Feeling the Draft
Psst. Want to know a secret?
I like the draft. Heck, I love the draft. But you know this, right?
The NFL draft is two weeks from tomorrow and the mock drafts are flying and the speculation is that a run on QBs will dominate the top half of the top 10.
Mel Kiper likes Bryce Young to go No. 1 overall.
USA Today’s projection has Carolina taking Anthony Richardson with the first pick.
Buckle up.
In fact, a lot of chatter — including this mock draft from the USA Today NFL beat writers — has the Tennessee Titans moving to No. 3 in a deal with Arizona to get in the QB carousel.
The USA Today version goes Richardson to the Panthers, Bryce Young to the Texans and then the Titans moving to 3 to take CJ Stroud.
In that case, that trade seems like an aggressive but savvy calculation. Stroud is a dude.
To trade up for Richardson or Will Levis seems mighty risky, especially if the price is multiple 1s and other picks.
Kiper’s mock has a fifth QB going in round 1, as the perfectly coiffed ESPN draft guru projects that Seattle trades back into the latter part of the first round to select Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker.
That would be a deal worth making in my mind.
Aging like fine wine
Gotta admit it, right?
No matter his politics or his posturing, LeBron James is an amazing basketball player.
Simply amazing.
Dude is 38 and last night he lifted the Lakers out of a potential monster play-in loss with a performance that was, well, amazing.
He was 12-of-21 from the floor and 3-of-3 from distance on his way to 30 points. He added 10 rebounds and six assists in 45 minutes of action.
Did we mention he’s 38?
When MJ was 38 he unretired and joined the Washington Wizards. He averaged 22.9 points per game but shot less than 42% from the floor.
LeBron averaged a smidge short of 29 points per game this season and shot 50% from the field.
LeBron’s Lakers earned the 7 seed with the win and will face Memphis in the first round of the playoffs.
And all things considered, as good and balanced as Memphis has been pretty much all season, who really wants to pick against LeBron at this point?
Even at 38.
Say what?
So Shaquille O’Neal thinks Angel Reese is the best LSU athlete.
Ever.
Easy big fella. She’s not as good as you. Never mind Pistol Pete. Heck, I’m not sure Reese is even the best women’s basketball player in LSU history.
Shaq also mentioned Joe Burrow as a potential candidate as the best LSU athlete of all-time before siding with Reese.
Yeah, that’s tough. But it also got me thinking about who would be the best athlete at every SEC school, regardless of sport.
Some schools would be impossibly tough to select. Like Tennessee? Who’s the best to play at Knoxville?
Auburn could be the easiest, though, with Bo. Or maybe Georgia because, while he made a terrible Senate candidate, Herschel Walker was a dude on the football field.
Thoughts?
This and that
— Braves played. Braves won. Man, that lineup. In the 7-6 win, the Braves walked to the plate 40 times and reached with a hit or a walk 17 times. Wow.
— Yeah, that Shohei Ohtani is pretty decent at baseball. He has a new Angels record of 10 straight starts allowing two runs or fewer. The old record was nine such starts held by some dude named Nolan Ryan.
— You know the rules. Here’s Paschall on the WR next in line to be a big-timer for the Vols.
— So YouTube announced their prices for NFL Sunday Ticket. The cost ranges from $289 for subscribers who sign up early to $449 base price for non-subscribers.
— The final round of the Masters was up almost 20% in viewers from last year, and was the most watched golf broadcast since the final round of the 2018 Masters. Gotta say I’m a little surprised by that since the back nine was such a runaway for Jon Rahm.
— The Falcons acquired Jeff Okudah from the Lions on Tuesday, which seems like great value for Atlanta, which sent a fifth-rounder to Detroit for the former THE Ohio State cornerback who was picked third overall a few years ago.
Today’s questions
Which way Wednesday starts this way:
Which would be the best athlete to play at your favorite SEC school?
Which QB will go 1 overall?
Which is more impressive for a 38-year-old, play basketball like LeBron or play QB like Aaron Rodgers?
Answer some which ways, ask some which ways.
As for today, April 12, let’s review.
The Civil War started on this day in 1861 when the Confederacy fired shots at Fort Sumter.
David Letterman is 76 today.
Andy Garcia is 67.
Couple of actors who were famous TV sitcom dads celebrate birthdays as Ed O’Neill is 77 today and Dan Lauria (Kevin Arnold’s dad in “The Wonder Years”) is 76.
On this day in 1872, Jesse James robbed a bank and killed a man in Kentucky.
Rushmore of Jesse. Go.