will Montgomery and Rashad Butler who made bigger impacts for teams other than the Panthers. It wasn't a bad draft, but also not a very impactful draft for the Panthers. Mel's grade is about right.
Chicago Bears: GRADE: B
The Bears traded out of the first round and were still able to get secondary help in Danieal Manning.
And here I thought all of the cornerbacks and safeties would have been taken by the second round.
Devin Hester is a great athlete, but is he a cornerback or wide receiver? Hester will help the Bears in the return game.
Well, this was a massive understatement. Hester helped in the return game by becoming possibly the greatest return specialist in NFL history.
I really like the pick of defensive end Mark Anderson in the fifth round.
Props to Kiper because this was a great pick. Let's see, the Bears got the greatest return specialist in NFL history, a safety who was an All-Pro once, and a guy with 36.5 career sacks in the fifth round. Their third round pick missed time due to injury and the Bears didn't really miss on a player until the 6th round. Mel's grade might be a little low, but almost accurate.
Cincinnati Bengals: GRADE: C
CB Johnathan Joseph was a solid first-round pick and OT Andrew Whitworth was good value in the second round, but DE Frostee Rucker was a reach in the third round. LB A.J. Nicholson slid because he has had off-the-field issues but is good with the pads on.
Interestingly, A.J. Nicholson wasn't in the NFL long enough to cause problems because he wasn't good enough with the pads on. The Bengals got Joseph, Whitworth, Rucker, and Domata Peko out of this draft. Two of these guys are still playing for the Bengals. There's no way this is a "C" draft. This is an "A-" draft if I have seen one.
Cleveland Browns: GRADE: B
First-round pick Kamerion Wimbley will be a perfect OLB in the 3-4 defense,
Wimbley has had as much success in a 4-3 system as a defensive end as he did as an OLB in the Browns 3-4 defense. Phil Savage drafted Wimbley over Ngata because he wanted to pressure the quarterback. So there's a clue as to why the Browns are where they are now.
Wide receiver Travis Wilson could be a third or fourth option in the passing game.
He was more like the third or fourth option to be cut when it came time for cuts in 2008. Wilson did have two catches during his career, so...that's not a lot of catches. The Browns did draft Lawrence Vickers, Jerome Harrison, and D'Qwell Jackson, so this wasn't a complete bust draft for them. I think Kiper's grade ended up being slightly high. I wouldn't give it a "B."
Dallas Cowboys: GRADE: B-
In the first round, they drafted a very versatile and talented OLB, Bobby Carpenter.
Or not. Though Carpenter was one of the players out of this draft (along with Anthony Fasano) that Bill Parcells was reunited with when he joined the Miami Dolphins organization. I have no idea what this means, but Carpenter was versatile only in how many curse words Cowboys fans could use in referring to him. The Cowboys got Jason Hatcher out of this draft and there wasn't a ton more long-term (and by long-term I mean "on the team in 2008") Dallas Cowboys out of this draft. This isn't a failing draft grade, but it is close. I'm guessing Mel just picked a grade out of a hat at this point in his draft grades.
Denver Broncos: GRADE: B
You have to factor in the acquisition of WR Javon Walker when grading the Broncos.
So you want me to lower my grade because of this?
I wasn't as high on QB Jay Cutler as much as some people were -- Denver took him at No. 11 -- but he is going to a well-coached team.
A well-coached team? I thought Cutler was drafted by the Broncos? I'm kidding of course. Every single one of these draft picks, except for one (out of seven) made an impact in the NFL. The problem is every draft pick but two made an impact for the Broncos and another NFL team. Tony Scheffler, Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Domenik Hixon all had as much of an impact for other NFL teams as they did the Broncos. The Broncos did get Elvis Dumervil and Chris Kuper in this draft as well. It's pretty hard to grade the draft. Based entirely on the talent they drafted this is an "A" draft, but based on the impact this draft had for the Broncos over the long-term it was probably a "B" draft. I have said a lot of negative things about Mike Shanahan, but this was a really, really good draft for him. The Broncos may have had the second-best draft to the Saints in 2006.
Detroit Lions: GRADE: C+
I thought I'd be higher on the Lions,
"I can't believe my thoughts don't reflect the thoughts that I thought I might have."
but what concerned me was that they passed on Leinart.
In retrospect, this wasn't concerning at all. This was one of Matt Millen's smart moves. Not picking Leinart doesn't save this draft though. The Lions came away with Ernie Sims, Daniel Bullocks, and Brian Calhoun from this draft. That's still not very good. I wouldn't fail the Lions, but it is somewhat close. Mel's grade is another cop-out.
Green Bay Packers: GRADE: B
I gave Green Bay an A after the first day.
But then you realized you are going too far out on a limb and needed to push the grade back to a "B" or a "C" like every other draft grade you gave for 2006?
The Packers had a lot of picks (12), and some were definitely reaches.
And when a team has 12 picks there is zero room to reach for a prospect the team likes. Of course in keeping with his tradition of not wanting to be wrong, Kiper doesn't tell us which picks he thought were reaches.
Linebacker A.J. Hawk, their first-round pick at No. 5, will give the Packers a much-needed face on defense.
Unfortunately, this is the face he gave the defense.
Offensive tackle Daryn Colledge needs to get stronger and become a better run-blocker. I really like WR Greg Jennings, LB Abdul Hodge and C Jason Spitz. Will Blackmon was both a wide receiver and cornerback at Boston College, but reportedly he will get a chance to play corner initially.
The Packers got Hawk, Colledge, Jennings, Spitz, Blackmon and Johnny Jolly out of this draft. They also drafted Dave Tollefson but he didn't make the active roster. That's not a terribly bad roster of draft picks, even with having 12 of them. The Packers really only missed on three of these picks. I'm inclined to grade this draft highly. I would probably give it an "A." It appears Mel pulled the grade "B" out of a hat, so that's what he gave the Packers.
Houston Texans: GRADE: B+
I would have taken Reggie Bush with the first overall pick. But I have to respect the pick of Mario Williams,
Rest easy Houston Texans, Mel Kiper respects your pick of Mario Williams. Wipe the sweat off your brow now.
DeMeco Ryans at linebacker was a solid second-round pick, while Charles Spencer and Eric Winston will help out the offensive line.
Again, it's great to hear this analysis that offensive linemen drafted by an NFL team will help out that team's offensive line. Very refreshing to hear these offensive linemen won't help the team's concession stands increase their sales of popcorn.
The Texans came out of this draft with three players who have made a Pro Bowl, as well as Eric Winston. Of course, now Mario Williams and Ryans are playing for teams other than the Texans, but they did a pretty good job in drafting and I would say taking Mario Williams over Reggie Bush worked out. I think Mel's draft grade is correct, if not slightly low.
Indianapolis Colts: GRADE: C
First-round pick Joseph Addai (at No. 30) is a good blocking running back, but he is not all that dynamic running the ball. Tim Jennings will be a solid nickel cornerback, and I like the pick of LB Freddie Keiaho in the third round.
Drafting a blocking back in the first round and a nickelback in the second round is worth a "C" grade? I wonder what kind of grade Mel would have given the Colts if he felt they had actually drafted a starting player with their first two picks?
The Colts drafted three guys in this draft who had made a Pro Bowl, but Jennings didn't make the Pro Bowl while a member of the Colts team. I'm inclined to be kind to this draft considering the Colts got Antoine Bethea and Charlie Johnson in the sixth round and Addai was a key member of the 2006 Colts Super Bowl winning team. This wasn't a "C" draft and I think based on his comments Mel should have graded it lower than that. Of course, that would have made him even more wrong when evaluating the talent the Colts acquired through the 2006 draft and he can't have that. This is one of many times Mel's comments don't reflect the grade he gives a team's draft. I think this is a "B+" draft.
Jacksonville Jaguars: GRADE: C+
First-round pick Marcedes Lewis (No. 28) will get a great opportunity to be the pass-catching tight end the Jaguars need.
This type of comment means absolutely nothing. Yes, Lewis was drafted in the first round and he is a tight end, so he will get the opportunity to be a tight end that catches passes for the Jaguars.
The Jaguars only had six picks in this draft and they only really hit on three guys in the draft who had any kind of impact on the team. I still can't decide if Marcedes Lewis was a disappointment in where he was taken or not. I lean towards saying he has earned his status as a first round pick, especially since the last three years he hasn't had a decent quarterback throwing him the football. Plus, the Jaguars came out of this draft with Maurice Jones Drew in the second round. Mel's grade might be a little bit high.
Kansas City Chiefs: GRADE: C
I thought the Chiefs would go with a cornerback, but you can't argue with their first-round pick at No. 20, DE Tamba Hali. S Bernard Pollard is a hitter but is questionable in coverage.
This is the part where Bill Simmons would write BERNARD KARMELL POLLARD and I would get annoyed. The Chiefs got Tamba Hali, Pollard, and Jarrad Page out of this draft. Of course they also got the non-quarterback of the future Brodie Croyle out of this draft, so I should probably knock them down a grade for that. I think one of the many "C's" that Mel gave was right in this case.
Miami Dolphins: GRADE: C
This was a Dolphins draft when Nick Saban was the head coach. The Dolphins didn't really do great on any of their picks. Jason Allen was pretty good and the rest of the draft (Derek Hagan, Fred Evans, Devin Aromashodu) had more success with other NFL teams. This is a "D" draft, bordering on an "F" draft if you ask me.
Minnesota Vikings: GRADE: C+
Linebacker Chad Greenway was a very good pick at No. 17, while Cedric Griffin is a solid defensive back who needs to play the ball better.
Fortunately he is a cornerback so he won't have to play the ball very much or anything like that.
QB Tarvaris Jackson went a bit high, but he has a chance to be the Vikings' future quarterback
Again, it's always nice to see a quarterback drafted in the second round has a chance to be the quarterback in the future for the team that drafted him. Overall, the Vikings did pretty well. They got Chad Greenway, Cedric Griffin, Ryan Cook and Ray Edwards in this draft. Tarvaris Jackson was also taken in the second round. Not a great showing, but also not average like Mel's grade reflected. I thin Mel's grade is too low.
New England Patriots: GRADE: B
Laurence Maroney, selected at No. 21, gives the Patriots a security blanket at running back. WR Chad Jackson was a nice pick in the second round and could have gone in the middle of the first.
Ugh, I shudder at that thought.
Kicker Stephen Gostkowski was a reach in the fourth round (I didn't think any kickers would get drafted).
Gostkowski was in no way a reach and he has become one of the best kickers in the NFL. That's worth a fourth round pick. The Patriots sort of hit on Maroney in the first round and Chad Jackson was an absolute bust. Overall, the best player out of this draft was probably Stephen Gostkowski and they drafted Jeremy Mincey, but he had his most success with Jacksonville. The Patriots had 10 picks and only two of them were on the team after the 2008 season. Definitely not a "B" draft.
