It’s just days before the NFL draft and this fan has just about had it. It’s Prospect Overload time for me and I’m fed up with NFL draft predictions.
I’m tired of listening to Mel Kiper, Floyd Reese, Todd McShay, and Drew Boylhart. I’ve stopped reading the Huddle Report, ESPN.com, Pro Football Weekly, the Redzone.com and any other draftnik web site I haven’t mentioned.
I don’t watch the daily ESPN draft specials anymore and ignore the Bottom Line when it runs Mel’s predictions. They’ve analyzed, over-analyzed, and are covering the same territory for the umpteenth time. ESPN is well into shill time at this point.
And we’re going to learn something new in the next few days?
Not me. I’m stuffed.
Let’s face it; nobody knows what Ozzie Newsome and Eric DeCosta are going to do on Saturday and neither do the talking heads. Predictions are useless. Their philosophy of “Best Player Available†leaves open a wide range of opportunities, depending on who drops in the draft order and who’s available – and who’s on their best player left on their board. Anyway, the Ravens draft board is as close as you can get to a state secret.
Ozzie told us as much earlier this week when the Ravens held their annual “Draft Liar’s Lunch.†Take a quarterback at round 29? It better be Jamarus Russell or Brady Quinn!! Those of you who’ve read John Feinstein’s excellent chronicle of the Ravens 2004 season, Next Man Up, remember Ozzie’s reply when Feinstein asked to see the Ravens 04 draft board, and I paraphrase Newsome’s response here: Information on my board never leaves this room. Why should I let you see it to put in a book for everyone to read?
As another famous Tony has said, “Fuggetaboutit.â€
Next Saturday is going to be a regular weekend day for me. I’m not going to pay 15 bucks to attend Ravens draft day for the opportunity to watch Chris (The Orca) Berman pontificate for hours on end while I pay regular season prices for food and drink. I can stay home, do the same thing, and save myself a lot of money. At most, I’ll listen to Tony and the Gang on GAMETIME just to keep tabs on who goes where, but that’s about it.
Nothing important regarding the Ravens is going to happen before 4 PM at the earliest. Then I’ll dial up the World Wide Leader to see where we stand.
We know whoever Ozzie and Eric select in the first round will be a lock to start and star. The second round choice will have the potential for a solid NFL career. Personally, I’m much more interested in watching the second day of the draft. Then we’ll see the real Ozzie magic – what hidden gems he mines that will be Raven stars of the future.
