Draft
As you may have guessed we will have a draft item each day this week. We love the draft you know this.
Today, let's cover five teams with the most interesting positions in Thursday's first round. Deal? Deal.
But before that, let's remind everyone about our "Dodging the Draft while Feeling the Draft and drinking a draft NFL Draft Contest." Here are the categories:
- Number of SEC players picked in round 1:
- First quarterback to be drafted:
- Titans' first pick:
- First team to trade its pick:
- Falcons' first pick:
Each is worth a point, save the last one, which is worth 1.1 to help in tie-breaking scenarios. It also keeps you glued to the set though the entirety of round one. As for some clarifications.
First, if a player once was at an SEC school but transferred, he does not count as an SEC player. Clear? Crystal.
Second, you can answer not answer none to any of the questions. They are worded specifically, and if the Falcons trade out of round one, then their first pick will be made on Friday. If there is not a QB taken in round one - which will never happen - or if there's not a first-round pick traded - which is unlikely but could happen - then the contest rolls into Friday and the first QB and traded pick still stand.
For clarity on the traded pick, if the Titans look to trade down - which could very well happen - and say they trade No. 5 to Cleveland for No. 12 and other stuff, by the statement of these rules, the Titans are the first team to trade their pick, because their spot is higher. Clear? Crystal. Top five teams to watch Thursday:
Cleveland. How can the Browns Brown this thing? Well, taking Myles Garrett seems to be a foregone conclusion at this point, but the Browns appear to be in multiple talks about parlaying the 12th pick and other assets - Cleveland has 11 picks total in this draft - to move up to get a quarterback too.
Tennessee. The Titans have two picks in the top 20 - at 5 and 18 - and would be an international team of mystery even if they stand pat. But, with Jon Robinson's history of being willing to move, and the machinations of teams willing to move to take the first QB make the Titans a very interesting bunch Thursday night.
New Orleans. The Saints have two first-round picks, as well, even though they are later in the process. Pick 11 could be anything from a DB to a tight end and pick 32 - New Orleans dealt Brandin Cooks to New England for that selection - could be a QB of the future or even a trading piece.
Jacksonville. No. 5, No. 3, No. 3, No. 2, No. 5. That's the overall picks the Jaguars have had in the last five drafts respectively. Those picks became Jalen Ramsey, Dante Fowler, Blake Bortles, Luke Joeckel and Justin Blackmon in order of most recent. Ramsey is a bona fide star, and Fowler has battled injuries so who knows. The others scream bust. Hey, it wouldn't be a draft without the Jags in the top five right? (Yes, they are picking fourth Thursday.)
Alabama. Tons of questions for the closest thing to an NFL team that plays its games on Saturday. How many Tide players go Thursday? How far will Reuben Foster fall after his 'diluted' sample? Is Diluted Sample related to Junior Sample? Will Cam Robinson - a guy pegged to be a top-five pick two years ago - even be picked Thursday? How high will O.J. Howard go? Will Nick Saban be there, and will he smile?
Intrigue, man. Intrigue.
FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2016, file photo, Dale Earnhardt Jr looks from the garage before practice at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Hendrick Motorsports says Dale Earnhardt Jr. will retire at the end of this season. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) Junior
The most popular driver in NASCAR will turn in his helmet after this season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. - who makes a strong case to be on a loaded Rushmore of Juniors in the sports realm - is done after 2017. His career on the track was checkered. He had 26 career wins, and certainly will be a Hall of Famer.
But the name and the expectations of multiple points championships never materialized and it's hard to think of his driving career and not believe it was some what of a disappointment. And maybe that's not completely fair, since after all we are talking about a Hall of Famer, but that lasting place in the sport's legacy has more to do with Junior's ability to connect with people and his place atop the popularity scales in the sport like few others ever.