New Orleans Saints: GRADE: C
The Saints got the top player on the board in running back Reggie Bush, but I don't understand the pick of safety Roman Harper in the second round when they needed help at cornerback and linebacker...I do like guard Zach Strief in the seventh round, especially since he could have gone as high as the third round.
Roman Harper is still on the Saints team, so that seems to have worked out. Overall this was an excellent, excellent draft for the Saints. They had eight picks and four of these picks are still on the team today, while Reggie Bush wasn't close to a bust and Rob Ninkovich bounced around a bit before landing in New England. A draft where the Saints landed Roman Harper, Marques Colston, Jahri Evans, and Zach Strief is an excellent draft. Mel missed on this draft pretty damn bad. This was the best draft class in the 2006 NFL Draft. I would give it an "A+."
New York Giants: GRADE: C+
DE Mathias Kiwanuka was a reach late in the first round, but he will get a chance to learn from Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora.
Oh, he "has a chance to learn" from these two guys. That's good to hear. I'm glad they aren't going to ignore him completely and no one on the Giants coaching staff will choose to not coach Kiwanuka.
Getting WR Sinorice Moss in the second round was one of the best picks in the draft; he could be the deep threat the Giants' offense needs.
Or he could be injured a lot and never turn into a productive receiver. So the Giants got Kiwanuka, Barry Cofield, and a couple of guys (Guy Whimper and Charlie Peprah) who were successful as much on other teams as they were the Giants. That miss on Moss in the second round and their third round pick being a specials team-only kind of linebacker doesn't help this draft classes's grade. Let's put a "-" in front of the "C" instead of a "+."
New York Jets: GRADE: B-
I thought the Jets reached late on the first day with LB Anthony Schlegel and S Eric Smith.
It turns out Schlegel was a reach, but Eric Smith wasn't a reach at all. He was productive for the Jets for a while. The Jets drafted Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Leon Washington, and Drew Coleman in this draft as well. They did miss on a second and third round pick, but overall not a terrible draft. I think Mel's grade is a bit low, but who is to argue with the letter grade drawn out of a hat?
Oakland Raiders: GRADE C:
Safety Michael Huff, their first-round pick at No. 7, and linebacker Thomas Howard will help the defense,
Defensive players drafted by the Raiders will help the Raiders defense! What a concept and I'm glad Mel Kiper is around to provide this kind of analysis to his readers. Without it, I would be lost.
while S Darnell Bing made sense in the fourth round.
(Mel Kiper looks through his notes after Bing gets drafted, sees that Bing plays football and is draft-eligible, then nods knowingly because choosing a guy who played football in college and is eligible for the draft does make sense)
Paul McQuistan and Kevin Boothe both had more success with teams that weren't the Raiders and Michael Huff was always a bit of a disappointment. The Raiders didn't exactly blow any draft picks, but they also didn't draft any guys who made a huge impact on the team over the long-term. Mel's grade is about right.
Philadelphia Eagles: GRADE: B
This is the year the Eagles drafted Jeremy Bloom, who was a downhill skier/wide receiver in college. He was quite the big deal for a day or two. Mel got excited about the hype and said Bloom would help in the return game, which he didn't do. The Eagles got Brodrick Bunkley, Winston Justice, Chris Gocong, Max Jean-Gilles, Jason Avant, and Omar Gaither out of this draft. They drafted eight guys, six of which were contributors to their team. That's a better draft than a "B" in my opinion.
Pittsburgh Steelers: GRADE: C+
I feel like the Steelers deserve an "A" for a draft that included guys named Willie (two of them!), Orien, Omar, Marvin, and Cedric. It sounds like the names in a boy band where every member is 65 years old or more. It doesn't look like Mel gave the Steelers extra grade points for this unfortunately. This was not a great draft for the Steelers and none of the picks are currently on the team and all but two were off the team by 2008. It's not even a "C" draft.
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B+
Mel starts to get board at this point and write stuff that's even more useless than what he had written earlier in his draft grades. The 49ers drafted Vernon Davis, Manny Lawson, Parys Haralson, and Delanie Walker out of this draft. I think Mel's grade is about right.
San Diego Chargers: GRADE: C
CB Antonio Cromartie (first round, No. 19) could be a great player and has tremendous upside. The Chargers needed a cornerback, and Cromartie is worth the roll of the dice.
Cromartie has "tremendous upside"? Is Cromartie an NBA player or something?
OT Marcus McNeill is good, but he plays tall and could have trouble with quick, smaller defensive ends.
It's weird that a guy who is 6'7" would play tall. Who would have thought it? Of course if McNeill was 6'2" then Mel would drop McNeill down his draft board for being too short and not playing tall enough. Despite playing too tall, McNeill managed to start every game he played in as an NFL player. I think a "C" grade is too low. McNeill retired due to injuries, Cromartie was traded for population control reasons to the Jets since he was singlehandedly responsible for re-populating the San Diego area, and Jeromey Clary is still with the team having started 89 games with the Chargers. Definitely a better grade than the one Mel gave. I would give it a high "B" grade.
Seattle Seahawks: GRADE: B
They had only six picks, but I like what the Seahawks did with each of them.
Mel liked every pick the Seahawks made. Naturally, liking every pick a team made isn't enough to get an "A" grade. I don't know what in the hell an NFL team would have to do to get an "A" from Mel, but I chalk the "B" grade up to Mel not wanting to even come close to going out on a limb. What would an NFL team have to do in 2006 to get an "A" grade from Mel if he doesn't give an "A" to a team whose every pick he liked? Would the Seahawks have to find a way to draft more players than they had draft picks to get an "A"?
Interestingly, Mel's grade is about right. The Seahawks got Darryl Tapp, Kelly Jennings, Ben Obomanu, and Rob Sims out of this draft.
St. Louis Rams: GRADE: C+
I like some things the Rams did -- like taking CB Tye Hill at No. 15 --
Not a very good move in retrospect.
They got two very good tight ends in Joe Klopfenstein and Dominique Byrd, although Byrd dropped because of concerns about his knees.
These two tight ends had 41 combined catches in their NFL careers. The Rams didn't get much out of this draft at all. The most successful player was either Hill or Klopfenstein. Not a "C+" draft in any way.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: GRADE: C+
I still think it is hilarious that Mel only gave out "B's" and "C's" in his draft grades. How useless can he be?
Tampa Bay went offensive line with its first two picks: OG Davin Joseph and OT Jeremy Trueblood. Joseph might have been high for the first round,
Well, Joseph is still in the NFL and hasn't failed a drug test so I don't think he was high for the first round.
while Trueblood is tall and sometimes plays upright.
Mel Kiper hates tall offensive linemen. If he was building a team he would only have offensive linemen who were 6 feet tall and hunched over all the time. That's Mel's perfect offensive lineman. One who isn't tall and doesn't play tall. The Buccaneers had seven picks that didn't last past the 2007 season. Possibly Jon Gruden should have stuck to simply drafting offensive linemen since Joseph and Trueblood were the two best picks here. the Buccaneers did get two starters out of this draft, but out of 10 picks I don't think I can give them quite a "C+" for this draft.
If I were Jon Gruden I would say, "Now this draft here. I like it a lot. If I had to choose one draft class the Buccaneers had in 2006, this would be the draft class I would choose. I just love those guys."
Tennessee Titans: GRADE: B
I would have taken Leinart, but Vince Young will be a very good quarterback.
Matt Leinart was Mel Kiper's Jimmy Clausen before there was a Jimmy Clausen available in the NFL Draft. I have a feeling somewhere there is a notebook with Mel's doodle-writing all over it with hearts around Matt Leinart's name. Actually, Mel has probably burnt that notebook by now.
RB LenDale White will be highly motivated coming in as a second-round pick.
This Titans grade should be subtitled "Mel Kiper's Worst Hits."
Don't forget that he's reunited with Norm Chow, the former offensive coordinator at USC who holds that position with Tennessee.
Oh, we didn't forget it. White scored 24 touchdowns in the NFL but calling him "highly motivated" seems to be overstating the case quite a bit.
A "B" is probably a little high for this draft. Vince Young was great for the Titans in the short-term, while Cortland Finnegan and Stephen Tulloch were also great picks. Considering their first, second and third round picks didn't last being on the team past the 2010 season I have a hard time thinking this is a "B" draft.
Washington Redskins: GRADE: C
The Redskins had only one pick on the first day,
Some things will never change. Ever.
McIntosh will come in and start at weakside linebacker.
He started two games in his rookie year at weakside linebacker. The Redskins had six picks actually still have two players from this draft still on the roster. Reed Doughty and Kedric Golston. Neither player are a star, but like Rocky McIntosh they were able to contribute to the Redskins team for more than just a few years. I think for having three picks the Redskins did decently in the draft. I think Mel's draft grade is about right.
If Mel gives enough (32 of them in this case) "B's" and "C's" then eventually he will be right about a few of them. That's all that matters with Mel's draft grades. Not saying anything that could make him look bad down the line, yet by not saying anything or taking a hard stance he looks even worse than he would if he actually had the guts to really grade the draft of these teams.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
9 comments MMQB Review: Peter King Wrote that Depression is a Character Flaw, But Don't Worry He Apologized So It's All Better Now
Peter King stalked a woman on a running trail last week in MMQB. I'm overstating what happened. He didn't stalk her. He just ran behind her for a mile and listened to her conversation while eagerly trying to remember what she was talking about. That's totally different from stalking. It's like eavesdropping, which is so much better. Peter got ready for the 2015 NFL Draft that had no consensus top players, unlike yet very much like, NFL Drafts in the past. Peter insisted there was a consensus #1 pick last year, yet I showed where Peter didn't even mock Clowney to the Texans three days before the start of the 2014 NFL Draft. This week Peter talks about THE CRAZIEST DRAFT IN THE HISTORY OF DRAFTS, how the Buccaneers didn't talk themselves into Jameis Winston, talks about the best moves (moves regarding players whose names Peter had heard of) and worst moves (moves that Peter didn't understand based on his knowing for a fact when all the players were going to be taken), and Peter enjoyed the Clippers-Spurs series even though (DID YOU KNOW THIS?) he's not a basketball fan.
Pick up the Tampa Bay Times, and see a huge photo of Jameis Winston in a red Bucs cap surrounded by nine blaring all-caps words:
Bring the paper to One Buc Place, where the team has its offices and practice facility. Winston is resplendent in a black suit, black tie, white shirt, Bucs lapel pin and that same red cap.
I still don't know if I think the crab legs photo was excellent trolling or a sign of immaturity. It probably doesn't matter either way.
