Let's get this straight.
I'm not going to do a "winners and losers" thing. How can you? I mean, you have to wait at least 3 years before even attempting such a list. If we've learned anything from the past it is that the NFL Draft is as imperfect as anything can get. That's how a two-time Super Bowl MVP [Tom Brady] drops to the 6th round in the same draft that Courtney Brown went #1 overall.
One decade ago, Lawrence Phillips and Tim Biakabutuka were picked in the top 8 of the draft....while Stephen Davis went in the 4th round.
I just spent some time glossing over Peter King's Draft Grades for the 2000 NFL Draft. Here are some golden nuggets...
"[Patriots pick] J.R. Redmond will be the every-down back by Oct. 1. Not bad for the 76th overall pick."
"Here's one of my post-fourth-round exceptions: Love the [Steelers] pick of Tee Martin late in the fifth. Watch the games. He belongs in the NFL."
"I will say this: Peter Warrick will be the offensive rookie of the year or my name is Giovanni Carmazzi. "
"Brian Urlacher had better be great. I keep getting a feeling that he might be 80 percent player, 20 percent shoot-up-the-chart myth."
"I think LaVar Arrington will make Redskins fans very happy."
In 2001, King said this...
'A one-pick onslaught. My feeling, and a strong one at that, is that Kenyatta Walker, picked 14th overall, will be a franchise left tackle for 10 years."
"The Redskins will regret drafting Fred Smoot. Promise."
In 2002....
"I bet you right now [Eric] Crouch is second on the Rams in touchdown passes this fall." Remember that Crouch quit before the season began.
"Since the day I watched [Vikings pick] Bryant McKinnie make mincemeat out of Dwight Freeney in a Miami-Syracuse game last fall, I thought McKinnie was the type of franchise tackle any team would love. Bruce Coslet thinks McKinnie might be Anthony Munoz. I agree. " McKinnie was on the Vikings Love Boat and part of Miami-Fl's sex-rap outfit the "7th Floor Crew", and Freeney is only the best d-lineman in the game.
Oh...and then "Freeney, the 266-pound defensive end, is going to be under pressure to justify going 11th overall." Ouch.
"I'm a huge [Joey] Harrington fan. How can you not be? He does it all, and bleep the people who say he can't throw downfield. What hogwash"
So, cool it with the projections and grades. If Mr. King can get so much wrong....then how well will you do??
Then, today, Mel Kiper Jr has his draft grades on ESPN Insider. Hmm. He gave no As.....no Fs....no Ds. Everyone got Bs and Cs. Some draft, eh? Either that, or Kiper doesn't feel comfortable enough to go out on any limbs this year and proclaim the ultimate winner or loser.
2 comments:
Bob Ryan of the Globe raged against the Pats taking Richard Seymour over Kenyatta Walker. "How many times do you think Walker pancaked Seymour over their respective careers.
It was funny. The Globe made a killing by belittling local coaches like Pitino, Kennedy, and Carroll. They were well into hating on Belichick when he started winning every Super Bowl he came across. Ron Borges was pretty funny, too. Both of them had to act like they had seen it coming, and both of them were essentially driven off of local sports radio by callers who liked to remind them that they hadn't.
What Kiper is doing is grading on a scale. teachers do that all the time, when they want it to look like everybody is following the lesson at about the same level.
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