It's hard to blame Junior for hanging 'em up. Dude is worth like half a billion bucks. We all know how his dad and idol died. Junior just got hitched in the last year or so. He's going to be the most popular NASCAR announcing free agent since the invention of the wheel. And in truth the way out for most drivers is either you stay two years too long (think Darrell Waltrip) and you are lagging in the back not really racing anything more than the pace car or you get injured or worse.
So thank you Junior. For your time on the track and your time speaking to the BoP banquet.
His departure leaves NASCAR facing a major hole atop its popularity puzzle. Who will be the face of the sport, because even if he was not up front, Junior was the face of NASCAR?
And in a time when the NASCAR ratings are tumbling like energetic kindergartners, developing new personalities is paramount. Junior, Gordon, Stewart and Carl Edwards have all walked away in the last few years, and that leaves a vacuum atop the sport.
Sure, young drivers like Larson and Elliott and Blaney and Dillion have got the good behind the wheel, but can they deliver the goods behind the mic and in front of the crowds like those other stars did? (And to prove the point, how many of the first names of those four young stars can you name?)
Simply put, NASCAR is losing its face, and now it has to find a new identity.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) shoots over Houston Rockets guard Patrick Beverley (2) in the first quarter of Game 4 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Westbrook
The Rockets beat the Thunder on Monday to end that series 3-1. We picked the Thunder in the upset. The lesson here: We're dumb.
With that loss, it ended the tour de force that was Russell Westbrook's season. His numbers are staggering:
He averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists in his 81 regular-season games. He had an NBA record 42 triple-doubles in the regular season. In the five playoff games, he averaged 37.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 10.8 assists and had three triple-doubles.
The playoffs are less interesting with Westbrook now on vacation. So there's that. But there's also this:
Westbrook just completed his eighth season - a memorable one, granted - and should win his first MVP. But without help, and that means adding at least one bona-fide all-star, his career will be more a good-passing Dominique Wilkins than anything greater than that.
Is that help out there? Who knows? Names like Blake Griffin have been floated and he's a bona-fide all-star for sure. Westbrook by himself is dazzling, and he lifted a Thunder roster from a top-6 pick to the No. 6 seed in the West.
It's simply not going to work if Victor Oladipo is your second-best player (and Stewwie may have been right from the beginning that Billy D. could be in over his head considering some of the decisions he made in the series).
No matter how great Westbrook is - and he was historically great individually this year - the current OKC recipe has first-round playoff losses on spin cycle until Westbrook's prime is gone or he heads to the Lakers.
This and that
- You want the definition of livin' large? Gregg Popovich, one of the best NBA coaches ever, had a nice, Nice, NICE dinner in Memphis during the Spurs trip there in the first round. Dude had an $815.73 tab on what the check showed was a part of 1. That means there were a couple of really nice bottle so vino in play. As for the livin' large part, well, Pop left a $5,000 tip. Yep, 5 Gs. Rollin' - most def.
- Golf did not go far enough in the rule changes about TV snitches.
- Meet Hunter Greene, a 17-year-old baseball whiz kid who becomes the 13th high school athlete to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.
- This seems almost surreal, but take a guess at the number of underclassmen entered in the 2017 NBA draft, which, remember, has all of 60 slots in its two rounds? Yep, (Blink) 182.
- Welcome back Beast Mode, as Marshawn Lynch agreed to join the Oakland Raiders.
Today's question
It's a one-word Wednesday, and we have a few.
Most intriguing team in Thursday's first round of the draft is __________.
Dale Jr.'s career was ____________.
Russell Westbrook will win ______ NBA titles in his career.
The most you could ever imagine spending on a meal for just yourself is ____________.
There are a few interesting birthdays today. Ol' BIlly Shakespeare would have been 553 today. Marcus Aurelius was born today in the year 121. Two of the funniest ladies ever share this day. Carol Burnett was born on this day in 1933; Lucille Ball died on this day in 1989. First Lady Melania Trump is 47 today.
As for a Rushmore, in honor of Freddie Olmsted, the man who designed Central Park, let's go with the Rushmore of Parks.
Remember the mailbag and the NFL draft contest gang.