Take out the paper to show Winston what greets him on his first day as a professional, the ink barely dry on his four-year, $25.3-million rookie contract, which he signed 90 minutes earlier. Open it for him to see. He looks. He’s emotionless.
What’s your reaction, Jameis?
(Winston stands on a table and screams "Fuck her righ----" as Jason Licht immediately tackles Winston and plunges a syringe into his neck)
Winston said: “I had to grow the last couple of years, because of what I’ve done, because of what I have brought on myself. It’s all a part of growing up. I can’t change people’s opinions of me. I just gotta keep getting better every day, as a player and as a man.
“The only thing I can do … It’s not words. It’s actions. It’s by my actions.”
That's a great point by Manzi---I mean Jameis Winston. It's his actions that people will judge him by.
I feel bad for Winston because the sports media just got burnt by Johnny Manziel swearing he was a different person from who he was in college and then he wasn't (I'm not blaming him, he's a person who has to grow up like any early 20-something does), so they are going to be very skeptical of Jameis Winston and his insistence he's totally different now.
Winston knows. It’s a talk-is-cheap time of his life, and he knows he has to stack day after day after day of business-like days together, one after another.
See? Manziel has ruined it for everybody over the next couple of years.
He has to win too.
What? The Buccaneers expect Winston to win them some games? The things you can learn in MMQB...
Two top-10 picks in January turning into the 23rd and 60th picks because of off-field problems. A first-round tackle turning into an undrafted player because of a Louisiana murder.
The NFL everyone!
The draft began with boredom: fairly predictable first round, and only two trades. But we’ve known Winston was going to be the first pick for so long that we forgot what a seminal pick he was, and what a risky pick too, for such a downtrodden franchise that needed him so badly.
Just like last year, when Peter had the Texans picking Blake Bortles #1 overall like everyone knew they would, the top of this draft was pretty boring.
On Friday, when Winston and his family stepped off a plane from their home in Alabama, the entire Bucs staff was in the lobby to give Winston an ovation. There might be some hate in the community and the wider world, but not here. Not today. Livelihoods are at stake, and the new quarterback can save jobs if he plays like he often did up the road at Florida State.
Yeah, no pressure Jameis. You are not only supposed to learn how to be an NFL quarterback in no time at all but everybody wants you to save their jobs. These people shouldn't be expected to save their own jobs I guess.
“One of the pivotal moments came when Lovie and I went to the Rose Bowl,” says Licht, of the Jan. 1 game that pitted Oregon against FSU, Mariota against Winston, the two best quarterbacks facing off. “We got on the plane here in Tampa and Lovie pulled out his [Microsoft] Surface to watch tape, and I didn’t even want to see what he was looking at. I wanted Lovie to come to his own decision, not influenced in any way by me.”
The game: Oregon 59, Florida State 20. A walkoff win by Mariota. Now the two men who share the final say on Bucs’ draft choices and trades were alone, thinking. After the game, in the car back to the hotel, Licht was dying to know. He said to Smith: “All right, Lovie. Who’s your guy?”
“Jase, you know who it is,” Smith said.
It's Rex Grossman isn't it?
Licht didn’t know exactly how Smith arrived at this conclusion, but he knew Smith meant Winston.
Meanwhile, Lovie Smith sat there awkwardly because he was clearly referring to the quarterback whose team won by 39 points, but he didn't want to bring this up. After all, he had made a Super Bowl with Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton. Lovie could handle Jameis being his quarterback.
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but if I'm a Bucs fan it scares me a bit that Licht had it in his mind to pick Winston for over a year now. This is the same guy who thought Josh McCown could be a full-time NFL starter just last year.
So why didn’t the Bucs, who talked to more than 75 people as part of the organization’s investigation into Winston’s character, talk to the woman who accused him of attacking her, Erica Kinsman? Did the Bucs just want the investigation to be finished, and to say what the team wanted it to say?
“That’s not the case,” Licht said adamantly. “We are not talking about this now… but we read the depositions. We knew what she was going to say. This was a thorough investigation. We were not going to mistake charisma for character.”
So the Bucs didn't talk to anyone who gave a deposition during that investigation because they knew what these people would say? Or did the Bucs talk to some people who gave a deposition, except the person who was making the accusations during the investigation? I have no dog in this fight, but talking to some who gave a deposition, while also knowing what they would say, then saying "We didn't talk to the alleged victim because we knew what she would say," sounds a bit like reaching a conclusion the team wanted to reach. If the Bucs interviewed another person who had given a deposition then why did they interview this person if they just knew what he/she would say?
Said Licht: “The more I watched of him, the more I thought, what worries you about him, you love. He’s so damn tough. So clutch. When things are going bad, he rises.”
I mean, I could make a joke about bad things and Winston "rising" in those situations, but it would not be appropriate and in poor taste.
There is no question that Licht will be judged by this pick.
BREAKING NEWS: A General Manager will be judged by his draft picks.
But Smith is adamant about one thing.
“I try as a rule to make my own decisions about a person,” he said Saturday, sitting on the edge of the couch in his office. “So we had some incidents in college about Jameis to consider. The crab legs, shooting BB guns, standing in the cafeteria and shouting things out. You know, you do stupid things sometimes when you’re 20, 21 years old. You get off track. You say later, ‘I wish I hadn’t done those things.’ But then there was a serious accusation we had to come to grips with. [The accusation that he sexually assaulted a Florida State student, Kinsman.] That was investigated three times. No charges were filed. I understand something happened. But when do you get to the point where you say, ‘We have to let the courts decide, and we abide by their ruling?’ They did not charge Jameis with anything. And at that point, I am going to make the judgment that I am not going to hold this incident against him.”
Okay...I don't think the point is to hold the incident against Winston. The point is that the Buccaneers need to know if this incident is an example of Winston's behavior towards women, if it was a one-time incident that would never happen again if it ever happened originally or it's just one example of behavior that will cause problems for him as a professional in the NFL. It's not about holding incidents against a player, but judging behavior as representative of behavior you want associated with your franchise now and in the future.
Smith met an uncle of Winston’s who asked him: “You like the NBA?” Smith said he did.
“You remember the Michael Jordan draft?”
Peter doesn't remember this because he doesn't like basketball. Has Peter ever mentioned he doesn't watch much basketball when he's busy making judgments about basketball players/teams?
Smith did. That’s the year, 1984, that Portland took the ill-fated Sam Bowie second overall, and Chicago took Jordan third.
“Don’t pick the wrong guy,” the uncle said.
Don’t pick Marcus Mariota over Winston, he meant.
IS THAT WHAT HE MEANT, PETER?
I do believe that Peter King thinks his readers are absolute morons. He feels the need to explain that "Don't pick the wrong guy," coming from Jameis Winston's uncle means Winston's uncle thinks the Bucs should choose his nephew over Marcus Mariota. Does this need an explanation? Does Peter think his readers are so stupid that they would believe Jameis' uncle is warning the Bucs NOT to choose his nephew? Does Peter think Jameis' uncle thought this would be a good chance to advocate for Dante Fowler Jr. to be the #1 overall pick? Of course Jameis' uncle is referring to drafting Mariota over Winston. Yet, Peter is compelled to explain that's the meaning to his readers of MMQB. Peter thinks his readers are idiots. So haughty of him.
They’d give this test to both Winston (first) and then Mariota (a week later). Winston reported to the facility one day in early March, and offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and quarterback coach Mike Bajakian taught him what he’d learn on the first day of rookie minicamp. “Day 1 Install,” it was called. Fifteen plays, runs and passes, with a slew of formations, progressions in the quarterback’s read, snap counts, coverages, hot receivers if the defense blitzed, offensive-line protections. Bajakian took 90 minutes to explain the “install,” flying through it on purpose, to throw a lot at Winston to see what he’d remember—more conceptually than in memorization. Then, as part of the information-overload, the coaches took him to lunch in the Bucs cafeteria,
To see if he would stand up on a table and start screaming something obscene?
introducing him to a slew of people, talking to him about his family, doing whatever to get his mind off the football and on to something else. They wanted to test his recall, and his football acumen.
And if Winston couldn't remember the name of Beverly, a fine lady who was in charge of all desserts at the Buccaneers facility, well then he certainly wasn't worth the #1 overall pick.
Licht was blown away by Koetter’s impression after that couple of hours with Winston. “I’m going to compare every guy I test like that the rest of my career to Jameis,” Koetter told Licht.
But there was one other thing that Koetter saw as a danger sign—and the Bucs realize is part of the education of a young quarterback. At Florida State, Winston threw 18 interceptions last season, and had at least seven more dropped or missed. Winston has bravado, which every team wants in its quarterback.
“I’m not afraid of making any throw,” Winston told Koetter that day in March.
“You need to be,” Koetter told Winston.
Good advice.
I think it's bad advice. Part of the reason behind Winston's success at Florida State is his confidence that he can make any throw, so why try to take that away from him? Sure, refine it and convince him to not make certain throws in certain situations, but to tell him he needs to be afraid of making any throw? I think that neuters Winston and could eventually erode his confidence by turning him into a quarterback who goes against what has made him successful in college. Teach Winston to recognize coverage and why he shouldn't make a certain throw, don't teach him to be afraid of making that throw though. Let him figure out why he shouldn't make the throw he knows he could make. What do I know though?
You may recall when I wrote about Winston—the Florida State baseball team’s closer last season—at the combine in my Feb. 23 column that I asked him whether he would ever want to play both sports as a professional. “I can’t speak on that,” he said. “It has always been my dream, but I’m just playing football right now.”
Licht and agents Greg Genske and Kenny Felder negotiated the Winston contract so he’d have the business of football out of the way and he could focus solely on football starting with the Bucs’ minicamp starting this Thursday in Tampa. In the contract, a Bucs’ source said, is a clause prohibiting Winston from playing professional baseball during the life of his Tampa Bay deal.
Winston was never really thinking of playing baseball professionally. I like how this statement made to Peter King caused some to wonder about Winston's commitment to football, yet no one seems to have a huge issue with Russell Wilson pretending he may play baseball as a negotiating tool to get a new contract. Wilson has won a Super Bowl, so his commitment to football could never be questioned, even if he spends part of the offseason hanging around the camp of the MLB team that drafted him and constantly is like, "Man, I'd like to play baseball" as an obvious negotiating tactic.
Some inside football here.
I like how Peter has to warn his readers there is some "inside football" coming up. He wants them to have this warning in case they stumbled upon MMQB and thought it was just a collection of short stories about coffee, beer and how women on running trails should really not talk on the phone because they never know who may be following them for a mile. Shows me where the priority is for MMQB these days.
