Tons of questions about the draft, and since we are forced to do this job, well, we’ll oblige. (Kidding of course. We love the draft. You know this. In fact, we watched more wall-to-wall draft coverage last night than any other sporting event of the 2016 calendar so far.)
Social media has changed the draft experience. We had some great exchanges with some of you guys last night on Twitter (@jgreesontfp). Good times. Also, some of the details on the device were eye-opening.
For example: Chris Berman apparently said three times that no team has had three players taken in the top 10 of a single draft. It has happened three times previously. Or that Laremy Tunsil falling from 6 to 13 cost him roughly $10 million.
You stay classy Bristol.
Florida’s Keanu Neal, left, poses for photos upon arriving for the first round of the 2016 NFL football draft at the Auditorium Theater of Roosevelt University, Thursday, April 28, 2016, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)From a host of you guys/gals
Draft winners and losers, whatcha got?
Gang –
In our view there’s really only one winner from Thursday’s first round. Bill T. won the sixth annual Feeling the Draft with a Draught Draft Challenge here at the 5-at-10 with a mind-blowing four correct picks – getting Conklin, Reed, 8 and 3. No one got the correct answer for the 31st pick. Congrats and please email me about picking up your prize.
The term winner and loser is really tough to assess in the hours following the first-round picks, but this is an instant reaction/over-reaction land of hot takes and bluster. So it goes. Before we get to the picks we liked and the ones we didn’t, we’ll ask this:
Did Ole Miss win or lose the night? A program getting three first-rounders is eye-catching to recruits. The hacked text messages of tackle Laremy Tunsil and his admitting getting paid by Ole Miss coaches is eye-catching to NCAA investigators. Ah the yin and the yang of big-time college football.
Picks we loved:
* Jacksonville had reportedly inquired about moving up to No. 3 to get Jalen Ramsey, the star-studded defensive back out of FSU. With the moves San Diego and Dallas made, the Jags got their man at 5 without moving picks and added in our view the most talented player in the draft.
* The Colts have to protect Andrew Luck, and by adding Alabama center Ryan Kelly – who can play all three line spots – Indy added great value (easily the best center in the draft and it’s not close) with the No. 18 pick.
* Speaking of value meeting talent plus need, it’s hard to knock what the Vikings did by adding Laquan Treadwell with the 23rd pick. Treadwell is the best wide out in this draft in our view, and he fell because of a slowish 40 time. But the Vikings got a big, play-making receiver to go with last year’s steal of Stefon Diggs. Minnesota is putting together a nice collection of pieces offensively.
Picks we didn’t love:
* It’s hard to know if they tried to move down or not, but Dallas taking Ezekiel Elliott at No. 4 seems high (especially with Ramsey on the board).
* Keanu Neal is a hard-hitting safety, but with the variety of needs facing a Falcons defense – and yes, safety is one of them – and the amount of talent on the board in a variety of spots, this felt like a reach. Still, Falcons head coach Dan Quinn was part of the process that built a championship defense that featured two star safeties in Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
* Vernon Butler going to Carolina felt like a wasted pick to be honest. By all accounts the former Louisiana Tech player is a good player, but defensive tackle is a place flush with talent for the Panthers. Now consider that they lost their best corner when Josh Norman left for free agency, and the tackle situation is deplorable.
Vonn Bell works out doing the medicine ball slam at Tobe Taylor Fitness in hopes of being drafted by the NFL.From Mark S.
What do you see the Titans/Falcons doing today in rounds 2 and 3?
Mark –
Another aspect of the trade we love is the divide between round one and rounds two and three. Think of the activity right now on the phones and in the war rooms. Guys restocking their draft boards. Teams wondering if they can move up for the guy they want.
A lot of times that move is dictated by a quarterback on the board. Well, if Cleveland likes any of the quarterbacks, the Browns own the first pick this evening so there’s that.
In truth, a lot of the activity today could be teams positioning themselves for one of the three top-ranked linebackers on the overall board considering supreme talents Myles Jack and Reggie Ragland fell out of the first round after reports that Jack’s knee could require addition surgery and that Ragland has an enlarged heart.
Here are three names that we believe the Titans, who have three of the first 13 picks tonight and another one in the third round as well, GM Jon Robinson and company will be evaluating:
* Either Jack or Ragland each has the size and speed to be a force as an inside linebacker in Dick LeBeau’s 3-4 set. Jack, when 100 percent could be a real hybrid considering his measurable (6-2, 245 with 4.56 40 speed). But the health question on each is the issue.
* It feels sure that at least one defensive lineman will be picked today. It could be Jonathan Bullard, who at 6-3, 285 with a sub-4.9 40 time could figure to be the imposing and mobile defensive end in the 3-4. It also could be Baylor’s Andrew Billings or either of the Alabama defensive tackles to give help at the nose.
* Vonn Bell. The former Ridgeland High star and Ohio State All-American is an athletic safety in a system that craves athletic safeties.
