FINALLY!
The day of the NFL Draft is upon us and soon there will be no more mocking and no more bludgeoning of fans with highlights of Johnny Manziel. By the time you lay your head on the cool side of your pillow tonight, “Johnny Football” will be some team not named the Ravens injury prone problem.
ARROGANCE IS BLISS! Give the NFL credit for monetizing their product even if it comes at the expense of their customers. Prior to 2014 the offseason had a nice rhythm to it. The Scouting Combine would flow into free agency and then on to draft coverage, the draft, post-draft analysis and then organized team activities.
Between mid-June and mid-July is the league’s quiet time which fits nicely into the vacation schedule of the majority of Americans, after which training camp would commence followed by the preseason and the regular season.
This season Roger Goodell and his merry band of Gordon Gekko clones pushed the draft back and now the rhythm has been lost. Fans are sick of draft coverage and they prefer Mel Kiper Jr.’s showtime at Radio City two weeks earlier. But the league doesn’t care. They want to beat us all over the head with draft coverage because it means more TV and web programming which equates to more ad revenue.
Now there’s talk of expanding the draft to four days instead of the current three day format AND there is talk of pushing the draft even deeper into May which in the end will only make it even more difficult for rookies to absorb new playbooks prior to the start of training camp. An unprepared rookie is also more susceptible to injury.
But who cares about that if the NFL’s collective wallet is a little fatter, right?
Oy vey. MT @BobMcGinn: 3 NFL people I really trust say NFL giving serious consideration to scheduling the draft a week or two later in 2015.
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) May 7, 2014
WHO WILL THE RAVENS PICK? Perhaps the better question is “Where will the Ravens pick?” Currently the Ravens have the draft’s 17th overall selection but as we’ve seen many times before, Ozzie Newsome is more than willing to trade up or down.
Many think the Ravens will NOT trade up because they have only 4 tradable picks. But if a player falls that the Ravens REALLY like, they’ll sacrifice a pick to move up.
Let’s not forget that this is a deep draft with a record number of underclassmen. The Ravens have 30% more players on their draft board than during a typical draft. When all is said and done, a 6th round pick in 2013 is an undrafted free agent in 2014 and there, in the mythical 8th round, the Ravens have always done well.
The guess here is that the Ravens will hold tight and take the best player available IF a few of the top rated quarterbacks are taken ahead of them. That will push players down the board and into the laps of the waiting birds.
BUT…
If QB-needy teams resist the temptation to turn in the card for a quarterback and those signal callers tumble down the board, other teams might be interested in trading up into the teens to get their guy. The Ravens could be a potential trade partner particularly if players like Zack Martin and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix are off the board.
SAFETY IN NUMBERS? It would be rather unusual to see the Ravens take a safety with their first overall pick in two consecutive drafts. One source has indicated that Clinton-Dix is one of four coveted players that Ravens would select with the 17th overall pick if available, but safety isn’t a position where teams typically invest a big portion of their salary cap. Two first-round picks will eventually become expensive, particularly when these players approach free agency (thank-you-very-much-Earl-Thomas).
Word is the team would be comfortable heading into training camp with S Darian Stewart as their starter. Don’t worry, no one expected James Ihedigbo to be a starter last season and that clearly wasn’t the reason the Ravens didn’t advance to the playoffs for the first time in the John Harbaugh era.
PIG IN A FISH WRAP! Hey editors at The Sun, I don’t care to read your final mock draft if I have to advance 32 slides so that you can inflate your web traffic numbers. Two words: Ain’t happenin’!
Even football’s biggest larcenists allow fans to see their final mock with one click. Here NFL Network’s mock has Alabama inside linebacker CJ Mosely pegged for the Ravens. Inside linebackers aren’t in vogue as much as they once were. Most are in the mold of run-stuffers and as we’ve seen the league is moving away from the traditional ground attacks.
But Mosely is a well-rounded player who has excellent cover skills. Coupling him with Arthur Brown could eventually rival the 49ers dynamic duo of Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman.
THE ULTIMATE MIKE linebacker named Ray will sit at ESPN’s draft desk along with Chris Berman and Mel Kiper, Jr. and Jon Gruden. That combination of personalities could heighten the entertainment value of the draft, particularly if you tire of the Mike Mayock Drinking Game.
ARE YOU A DRAFTNIK PRETENDER? Draftniks in America are far and wide, some better than others and some who think they know more than the guys in the 32 war rooms across the NFL. And then there are the pretenders…those who act like they are familiar with collegiate talent. A few of these pretenders are exposed in this ruse below.
NON-FOOTBALL QUOTE OF THE DAY!
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