Four really good stories happened between the 53rd pick in the draft, held by Cincinnati as day two of the draft began, and the 61st pick, held by Indianapolis and traded to Tampa Bay when the Colts were on the clock.
Pick 53, Cincinnati: Jake Fisher, tackle, Oregon.
Coach Marvin Lewis loved Fisher. Owner Mike Brown lives by the draft board, and midway through the round, Fisher was the only player left with a first-round Bengal grade. The Bengals turned in the pick. Alexander, working his 22nd draft with the Bengals (the coaches in Cincinnati are more involved than with any other franchise), got the biggest surprise of his personnel evaluation career: He thought one or both of Ogbuehi and Fisher would be gone at pick No. 21, and he got one of them at 21, the other at 53.
As I've said on Twitter of late, teams lie after the draft as well. Either way Marvin Lewis isn't good at player evaluation or he is lying. There was no way that Ogbuehi was going to be gone by #21 due to the injury concerns and I didn't see many mocks that had both Ogbuehi and Fisher gone at that point. I can't imagine what team would pick Ogbuehi in the top 20 picks of the draft given the concern for his knee. I could be wrong, because as we learn later clearly Peter King knows when every player in the draft was due to be drafted.
This could be a redshirt year for Ogbuehi, who won’t be fully healthy until at least November;
Exactly, but Marvin Lewis thinks Ogbuehi would go in the first 20 picks and there is a chance Fisher goes that early too? Once you accept NFL teams lie about shit year-round, it makes what they say much easier to see through.
Pick 55, Baltimore: Maxx Williams, tight end, Minnesota.
But then, maybe 45 minutes before they were scheduled to pick, the Ravens heard reliably (or so they thought) that the Steelers were locked on Williams. Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t; you never know in the middle of the draft if you are being played or getting the real scoop. But Baltimore began to call teams ahead of Pittsburgh, picking 56th, to see if they would move. Arizona, at 55, was willing, figuring the guy they wanted here, defensive end Markus Golden of Missouri would likely make it to 58. For the cost of a pick exactly 100 picks later—No. 158 overall—Baltimore leapfrogged Pittsburgh. The Ravens picked Williams.
“So for a fifth-round pick, Ravens stole Maxx Williams from Steelers. Great move,” tweeted Ed Bouchette, long-time and plugged-in Steeler beat man.
It's interesting to me how Peter pays attention to what some NFL beat guys Tweet and ignores others. Ed Bouchette confirms the Steelers may have wanted Williams, so Peter takes this as reality, but later in this MMQB Peter states another prospect was a reach in the 1st round when a Dallas sportscaster stated the Cowboys were going to take this player at #27.
The Steelers got their rookie tight end, Jesse James of Penn State, in the fifth round. It’ll be interesting to see over the next few years how much damage Williams does in this rivalry. The Steelers are the types to look back, but if Williams makes beautiful music with Flacco, he’ll add some spice to a rivalry that doesn’t need it.
Keep creating these storylines and narratives, Peter. We can't let exciting football games between these two teams be the only story. There has to be more.
Pick 60, Dallas: Randy Gregory, defensive end/outside linebacker, Nebraska. My first thought after this pick: Rod Marinelli’s going to have Greg Hardy and Randy Gregory in his defensive team meeting room. Hope he’s ready. The Cowboys honestly considered Gregory in the first round, too, before going for another need guy, cornerback Byron Jones of UConn. When it got close to pick 60, I’m told a serious conversation wasn’t needed; Gregory was such a strong candidate as a player that Dallas was willing to work with him on his marijuana history, and his history of depression and anxiety, according to SI.com’s Don Banks. Other reports say Gregory was either bipolar or had some other personality disorder that made it difficult for him to focus on football, or anything, for long periods. Gregory, without question, was a top-10 value on talent alone. But he tumbled down so many draft boards because of his character flaws.
Yes, in the original draft of this MMQB Peter King referred to a history of depression and anxiety, as well as possibly being bipolar as "character flaws." Of course he did. These are the types of things that Peter writes without thinking. He later apologized on Twitter and all was good. I, of course, made some vague Tweets about a lack of comment from a certain guy who works for "SI" who criticizes other writers and sports talking heads for their comments, as he was suspiciously quiet about this statement. I feel like he gives more leeway to employees of "SI" for statements such as this. He has sort of a "Yeah, he screwed that one up" type of attitude, which is fine, but I get concerned Peter even made the statement in MMQB. Sure, he apologized, but if I Tweet something insensitive on a topic (or do something like this almost every month as it seems of late in regard to Peter King), then what good is an apology if my audience doesn't believe I won't just do it again? That's how I feel about Peter. I feel he is so disconnected from reality in some ways that he needs everyone to say, "Hey buddy, being bi-polar isn't a 'character flaw'" and it shouldn't be that way. Should Peter need someone to correct this statement for him? I wouldn't think so, yet he does. I think that merits some criticism.
Talking football, there have always been rumors that Greg Hardy is a bit bi-polar as well. It's always a rumor and it doesn't mean it's correct. Some guys are just odd. I heard similar stuff about Gregory during the college football season, but in a slightly different version.
And for the Jones family. On Sunday night, I spoke with Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, who was on the front line of the Gregory decision over the past month:
Said with no sense of irony from the team that signed Greg Hardy as a free agent.
Translation (and this goes for every NFL team): If they can win us some games and make their position coach look good, then they have a spot on this team. Just as long as they don't get in trouble again, of course. If these players do get in trouble then the team will try to figure out how good they will be without that player and take action or not take action accordingly.
Pick 61, Tampa Bay: Ali Marpet, guard, Hobart. Not a lot of pressure on Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht in this draft. There’s the Jameis Winston pick, and the dangers of that. There’s the disaster of 2014 free agency, which included the pricey acquisition at left tackle, Anthony Collins, failing miserably and getting cut after the season.
Don't forget the rest of the failure from the 2014 free agency period and win the Buccaneers "won" free agency before by signing Carl Nicks and Dashon Goldson.
At the Senior Bowl, offensive line coach George Warhop told Licht his favorite two players were Smith and Marpet. At the combine, after Marpet ran a guard-best 4.98 40-yard dash, Licht texted one of the Bucs’ owners in the Glazer family—desperate for news on how the quarterbacks looked in Indianapolis—with news on the passers. And he added: “By the way, our favorite player here is Ali Marpet.”
Isn't it weird how most NFL teams get the exact players they loved prior to the draft on draft day? It's odd how nearly every single team was targeting this specific player and then they ended up drafting that player. Yet it happens all the time. A team is targeting a player and then they land that player. Odd, especially given the NFL teams don't continue to lie after the draft. It's all truth-telling from that point on.
On Sept. 13, 2014, Marpet played left tackle and blocked for quarterback Patrick Conlan against Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., with 1,725 watching. On Sept. 13, 2015, if all goes well, Marpet will line up at right guard and block for the first pick in the NFL draft, Jameis Winston, in his NFL debut against the Tennessee Titans, with 65,908 watching. That’s not too big an adjustment, is it?
Well, since Marpet isn't a woman official then I see no reason why this would be a huge adjustment for him. If Marpet were a female official making her introduction to NFL life, then Peter would have serious issues with this type of adjustment.
Now Peter names his "GM's of the Weekend" or as it is better known, "GM's who seem to have made good moves on paper because that's all Peter really understands or knows at this point."
Trent Baalke, San Francisco. No one plays the futures trading game better than Baalke. He held the 15th pick of the first round, and the worst-kept secret in football leading up to the draft was that San Francisco was over-the-top smitten with Oregon defensive end Arik Armstead. Here was Armstead, available at 15. But here came San Diego, picking 17th, desperately wanting to get up to pick Melvin Gordon, fearful that Houston, at 16, might. Baalke got San Diego’s fourth-round pick this year and fifth-round pick in 2016, and still got Armstead picking at 17 … at a savings of about $725,000 in first-round-slotting-system contract dollars because Baalke got him two picks later. Baalke also traded a pick 10 slots from the bottom of the draft, number 246 overall, and flipped that to Dallas for a 2016 sixth-rounder. So the Niners enter the offseason with a league-high nine picks in the 2016 draft.
As Peter is prone to do, he thinks a team "wins" the draft by having the most picks in next year's draft and creating more picks in this year's draft. This "futures game" that Baalke is playing worked so well for the 49ers last year, plus he has Jim Tomsula coaching these guys up so what could go wrong?
Next year around draft time, Peter is sure to have a MMQB where he will state that the 49ers "control" the 2016 NFL Draft. What team "won" the draft the year before will then "control" the draft for the next year. That's how it works for Peter.
Mike Maccagnan, New York Jets.
Maccagnan added a speed merchant used to playing big games, Ohio State’s Devin Smith,
Oh, so how will Smith having experience playing in big games help the Jets then?
and an intriguing quarterback prospect, Bryce Petty, with a value pick at 103.
Intriguing meaning, "He's a white, pocket quarterback who some reporters got duped into believing he would be taken earlier so this seems like a steal based on incorrect previous information these reporters had."
Tom Telesco, San Diego. I like Melvin Gordon a lot, and the Denzel Perryman pick gives San Diego three solid inside linebackers; Perryman will be the best of the lot by midseason. But this nod to Telesco is for not trading Philip Rivers. Making that trade because Rivers is 33 and the Chargers aren’t sure if he’ll sign with the franchise long-term would been a dumb, panicked move
Great job in not doing something stupid by trading a franchise quarterback! Also, the Saints didn't trade Drew Brees, so kudos to their front office for not considering a trade since Brees has a huge cap number next year and the team may have to renegotiate or release him. They could have considered a trade, but did not. Great job!
GM I Couldn’t Figure Out
Dave Gettleman, Carolina. None of these things can be judged for at least a couple of years, of course, so Gettleman, who has done a good job being patient in his Carolina rebuild, deserves time to see if he’s right and everyone else is wrong.
Whatever. I don't care about Peter's opinion of the Panthers' draft. What I do care about is when Peter says things that aren't factually true. While earlier in this MMQB he paid attention to a Tweet from Ed Bouchette, and created a narrative regarding the drafting of Maxx Williams by the Ravens, when the Steelers wanted him as well. It seems Peter ignores other evidence he could find where a statement he might want to believe is true, is actually incorrect.
But with a significant tackle need (Carolina is due to start the shaky Michael Oher on Cam Newton’s blind side, no pun intended), I thought Gettleman over-drafted Shaq Thompson at 25. Thompson certainly would have been there 10 or more picks later.
Thompson "certainly" would have been there. Really? From a Dallas sportscaster...
And picking wide receiver/tight end combo guy Devin Funchess at 41 was a significant reach, according to the chorus of GMs I spoke with over the weekend. “Can be lazy and become disinterested in the game if he goes stretches without being utilized,” Ourlads Guide to the NFL Draft wrote of Funchess.