As for the Falcons, here’s a hunch that if Hunter Henry, the Arkansas tight end is on the board when the Birds pick in Round 2, the Atlanta brass will sprint his name to the podium. Think how much better the Atlanta offense was when quarterback Matt Ryan had a tight end he could trust. Henry could have a Jason Witten-type of career.
From Will
Did you notice all the game show redos that TV has planned? Does that seem strange to you and if there was a game show rushmore who/what is on it?
Thanks and love the 5@10.
Will –
Yes, we did see that, and to tell you the truth, we love the thought of it.
We grew up as a game show junkie, and we’re eagerly looking forward to seeing Celebrity Family Feud, Match Game with Alec Baldwin and $100,000 Pyramid with Michael Strahan. (Although the Match Game is reliant on the celebrity guests. Remember how great people and comics like Charles Nelson Riley and Richard Dawson were? And how back it was when Radar or Klinger from M*A*S*H were on there? Match Game is going to have to have a couple of truly funny folks, and since Baldwin’s involved, we wonder how big the star-power circle could be. He’s tight with Tina Fey, and if she and Amy Poehler show up that’s a strong start. We’d also have Frank Caliendo there if he could make it.)
Rushmore of game shows: Price is Right (the Rose Bowl of the category), Family Feud (personal fav), Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. (Although a sneaky good one is Cash Cab. Did we mention we are a game show junkie?)
Rushmore of game show people: Jack Berry, Richard Dawson (personal fav), Chuck Worley (dude hosted like a million of these puppies with Love Connection, Scrabble, Wheel and maybe a couple of others), Bob Barker
Mississippi’s Laremy Tunsil poses for photos after being selected by the Miami Dolphins as the 13th pick in the first round of the 2016 NFL football draft, Thursday, April 28, 2016, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)From Scott
Sorry for sending this so late and if the mailbag is full that’s cool. What will happen with the draft night news of Ole Miss paying Tunsil and the report that Alabama fired a coach for recruiting violations?
There was a lot of drama Thursday night, right?
Scott –
Most definitely a lot of drama, especially when you add in playoff hockey and NBA along with NL batting champ Dee Gordon getting an 80-game suspension for PED use. (That Dee Gordon’s hitting coach is Barry Bonds may be the high definition of irony. This is like Lance Armstrong teaching his neighbor’s kid to ride a bike and then the neighbor’s kid gets busted for steroids at the youth race.)
It will be interesting to see, for sure, but we are starting to believe that unless a power program such as UNC hoops and Alabama football gets caught paying players on camera inside Mark Emmert’s office at the NCAA compound, nothing will ever happen to those schools.
It’s going to become a farce, and the fact that the NCAA needs the big boys to continue to court the big TV ratings will only magnify the fact that policing agents need the outlaws way more than the other way around. And yes, while the rest of the power outlaws are hoping for level playing fields, they know they could just as easily be the next school caught by leaked text messages or cell phone video.
So none will make a big stink about the leniency shown to the UNC hoops program or the Alabama football program or any of the others.
Welcome to the new circle of life in college sports. In fact, it has become a very real self-fulfilling prophecy, considering that for the longest time everyone lamented their school caught in a chatting scandal with “Everyone does it” and now, the schools themselves are shrugging their shoulders at the rules broken by others because eventually, since everyone does it, everyone will be caught doing it.
And if the peace-keepers that are the NCAA turn a blind eye to it, then it never really happens to being with.
From Mark W.
What is the length of time, in your opinion, that it takes to accurately grade a draft from all major sports? Baseball is probably the longest and basketball would be the shortest from my perspective. Also, what constitutes a draft bust in each major sport?
Mark W. –
Baseball, no doubt takes the longest, especially when you factor in the large number of teenagers drafted very early. Basketball is the quickest, unless teams are drafting European players and leaving them in foreign lands to mature.
Football is a pretty universal three years to get a fair grade.
Look at the 2013 NFL draft for example. There are pretty clear winners and losers there.
For baseball, it would have to be between four and five years, and it could be longer if teams are willing to slow-walk prospects. The other thing that makes baseball so harder to grade on boom or bust success is the sheer volume of picks.
Basketball would be two years, which is longer now than ever because there are so many one-and-doners coming into the league that need that extended adjustment period to the number of games and the travel and the temptations.
In truth, the bust factor is pretty universal in our view across all sports. If you are a first-rounder, what players had more success taken after you regardless of position?
The first-rounders are in a small circle, and that circle, depending on what the other fish do reflects on the bust potential. (This is taking injury out of the equation because that can’t be held against a draft pick or the drafting team in our view
Case in point JaMarcus Russell is the biggest bust in NFL draft history. Yes he went No. 1 overall and yes he was a disaster, but he’s the biggest bust because in the next dozen or so picks behind him the Raiders missed out on the best WR of the generation in Calvin Johnson, the best running back of the generation in Adrian Peterson, the best linebacker of the generation in Patrick Willis, the best tackle of the generation in Joe Thomas and the best corner of the generation in Darrelle Revis.
That’s bust times infinity.
Great mailbag, and Jomo, we ran out of time, we’ll get to yours next week. Deal? Deal.