You mean like Steve Smith would get, which is why the game plan usually ensured he got the ball early in every game? And of course, these GM's all were lying before the draft, but they are back to always telling the truth after the draft is over.
But Gettleman didn’t just reach for Funchess. He traded third- and sixth-round picks to move up to get him. There will be significant pressure on the 14th tackle picked in this draft, fourth-round pick Daryl Williams, to produce at tackle for Carolina.
He's not even penciled in as the starter right now. The guy who started the last part of the season and two playoff games is penciled in as the starter. So.............not as much pressure as Peter King wants there to be.
None of these players may be any good and this could be an "F" draft. I don't care, but at least try and base these opinions on fact if you are going to try and pass them off as fact.
Picks I Liked
40. Tennessee: Dorial Green-Beckham, wide receiver, Missouri/Oklahoma. No idea if he’ll boom or bust. But the 40th pick is a good place for a player with Randy Moss raw talent and a risk-reward pockmarked past.
Peter needed to get a quick interview in with Stephen Jones to find out what motivated the Cowboys to draft a guy with "character flaws" at #60, but the guy who pushed a girl down some stairs at #40, well that seems about the right time to take a kid with that kind of talent. Peter likes it.
Idiot Mock Drafter of the Year
Me. When will I learn? I got worse as the month went on. In my mock draft from last Tuesday, I had four direct hits: Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Trae Waynes, Arik Armstead. In my mock draft April 1, I had six direct hits: Winston, Mariota, Waynes, Dante Fowler, DeVante Parker, Kevin Johnson. I mean, who gets worse with four more weeks to research?
Someone who takes the time to speak with NFL GM's and scouts about their feelings regarding which teams will pick which players at certain spots. Someone who then relies on these same anonymous scouts and GM's to honestly evaluate players after the draft is over and yet now feels like he has gotten to the bottom of the truth.
“It doesn’t bother me. It happens all the time. That’s what makes sports great. You have nothing to talk about on sports radio, it’s ‘Hey, let’s talk trades,’ and everybody comes up with a trade. It’s great. I think it’s fun. But if the guy getting talked about in the trade gets a little nervous, my point is, I’ve got to tell him just not to listen to that stuff. I mean, everybody can trade. Trade me. I don’t care.”
—Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly, on the spate of trade rumors around his team, as reports swirled that he desperately wanted to trade up to acquire Marcus Mariota with the first or second pick of the draft.
The wisdom of Chip Kelly. What wisdom it is.
Factoids of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Todd Gurley was the top-rated player on the St. Louis draft board.
It doesn't surprise me the future Los Angeles Rams had Gurley as the top-rated player on their board. He's a stud running back, even if he is coming off a major injury. Plus, Jeff Fisher knows you build a team from the running back position up while ignoring the quarterback position until he has to upgrade at that position.
The Atlanta Falcons in April arranged for a former star linebacker, Jessie Tuggle, to announce the team’s fifth-round pick, live from the new College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. All teams did their day-three picks remotely, to boost interest locally somewhere in the home market, and most got at least one former star to announce one or more of them.
Tuggle was handed the card to make the announcement and looked down at it.
Tuggle’s son.
This is an interesting story, but it's exactly that, a story. This isn't a "factoid" by any stretch of the imagination. I just am saying this probably doesn't fit under the "Factoids of the Week that May Only Interest Me" section of MMQB. It's a story, not a fact.
Marcus Mariota does not have accounts on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Then that must mean he is going to be successful in the NFL because he's too focused on succeeding to have time for social media. It could also mean he doesn't want anyone seeing the things that he does during his life, whether good or bad, but that's probably just the jaded away of looking at it.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Notes of the Week
1. The more big events in my life in Chicago, the better. Love that city. Love walking everywhere. Love the crowds on Michigan Avenue.
It's a great place to walk behind people for a mile or so while they are talking on the phone or just trying to go about living their lives.
My Chicago hotel Wednesday and Thursday nights, before traveling to Tampa on Friday, was 1.6 miles from the draft site on Michigan Avenue. I walked it three times in the two days I was in town and wouldn’t have minded walking it six times.
Peter even followed this one lady down an alley. He had been trailing behind her for a few blocks while she was on her phone and then she quickly turned down an alley (she must have been in a hurry!) and ran off. It's weird to Peter how the women in Chicago would take off running after he trailed behind them for a while. It must be a new exercise program.
Then Peter has a Tweet about Floyd Mayweather's team pulling the credential of Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beadle. I didn't feel like embedding it, but if Mayweather pulling a credential from journalists would surprise you then it shouldn't.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think it was cool to see Nate Boyer, the 34-year-old Army Special Forces veteran of three tours in the Middle East, get signed as an undrafted free-agent long-snapper by the Seahawks on Saturday. That shouldn’t be confused with “has a great job at winning the long-snapping job with the Seahawks” because of the clear advantage that incumbent Clint Gresham has to win the job. Not only did Gresham just sign a three-year, $2.7-million deal with Seattle, with a $300,000 signing bonus, but he has some physical advantages. He’s six years younger, and 6-3 and 240. Boyer is 5-11 and 220.
Nate Boyer didn't have a bad snap in three years at Texas. Yet, he went undrafted and finally got on with a team as an undrafted free agent. Was Boyer undrafted because he's old and was in the military? Obviously it couldn't have had anything to do with his skill set. Why did he go undrafted just because he's older and served his country?
(Seeing if anyone gets this non-hilarious parody of last year's post-draft rage)
3. I think there haven’t been many stories like the La’el Collins story since I’ve covered the NFL, and we need to let the legal system take its course. But if I were him, and if I were exonerated by police in the case, I would go play football somewhere this year.
Since apparently I was a homer a little while back while discussing the Panthers draft, let me be a homer for another minute. Robert Klemko responded back to me on Twitter (he's another writer who looks for his name on Twitter, even when it's not tagged) at my criticism that he had the Panthers taking Dorial Beckham-Green at #25. Yeah, it wasn't ever happening. Never. Not happening.
After paying $13.1 million to a guy who sat out the rest of the 2014 season due to legal troubles, the team was going to draft a guy who pushed a girl down stairs? No fucking way. Klemko defended the mock draft choice (found here) by telling me Dave Gettleman (the Panthers GM) was with the Giants when Plaxico got in legal trouble and then the team drafted Hakeem Nicks. He then called Nicks "no angel" at UNC. Interesting, except Nicks did nothing at UNC that could qualify for "no angel" status. He never got in trouble with the law, at least that I could find. Nicks was part of an academic fraud investigation, but that was AFTER he was drafted and had played for the Giants. But sure, whatever way Klemko wants to defend his picks, even he has to play slightly loose with facts. This response bothered me for some reason. He seems to have made up Nicks being "no angel" at UNC, unless there is something else I don't know about or couldn't find he was referring to.
8. I think the NFL allowing the Patriots’ deflated football saga—the Ted Wells investigative team began its work 101 days ago—to stretch past the draft makes this absurdity possible: If New England is punished, say by the loss of a draft choice, something that happened in the 2014 season will be punished in the 2016 season. That’s just wrong. Roger Goodell cannot simply say to Ted Wells or to any investigator: “Get back to me when you get back to me.” He has to either put a time limit on the investigation, or at the bare minimum, say, “You’ve got to have this done some time before the draft, so if there are sanctions to be assessed, we can assess them at the right time, not a year and a half later.”
Look Peter, Roger Goodell is not in charge of a timeline for any type of NFL investigation. Sure, maybe Wells is collecting billing hours while sipping cocktails, but he's doing that without Roger Goodell's knowledge. Sometimes an investigation into whether a bunch of footballs were deflated, and if true, when they were deflated takes over 100 days. Roger Goodell expects the NFL's players to do exactly as he wants them to do, but his hands are tied when it comes to making Ted Wells wrap up an investigation the NFL is paying him to provide conclusions on.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. So Alex Rodriguez tied for number four on the all-time home run list. So? Let me know when he’s going for number one, and then I’ll pay attention. I mean, in what other walk of life does time stop when you become the fourth-best at something, particularly with Rodiguez’s asterisks?
Way to try and pass it off as not a big deal, Peter. Yeah, who really cares about the 4th leading home run hitter in MLB history. Who is Willie Mays anyway? It's no big deal. Nice way to pretend your apathy doesn't revolve entirely around A-Rod's repeated PED use.
b. Kevin Harlan in last two minutes of Clippers-Spurs: “I DO NOT WANT THIS SERIES TO END!”
c. Me either,
But Peter, you are talking about the NBA. ARE YOU A FAN OF THE NBA? YOU HAVEN'T MADE YOUR POSITION ON THIS CLEAR IN THE PAST!
and I’m not even a basketball fan.
Oh, that's better. No mention of the NBA, and the mentions happen every week now, are complete without a caveat on how much Peter hates the NBA.
d. B.B. King is in hospice care. Comfort to him. Our culture has been so enriched because of him.
I'm betting the only B.B. King song that Peter knows is "When Love Comes to Town," and he only knows this song because King did the song with U2.
i. Always good to steal a game at Wrigley, as I did Wednesday night. Thanks to my SI Chicago ad sales team for a fun evening, even in the 46-degree chill. Gerrit Cole’s something to see. And it was cool to see Andrew McCutchen’s 1,000th career hit, a screaming triple to the center field warning track.
The ball was probably screaming because Peter had been following behind it for a mile, eavesdropping on the conversations it was having.
The Adieu Haiku
Marpet, guard. Hobart.
In the second round. Hobart.
You kidding? Hobart
Congrats, Peter! In a 11 word haiku, you manged to use the same word three times. This is now the most useless "Adieu Haiku" in MMQB history. I would say it's the fourth-worst "Adieu Haiku" but apparently no one cares about the fourth-best or worst at anything.
Pick up the Tampa Bay Times, and see a huge photo of Jameis Winston in a red Bucs cap surrounded by nine blaring all-caps words:
Bring the paper to One Buc Place, where the team has its offices and practice facility. Winston is resplendent in a black suit, black tie, white shirt, Bucs lapel pin and that same red cap.
I still don't know if I think the crab legs photo was excellent trolling or a sign of immaturity. It probably doesn't matter either way.
Take out the paper to show Winston what greets him on his first day as a professional, the ink barely dry on his four-year, $25.3-million rookie contract, which he signed 90 minutes earlier. Open it for him to see. He looks. He’s emotionless.
What’s your reaction, Jameis?
(Winston stands on a table and screams "Fuck her righ----" as Jason Licht immediately tackles Winston and plunges a syringe into his neck)
Winston said: “I had to grow the last couple of years, because of what I’ve done, because of what I have brought on myself. It’s all a part of growing up. I can’t change people’s opinions of me. I just gotta keep getting better every day, as a player and as a man.
“The only thing I can do … It’s not words. It’s actions. It’s by my actions.”
That's a great point by Manzi---I mean Jameis Winston. It's his actions that people will judge him by.
I feel bad for Winston because the sports media just got burnt by Johnny Manziel swearing he was a different person from who he was in college and then he wasn't (I'm not blaming him, he's a person who has to grow up like any early 20-something does), so they are going to be very skeptical of Jameis Winston and his insistence he's totally different now.
Winston knows. It’s a talk-is-cheap time of his life, and he knows he has to stack day after day after day of business-like days together, one after another.
See? Manziel has ruined it for everybody over the next couple of years.
He has to win too.
What? The Buccaneers expect Winston to win them some games? The things you can learn in MMQB...
Two top-10 picks in January turning into the 23rd and 60th picks because of off-field problems. A first-round tackle turning into an undrafted player because of a Louisiana murder.
The NFL everyone!
The draft began with boredom: fairly predictable first round, and only two trades. But we’ve known Winston was going to be the first pick for so long that we forgot what a seminal pick he was, and what a risky pick too, for such a downtrodden franchise that needed him so badly.
Just like last year, when Peter had the Texans picking Blake Bortles #1 overall like everyone knew they would, the top of this draft was pretty boring.
On Friday, when Winston and his family stepped off a plane from their home in Alabama, the entire Bucs staff was in the lobby to give Winston an ovation. There might be some hate in the community and the wider world, but not here. Not today. Livelihoods are at stake, and the new quarterback can save jobs if he plays like he often did up the road at Florida State.
Yeah, no pressure Jameis. You are not only supposed to learn how to be an NFL quarterback in no time at all but everybody wants you to save their jobs. These people shouldn't be expected to save their own jobs I guess.
“One of the pivotal moments came when Lovie and I went to the Rose Bowl,” says Licht, of the Jan. 1 game that pitted Oregon against FSU, Mariota against Winston, the two best quarterbacks facing off. “We got on the plane here in Tampa and Lovie pulled out his [Microsoft] Surface to watch tape, and I didn’t even want to see what he was looking at. I wanted Lovie to come to his own decision, not influenced in any way by me.”
The game: Oregon 59, Florida State 20. A walkoff win by Mariota. Now the two men who share the final say on Bucs’ draft choices and trades were alone, thinking. After the game, in the car back to the hotel, Licht was dying to know. He said to Smith: “All right, Lovie. Who’s your guy?”
“Jase, you know who it is,” Smith said.
It's Rex Grossman isn't it?
Licht didn’t know exactly how Smith arrived at this conclusion, but he knew Smith meant Winston.
Meanwhile, Lovie Smith sat there awkwardly because he was clearly referring to the quarterback whose team won by 39 points, but he didn't want to bring this up. After all, he had made a Super Bowl with Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton. Lovie could handle Jameis being his quarterback.
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but if I'm a Bucs fan it scares me a bit that Licht had it in his mind to pick Winston for over a year now. This is the same guy who thought Josh McCown could be a full-time NFL starter just last year.
So why didn’t the Bucs, who talked to more than 75 people as part of the organization’s investigation into Winston’s character, talk to the woman who accused him of attacking her, Erica Kinsman? Did the Bucs just want the investigation to be finished, and to say what the team wanted it to say?
“That’s not the case,” Licht said adamantly. “We are not talking about this now… but we read the depositions. We knew what she was going to say. This was a thorough investigation. We were not going to mistake charisma for character.”
So the Bucs didn't talk to anyone who gave a deposition during that investigation because they knew what these people would say? Or did the Bucs talk to some people who gave a deposition, except the person who was making the accusations during the investigation? I have no dog in this fight, but talking to some who gave a deposition, while also knowing what they would say, then saying "We didn't talk to the alleged victim because we knew what she would say," sounds a bit like reaching a conclusion the team wanted to reach. If the Bucs interviewed another person who had given a deposition then why did they interview this person if they just knew what he/she would say?
Said Licht: “The more I watched of him, the more I thought, what worries you about him, you love. He’s so damn tough. So clutch. When things are going bad, he rises.”
I mean, I could make a joke about bad things and Winston "rising" in those situations, but it would not be appropriate and in poor taste.
There is no question that Licht will be judged by this pick.
BREAKING NEWS: A General Manager will be judged by his draft picks.
But Smith is adamant about one thing.
“I try as a rule to make my own decisions about a person,” he said Saturday, sitting on the edge of the couch in his office. “So we had some incidents in college about Jameis to consider. The crab legs, shooting BB guns, standing in the cafeteria and shouting things out. You know, you do stupid things sometimes when you’re 20, 21 years old. You get off track. You say later, ‘I wish I hadn’t done those things.’ But then there was a serious accusation we had to come to grips with. [The accusation that he sexually assaulted a Florida State student, Kinsman.] That was investigated three times. No charges were filed. I understand something happened. But when do you get to the point where you say, ‘We have to let the courts decide, and we abide by their ruling?’ They did not charge Jameis with anything. And at that point, I am going to make the judgment that I am not going to hold this incident against him.”
Okay...I don't think the point is to hold the incident against Winston. The point is that the Buccaneers need to know if this incident is an example of Winston's behavior towards women, if it was a one-time incident that would never happen again if it ever happened originally or it's just one example of behavior that will cause problems for him as a professional in the NFL. It's not about holding incidents against a player, but judging behavior as representative of behavior you want associated with your franchise now and in the future.
Smith met an uncle of Winston’s who asked him: “You like the NBA?” Smith said he did.
“You remember the Michael Jordan draft?”
Peter doesn't remember this because he doesn't like basketball. Has Peter ever mentioned he doesn't watch much basketball when he's busy making judgments about basketball players/teams?
Smith did. That’s the year, 1984, that Portland took the ill-fated Sam Bowie second overall, and Chicago took Jordan third.
“Don’t pick the wrong guy,” the uncle said.
Don’t pick Marcus Mariota over Winston, he meant.
IS THAT WHAT HE MEANT, PETER?
I do believe that Peter King thinks his readers are absolute morons. He feels the need to explain that "Don't pick the wrong guy," coming from Jameis Winston's uncle means Winston's uncle thinks the Bucs should choose his nephew over Marcus Mariota. Does this need an explanation? Does Peter think his readers are so stupid that they would believe Jameis' uncle is warning the Bucs NOT to choose his nephew? Does Peter think Jameis' uncle thought this would be a good chance to advocate for Dante Fowler Jr. to be the #1 overall pick? Of course Jameis' uncle is referring to drafting Mariota over Winston. Yet, Peter is compelled to explain that's the meaning to his readers of MMQB. Peter thinks his readers are idiots. So haughty of him.
They’d give this test to both Winston (first) and then Mariota (a week later). Winston reported to the facility one day in early March, and offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and quarterback coach Mike Bajakian taught him what he’d learn on the first day of rookie minicamp. “Day 1 Install,” it was called. Fifteen plays, runs and passes, with a slew of formations, progressions in the quarterback’s read, snap counts, coverages, hot receivers if the defense blitzed, offensive-line protections. Bajakian took 90 minutes to explain the “install,” flying through it on purpose, to throw a lot at Winston to see what he’d remember—more conceptually than in memorization. Then, as part of the information-overload, the coaches took him to lunch in the Bucs cafeteria,
To see if he would stand up on a table and start screaming something obscene?
introducing him to a slew of people, talking to him about his family, doing whatever to get his mind off the football and on to something else. They wanted to test his recall, and his football acumen.
And if Winston couldn't remember the name of Beverly, a fine lady who was in charge of all desserts at the Buccaneers facility, well then he certainly wasn't worth the #1 overall pick.
Licht was blown away by Koetter’s impression after that couple of hours with Winston. “I’m going to compare every guy I test like that the rest of my career to Jameis,” Koetter told Licht.
But there was one other thing that Koetter saw as a danger sign—and the Bucs realize is part of the education of a young quarterback. At Florida State, Winston threw 18 interceptions last season, and had at least seven more dropped or missed. Winston has bravado, which every team wants in its quarterback.
“I’m not afraid of making any throw,” Winston told Koetter that day in March.
“You need to be,” Koetter told Winston.
Good advice.
I think it's bad advice. Part of the reason behind Winston's success at Florida State is his confidence that he can make any throw, so why try to take that away from him? Sure, refine it and convince him to not make certain throws in certain situations, but to tell him he needs to be afraid of making any throw? I think that neuters Winston and could eventually erode his confidence by turning him into a quarterback who goes against what has made him successful in college. Teach Winston to recognize coverage and why he shouldn't make a certain throw, don't teach him to be afraid of making that throw though. Let him figure out why he shouldn't make the throw he knows he could make. What do I know though?
You may recall when I wrote about Winston—the Florida State baseball team’s closer last season—at the combine in my Feb. 23 column that I asked him whether he would ever want to play both sports as a professional. “I can’t speak on that,” he said. “It has always been my dream, but I’m just playing football right now.”
Licht and agents Greg Genske and Kenny Felder negotiated the Winston contract so he’d have the business of football out of the way and he could focus solely on football starting with the Bucs’ minicamp starting this Thursday in Tampa. In the contract, a Bucs’ source said, is a clause prohibiting Winston from playing professional baseball during the life of his Tampa Bay deal.
Winston was never really thinking of playing baseball professionally. I like how this statement made to Peter King caused some to wonder about Winston's commitment to football, yet no one seems to have a huge issue with Russell Wilson pretending he may play baseball as a negotiating tool to get a new contract. Wilson has won a Super Bowl, so his commitment to football could never be questioned, even if he spends part of the offseason hanging around the camp of the MLB team that drafted him and constantly is like, "Man, I'd like to play baseball" as an obvious negotiating tactic.
Some inside football here.
I like how Peter has to warn his readers there is some "inside football" coming up. He wants them to have this warning in case they stumbled upon MMQB and thought it was just a collection of short stories about coffee, beer and how women on running trails should really not talk on the phone because they never know who may be following them for a mile. Shows me where the priority is for MMQB these days.
Four really good stories happened between the 53rd pick in the draft, held by Cincinnati as day two of the draft began, and the 61st pick, held by Indianapolis and traded to Tampa Bay when the Colts were on the clock.
Pick 53, Cincinnati: Jake Fisher, tackle, Oregon.
Coach Marvin Lewis loved Fisher. Owner Mike Brown lives by the draft board, and midway through the round, Fisher was the only player left with a first-round Bengal grade. The Bengals turned in the pick. Alexander, working his 22nd draft with the Bengals (the coaches in Cincinnati are more involved than with any other franchise), got the biggest surprise of his personnel evaluation career: He thought one or both of Ogbuehi and Fisher would be gone at pick No. 21, and he got one of them at 21, the other at 53.
As I've said on Twitter of late, teams lie after the draft as well. Either way Marvin Lewis isn't good at player evaluation or he is lying. There was no way that Ogbuehi was going to be gone by #21 due to the injury concerns and I didn't see many mocks that had both Ogbuehi and Fisher gone at that point. I can't imagine what team would pick Ogbuehi in the top 20 picks of the draft given the concern for his knee. I could be wrong, because as we learn later clearly Peter King knows when every player in the draft was due to be drafted.
This could be a redshirt year for Ogbuehi, who won’t be fully healthy until at least November;
Exactly, but Marvin Lewis thinks Ogbuehi would go in the first 20 picks and there is a chance Fisher goes that early too? Once you accept NFL teams lie about shit year-round, it makes what they say much easier to see through.
Pick 55, Baltimore: Maxx Williams, tight end, Minnesota.
But then, maybe 45 minutes before they were scheduled to pick, the Ravens heard reliably (or so they thought) that the Steelers were locked on Williams. Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t; you never know in the middle of the draft if you are being played or getting the real scoop. But Baltimore began to call teams ahead of Pittsburgh, picking 56th, to see if they would move. Arizona, at 55, was willing, figuring the guy they wanted here, defensive end Markus Golden of Missouri would likely make it to 58. For the cost of a pick exactly 100 picks later—No. 158 overall—Baltimore leapfrogged Pittsburgh. The Ravens picked Williams.
“So for a fifth-round pick, Ravens stole Maxx Williams from Steelers. Great move,” tweeted Ed Bouchette, long-time and plugged-in Steeler beat man.
It's interesting to me how Peter pays attention to what some NFL beat guys Tweet and ignores others. Ed Bouchette confirms the Steelers may have wanted Williams, so Peter takes this as reality, but later in this MMQB Peter states another prospect was a reach in the 1st round when a Dallas sportscaster stated the Cowboys were going to take this player at #27.
The Steelers got their rookie tight end, Jesse James of Penn State, in the fifth round. It’ll be interesting to see over the next few years how much damage Williams does in this rivalry. The Steelers are the types to look back, but if Williams makes beautiful music with Flacco, he’ll add some spice to a rivalry that doesn’t need it.
Keep creating these storylines and narratives, Peter. We can't let exciting football games between these two teams be the only story. There has to be more.
Pick 60, Dallas: Randy Gregory, defensive end/outside linebacker, Nebraska. My first thought after this pick: Rod Marinelli’s going to have Greg Hardy and Randy Gregory in his defensive team meeting room. Hope he’s ready. The Cowboys honestly considered Gregory in the first round, too, before going for another need guy, cornerback Byron Jones of UConn. When it got close to pick 60, I’m told a serious conversation wasn’t needed; Gregory was such a strong candidate as a player that Dallas was willing to work with him on his marijuana history, and his history of depression and anxiety, according to SI.com’s Don Banks. Other reports say Gregory was either bipolar or had some other personality disorder that made it difficult for him to focus on football, or anything, for long periods. Gregory, without question, was a top-10 value on talent alone. But he tumbled down so many draft boards because of his character flaws.
Yes, in the original draft of this MMQB Peter King referred to a history of depression and anxiety, as well as possibly being bipolar as "character flaws." Of course he did. These are the types of things that Peter writes without thinking. He later apologized on Twitter and all was good. I, of course, made some vague Tweets about a lack of comment from a certain guy who works for "SI" who criticizes other writers and sports talking heads for their comments, as he was suspiciously quiet about this statement. I feel like he gives more leeway to employees of "SI" for statements such as this. He has sort of a "Yeah, he screwed that one up" type of attitude, which is fine, but I get concerned Peter even made the statement in MMQB. Sure, he apologized, but if I Tweet something insensitive on a topic (or do something like this almost every month as it seems of late in regard to Peter King), then what good is an apology if my audience doesn't believe I won't just do it again? That's how I feel about Peter. I feel he is so disconnected from reality in some ways that he needs everyone to say, "Hey buddy, being bi-polar isn't a 'character flaw'" and it shouldn't be that way. Should Peter need someone to correct this statement for him? I wouldn't think so, yet he does. I think that merits some criticism.
Talking football, there have always been rumors that Greg Hardy is a bit bi-polar as well. It's always a rumor and it doesn't mean it's correct. Some guys are just odd. I heard similar stuff about Gregory during the college football season, but in a slightly different version.
And for the Jones family. On Sunday night, I spoke with Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, who was on the front line of the Gregory decision over the past month:
The MMQB: Did you consider him in the first round? I heard you did.
Jones: I think in this day and time, we want our first-round pick to be clean. That’s how we operated here.
Said with no sense of irony from the team that signed Greg Hardy as a free agent.
The MMQB: Rod Marinelli seems like a my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy. Was he on board with Gregory?
Jones: Absolutely. He is my
way or the highway. He has said to us before about certain players, ‘I
don’t think I can work with this guy.’ But if they love football, and if
they fight their ass off in practice and in games, he can work with
them. And he wants them.
Translation (and this goes for every NFL team): If they can win us some games and make their position coach look good, then they have a spot on this team. Just as long as they don't get in trouble again, of course. If these players do get in trouble then the team will try to figure out how good they will be without that player and take action or not take action accordingly.
Pick 61, Tampa Bay: Ali Marpet, guard, Hobart. Not a lot of pressure on Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht in this draft. There’s the Jameis Winston pick, and the dangers of that. There’s the disaster of 2014 free agency, which included the pricey acquisition at left tackle, Anthony Collins, failing miserably and getting cut after the season.
Don't forget the rest of the failure from the 2014 free agency period and win the Buccaneers "won" free agency before by signing Carl Nicks and Dashon Goldson.
At the Senior Bowl, offensive line coach George Warhop told Licht his favorite two players were Smith and Marpet. At the combine, after Marpet ran a guard-best 4.98 40-yard dash, Licht texted one of the Bucs’ owners in the Glazer family—desperate for news on how the quarterbacks looked in Indianapolis—with news on the passers. And he added: “By the way, our favorite player here is Ali Marpet.”
Isn't it weird how most NFL teams get the exact players they loved prior to the draft on draft day? It's odd how nearly every single team was targeting this specific player and then they ended up drafting that player. Yet it happens all the time. A team is targeting a player and then they land that player. Odd, especially given the NFL teams don't continue to lie after the draft. It's all truth-telling from that point on.
On Sept. 13, 2014, Marpet played left tackle and blocked for quarterback Patrick Conlan against Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., with 1,725 watching. On Sept. 13, 2015, if all goes well, Marpet will line up at right guard and block for the first pick in the NFL draft, Jameis Winston, in his NFL debut against the Tennessee Titans, with 65,908 watching. That’s not too big an adjustment, is it?
Well, since Marpet isn't a woman official then I see no reason why this would be a huge adjustment for him. If Marpet were a female official making her introduction to NFL life, then Peter would have serious issues with this type of adjustment.
Now Peter names his "GM's of the Weekend" or as it is better known, "GM's who seem to have made good moves on paper because that's all Peter really understands or knows at this point."
Trent Baalke, San Francisco. No one plays the futures trading game better than Baalke. He held the 15th pick of the first round, and the worst-kept secret in football leading up to the draft was that San Francisco was over-the-top smitten with Oregon defensive end Arik Armstead. Here was Armstead, available at 15. But here came San Diego, picking 17th, desperately wanting to get up to pick Melvin Gordon, fearful that Houston, at 16, might. Baalke got San Diego’s fourth-round pick this year and fifth-round pick in 2016, and still got Armstead picking at 17 … at a savings of about $725,000 in first-round-slotting-system contract dollars because Baalke got him two picks later. Baalke also traded a pick 10 slots from the bottom of the draft, number 246 overall, and flipped that to Dallas for a 2016 sixth-rounder. So the Niners enter the offseason with a league-high nine picks in the 2016 draft.
As Peter is prone to do, he thinks a team "wins" the draft by having the most picks in next year's draft and creating more picks in this year's draft. This "futures game" that Baalke is playing worked so well for the 49ers last year, plus he has Jim Tomsula coaching these guys up so what could go wrong?
Next year around draft time, Peter is sure to have a MMQB where he will state that the 49ers "control" the 2016 NFL Draft. What team "won" the draft the year before will then "control" the draft for the next year. That's how it works for Peter.
Mike Maccagnan, New York Jets.
Maccagnan added a speed merchant used to playing big games, Ohio State’s Devin Smith,
Oh, so how will Smith having experience playing in big games help the Jets then?
and an intriguing quarterback prospect, Bryce Petty, with a value pick at 103.
Intriguing meaning, "He's a white, pocket quarterback who some reporters got duped into believing he would be taken earlier so this seems like a steal based on incorrect previous information these reporters had."
Tom Telesco, San Diego. I like Melvin Gordon a lot, and the Denzel Perryman pick gives San Diego three solid inside linebackers; Perryman will be the best of the lot by midseason. But this nod to Telesco is for not trading Philip Rivers. Making that trade because Rivers is 33 and the Chargers aren’t sure if he’ll sign with the franchise long-term would been a dumb, panicked move
Great job in not doing something stupid by trading a franchise quarterback! Also, the Saints didn't trade Drew Brees, so kudos to their front office for not considering a trade since Brees has a huge cap number next year and the team may have to renegotiate or release him. They could have considered a trade, but did not. Great job!
GM I Couldn’t Figure Out
Dave Gettleman, Carolina. None of these things can be judged for at least a couple of years, of course, so Gettleman, who has done a good job being patient in his Carolina rebuild, deserves time to see if he’s right and everyone else is wrong.
Whatever. I don't care about Peter's opinion of the Panthers' draft. What I do care about is when Peter says things that aren't factually true. While earlier in this MMQB he paid attention to a Tweet from Ed Bouchette, and created a narrative regarding the drafting of Maxx Williams by the Ravens, when the Steelers wanted him as well. It seems Peter ignores other evidence he could find where a statement he might want to believe is true, is actually incorrect.
But with a significant tackle need (Carolina is due to start the shaky Michael Oher on Cam Newton’s blind side, no pun intended), I thought Gettleman over-drafted Shaq Thompson at 25. Thompson certainly would have been there 10 or more picks later.
Thompson "certainly" would have been there. Really? From a Dallas sportscaster...
Cowboys wanted Shaq Thompson in 1st round...Landon Collins very similar player but wasn't under consideration here
— Bill Jones (@CBS11BillJones) May 2, 2015
Peter King: Carolina "over-drafted Shaq Thompson at 25...would have been there 10 or more picks later.">Shaq wasn't getting past 27
— Bill Jones (@CBS11BillJones) May 4, 2015
Maybe it is just Dallas saying that and the Panthers stumbled into drafting him at the perfect time.
Gettleman says on @WFNZ #Panthers' Don Gregory said during pre-draft that Shaq might go to Cowboys, team got a call yesterday confirming.
— Chris Kroeger (@Kroeger) May 4, 2015
So I don't care what Peter thinks, but evidence points to Thompson not being a reach at #27. Maybe the Panthers are lying and they really care if "experts" think they reached and the Cowboys are covering for them. Or maybe Peter just sort of wrote what he felt he knew but didn't really know. And picking wide receiver/tight end combo guy Devin Funchess at 41 was a significant reach, according to the chorus of GMs I spoke with over the weekend. “Can be lazy and become disinterested in the game if he goes stretches without being utilized,” Ourlads Guide to the NFL Draft wrote of Funchess.
You mean like Steve Smith would get, which is why the game plan usually ensured he got the ball early in every game? And of course, these GM's all were lying before the draft, but they are back to always telling the truth after the draft is over.
But Gettleman didn’t just reach for Funchess. He traded third- and sixth-round picks to move up to get him. There will be significant pressure on the 14th tackle picked in this draft, fourth-round pick Daryl Williams, to produce at tackle for Carolina.
He's not even penciled in as the starter right now. The guy who started the last part of the season and two playoff games is penciled in as the starter. So.............not as much pressure as Peter King wants there to be.
None of these players may be any good and this could be an "F" draft. I don't care, but at least try and base these opinions on fact if you are going to try and pass them off as fact.
Picks I Liked
40. Tennessee: Dorial Green-Beckham, wide receiver, Missouri/Oklahoma. No idea if he’ll boom or bust. But the 40th pick is a good place for a player with Randy Moss raw talent and a risk-reward pockmarked past.
Peter needed to get a quick interview in with Stephen Jones to find out what motivated the Cowboys to draft a guy with "character flaws" at #60, but the guy who pushed a girl down some stairs at #40, well that seems about the right time to take a kid with that kind of talent. Peter likes it.
Idiot Mock Drafter of the Year
Me. When will I learn? I got worse as the month went on. In my mock draft from last Tuesday, I had four direct hits: Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Trae Waynes, Arik Armstead. In my mock draft April 1, I had six direct hits: Winston, Mariota, Waynes, Dante Fowler, DeVante Parker, Kevin Johnson. I mean, who gets worse with four more weeks to research?
Someone who takes the time to speak with NFL GM's and scouts about their feelings regarding which teams will pick which players at certain spots. Someone who then relies on these same anonymous scouts and GM's to honestly evaluate players after the draft is over and yet now feels like he has gotten to the bottom of the truth.
“It doesn’t bother me. It happens all the time. That’s what makes sports great. You have nothing to talk about on sports radio, it’s ‘Hey, let’s talk trades,’ and everybody comes up with a trade. It’s great. I think it’s fun. But if the guy getting talked about in the trade gets a little nervous, my point is, I’ve got to tell him just not to listen to that stuff. I mean, everybody can trade. Trade me. I don’t care.”
—Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly, on the spate of trade rumors around his team, as reports swirled that he desperately wanted to trade up to acquire Marcus Mariota with the first or second pick of the draft.
The wisdom of Chip Kelly. What wisdom it is.
Factoids of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Todd Gurley was the top-rated player on the St. Louis draft board.
It doesn't surprise me the future Los Angeles Rams had Gurley as the top-rated player on their board. He's a stud running back, even if he is coming off a major injury. Plus, Jeff Fisher knows you build a team from the running back position up while ignoring the quarterback position until he has to upgrade at that position.
The Atlanta Falcons in April arranged for a former star linebacker, Jessie Tuggle, to announce the team’s fifth-round pick, live from the new College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. All teams did their day-three picks remotely, to boost interest locally somewhere in the home market, and most got at least one former star to announce one or more of them.
Tuggle was handed the card to make the announcement and looked down at it.
Grady Jarrett, defensive tackle, Clemson.
Tuggle’s son.
This is an interesting story, but it's exactly that, a story. This isn't a "factoid" by any stretch of the imagination. I just am saying this probably doesn't fit under the "Factoids of the Week that May Only Interest Me" section of MMQB. It's a story, not a fact.
Marcus Mariota does not have accounts on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Then that must mean he is going to be successful in the NFL because he's too focused on succeeding to have time for social media. It could also mean he doesn't want anyone seeing the things that he does during his life, whether good or bad, but that's probably just the jaded away of looking at it.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Notes of the Week
1. The more big events in my life in Chicago, the better. Love that city. Love walking everywhere. Love the crowds on Michigan Avenue.
It's a great place to walk behind people for a mile or so while they are talking on the phone or just trying to go about living their lives.
My Chicago hotel Wednesday and Thursday nights, before traveling to Tampa on Friday, was 1.6 miles from the draft site on Michigan Avenue. I walked it three times in the two days I was in town and wouldn’t have minded walking it six times.
Peter even followed this one lady down an alley. He had been trailing behind her for a few blocks while she was on her phone and then she quickly turned down an alley (she must have been in a hurry!) and ran off. It's weird to Peter how the women in Chicago would take off running after he trailed behind them for a while. It must be a new exercise program.
Then Peter has a Tweet about Floyd Mayweather's team pulling the credential of Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beadle. I didn't feel like embedding it, but if Mayweather pulling a credential from journalists would surprise you then it shouldn't.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think it was cool to see Nate Boyer, the 34-year-old Army Special Forces veteran of three tours in the Middle East, get signed as an undrafted free-agent long-snapper by the Seahawks on Saturday. That shouldn’t be confused with “has a great job at winning the long-snapping job with the Seahawks” because of the clear advantage that incumbent Clint Gresham has to win the job. Not only did Gresham just sign a three-year, $2.7-million deal with Seattle, with a $300,000 signing bonus, but he has some physical advantages. He’s six years younger, and 6-3 and 240. Boyer is 5-11 and 220.
Nate Boyer didn't have a bad snap in three years at Texas. Yet, he went undrafted and finally got on with a team as an undrafted free agent. Was Boyer undrafted because he's old and was in the military? Obviously it couldn't have had anything to do with his skill set. Why did he go undrafted just because he's older and served his country?
(Seeing if anyone gets this non-hilarious parody of last year's post-draft rage)
3. I think there haven’t been many stories like the La’el Collins story since I’ve covered the NFL, and we need to let the legal system take its course. But if I were him, and if I were exonerated by police in the case, I would go play football somewhere this year.
Since apparently I was a homer a little while back while discussing the Panthers draft, let me be a homer for another minute. Robert Klemko responded back to me on Twitter (he's another writer who looks for his name on Twitter, even when it's not tagged) at my criticism that he had the Panthers taking Dorial Beckham-Green at #25. Yeah, it wasn't ever happening. Never. Not happening.
After paying $13.1 million to a guy who sat out the rest of the 2014 season due to legal troubles, the team was going to draft a guy who pushed a girl down stairs? No fucking way. Klemko defended the mock draft choice (found here) by telling me Dave Gettleman (the Panthers GM) was with the Giants when Plaxico got in legal trouble and then the team drafted Hakeem Nicks. He then called Nicks "no angel" at UNC. Interesting, except Nicks did nothing at UNC that could qualify for "no angel" status. He never got in trouble with the law, at least that I could find. Nicks was part of an academic fraud investigation, but that was AFTER he was drafted and had played for the Giants. But sure, whatever way Klemko wants to defend his picks, even he has to play slightly loose with facts. This response bothered me for some reason. He seems to have made up Nicks being "no angel" at UNC, unless there is something else I don't know about or couldn't find he was referring to.
8. I think the NFL allowing the Patriots’ deflated football saga—the Ted Wells investigative team began its work 101 days ago—to stretch past the draft makes this absurdity possible: If New England is punished, say by the loss of a draft choice, something that happened in the 2014 season will be punished in the 2016 season. That’s just wrong. Roger Goodell cannot simply say to Ted Wells or to any investigator: “Get back to me when you get back to me.” He has to either put a time limit on the investigation, or at the bare minimum, say, “You’ve got to have this done some time before the draft, so if there are sanctions to be assessed, we can assess them at the right time, not a year and a half later.”
Look Peter, Roger Goodell is not in charge of a timeline for any type of NFL investigation. Sure, maybe Wells is collecting billing hours while sipping cocktails, but he's doing that without Roger Goodell's knowledge. Sometimes an investigation into whether a bunch of footballs were deflated, and if true, when they were deflated takes over 100 days. Roger Goodell expects the NFL's players to do exactly as he wants them to do, but his hands are tied when it comes to making Ted Wells wrap up an investigation the NFL is paying him to provide conclusions on.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. So Alex Rodriguez tied for number four on the all-time home run list. So? Let me know when he’s going for number one, and then I’ll pay attention. I mean, in what other walk of life does time stop when you become the fourth-best at something, particularly with Rodiguez’s asterisks?
Way to try and pass it off as not a big deal, Peter. Yeah, who really cares about the 4th leading home run hitter in MLB history. Who is Willie Mays anyway? It's no big deal. Nice way to pretend your apathy doesn't revolve entirely around A-Rod's repeated PED use.
b. Kevin Harlan in last two minutes of Clippers-Spurs: “I DO NOT WANT THIS SERIES TO END!”
c. Me either,
But Peter, you are talking about the NBA. ARE YOU A FAN OF THE NBA? YOU HAVEN'T MADE YOUR POSITION ON THIS CLEAR IN THE PAST!
and I’m not even a basketball fan.
Oh, that's better. No mention of the NBA, and the mentions happen every week now, are complete without a caveat on how much Peter hates the NBA.
d. B.B. King is in hospice care. Comfort to him. Our culture has been so enriched because of him.
I'm betting the only B.B. King song that Peter knows is "When Love Comes to Town," and he only knows this song because King did the song with U2.
i. Always good to steal a game at Wrigley, as I did Wednesday night. Thanks to my SI Chicago ad sales team for a fun evening, even in the 46-degree chill. Gerrit Cole’s something to see. And it was cool to see Andrew McCutchen’s 1,000th career hit, a screaming triple to the center field warning track.
The ball was probably screaming because Peter had been following behind it for a mile, eavesdropping on the conversations it was having.
The Adieu Haiku
Marpet, guard. Hobart.
In the second round. Hobart.
You kidding? Hobart
Congrats, Peter! In a 11 word haiku, you manged to use the same word three times. This is now the most useless "Adieu Haiku" in MMQB history. I would say it's the fourth-worst "Adieu Haiku" but apparently no one cares about the fourth-best or worst at anything.
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