Why Old Man Raincloud isn’t a fan of the NFL Draft

 

The NFL Draft has been dominating our television screens over the past few days.  It’s been a cavalcade of dreams come true for so many young men that have finally gotten to this point.  They have worked tirelessly since Pop Warner and finally get the chance to have their moment in the sun.

And at the risk of making it sound as if I’m raining on their parade, I guess that’s why I hate it so much.

In all fairness, it’s not the players’ fault.  It’s more the fault of the league who builds these guys up as if all of them are going to be stars.  The assumed positivity of the ESPN network has almost gotten out of control.  Sure, they’ll mention that a guy had a sub-average 40 time or that he tested positive for marijuana at the combine.  But they’ll also roll over it within seconds and then show one of their ridiculous over the top montages that Michael Jackson would have wanted during the “Dangerous” tour.  Which seems like it’s a little much for a dude that gets taken in the seventh round.   

Sports Blog Movement NFL Preview: The Rookies

The NFL Draft is one of the biggest off-season spectacles in sports, and it is also the primary route for College Seniors/Juniors/RS Sophomores to enter the National Football League. For the fans of the NFL, the Draft marks the beginning of the off-season and a rapid increase in hope. This hope puts a lot of pressure onto the recently drafted rookies, and some of them flame out…while others end up succeeding.

The goal of this post is to take a look at what rookies I think will be succeeding in 2013, the rookie I think will surprise us most down the road, and the rookie who I think will completely flame out over the long hall. So, buckle up everyone…it is going to be an interesting ride.

Top Five Rookies That Are Going to Succeed in 2013:

1) WR Tavon Austin (St. Louis): The Rams felt like QB Sam Bradford needed a speed threat out at wide receiver, and they went out and got it in Tavon Austin. While he was at West Virginia, Austin was one of the most explosive receivers on the Mountaineers roster. He posted an incredible career average of 11.9 yards per catch, with 29 receiving touchdowns while in college…and the Rams hope that he will continue to produce at the NFL level; and I think he will. 

2013 NFL Draft: Unnecesary Mock Draft #12,402,387 Ver. 1.4

With the recent departure from Carson Palmer as their starter it’s obvious the Raiders are ready to go in a different direction, and I highly doubt it is with All-Time OSU outcast and college flop Terrelle Pryor. By trading Carson Palmer to Arizona, Kevin Kolb getting a ludicrous amount of money from Buffalo (They get rid of Ryan Fitzpatrick so they could sign KEVIN KOLB!? REALLY?) and the Raiders getting Flynn from Seattle, it sets up a scenario that could see the first QB drafted out of the top 10 for the first time since 2000 when Chad Pennington was selected 18^th.

Actually looking at the board as it stands now, if Geno Smith falls out of the top 10 I’m not sure where he lands. The last time the first round came and went without a QB selected was 1996, the year that saw infamous busts like Tim Biakabatuba, Cedric Jones, Jermaine Stephens and Lawrence Phillips. Without Ray Lewis, Johnathan Ogden and Marvin Harrison 1996 is arguably the worst 1^st round draft class in NFL history.

(Read the full story here.)

 

2013 NFL Draft: Unnecesary Mock Draft #12,402,387 Ver. 1.3

Since the mid to late 90’s most teams outside of Dallas and Washington realized that the key ingredient in the recipe for NFL success included a generous amount of astute drafting. Free-agency is useful for short term solutions and adding a last final piece. But since the invention of the salary cap the teams that have spent the most on free-agent contracts have more often than not been very disappointed.

Conversely the teams that have found the win column with more regularity than the rest have done their best work in April, not March. The only times teams like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York (Giants) or Green Bay is mentioned in free agency is, for the most part, when some other team signs one of their players. It took some teams longer to figure this out but over the last two decades teams have scaled back their free agent spending and focused more on the draft.

Until this year. Actually, until this past week.

(Read the full story here.)

2013 NFL Draft :Unnecesary Mock Draft #12,402,387 Ver. 1.1

Well, I had assumed SF would get more than a few second round picks for Smith, if only because this years crop of QB’s is so shallow that they could command more than he might otherwise be worth. But good on SF to re-coup some of the lost value from their selection of Alex Smith 7 years ago.

Aside from that trade, this draft is turning into one big murky pool. Its not that its shallow per-say (except at the QB position of course) but that it’s all shades of gray. Some things of interest looking across this years group of rookies.

• The more things change, the more they stay the same. Almost any mock draft you could find on the internet has 3 of the top 5 picks playing on the line of scrimmage. Mine has the first four players off the board as lineman, and 11 of the top 20. In 2012 the fourth lineman didn’t come off the board until pick 14, and only 7 lineman went in the top 20. Similar number in 2011 when the fourth lineman didn’t go until pick13 and only 9 of the first 20. The more and more the game evolves into a finesse passing league, the more it reverts back to old-school philosophies. The team that controls the line of scrimmage will win more than it loses.

(Read the rest here..)

2013 NFL Draft :Unnecesary Mock Draft #12,402,387 Ver. 1.0

After the first few days of the NFL combine I noticed some very intriguing things:

1. The continued drop in quality Running Backs. Only a dozen managed to run a 40 time lower than 4.5. Now, I don’t place much value in a straight 40 time, not many of the best drafting teams over the years do, but RB’s are one of the few positions in which it is even worth paying attention to. (Can anyone tell me why they bother having Offensive lineman running a 40 yard dash?) This entire group looked like a collection of Maurice Jones-Drew and Ray Rice clones. Not that there is anything wrong with either of those two, but neither of those guys went in the first round. After the UN-spectacular performance these guys gave, coupled with most team’s  decreased utilization of the position in general, I wouldn’t be surprised if no RB’s went in the 1^st round this year.

(read the rest here)

What Your Team Needs To Do With It’s 2013 NFL Draft Pick

Now that we are finally past the Super Bowl, it is time to address the needs of your team heading into the NFL Draft. Everybody has a “mock draft or a “big draft board,” and we are no different…well, except we here at Dubsism are not interested in being the next Mel Kiper; we are more interested in making your team better rather than listening to ourselves blather on or getting some face time four our increasingly-odd pompadour.

In other words, we wholeheartedly reject the “Mel Kiper theory” which states you always draft the best player available. Sometimes, you are better off making a move to help your team. Be advised that as you peruse this list, “The Kiper Theory” is based on an aggregate of several mock drafts and Kiper’s own board. Then, we will give you the best available player according to the Dubsism Big Board. After that, we will give you the straight dope on what we believe your team really needs to do to best address its needs.  Be advised that we here at Dubsism really don’t care what Mel says, and we really don’t care that much about workouts, combines, and the silliness of those college “all-star ” games which are really just glorified scrimmages. Instead, we are all about realistic football solutions.

To continue reading, click here…

The Dubsism “Anti-Kiper” 2013 NFL Draft Board

Now that we are finally past the Super Bowl, it is time to address the needs of your team heading into the NFL Draft. So, take a few moments to look forward so that your team can give itself a better shot to be where the Ravens find themselves today.

Everybody has a NFL Draft “Big Board.” But unlike the ones you  get from the “professionals” at ESPN, we here at Dubsism offer a draft board based on the fact we actually have watched college football at some point in our lifetimes. This means we don’t care about how much we love to hear our own bloviation, there isn’t another blog out there taking shots at us yet (so we don’t have that whole “Mel Kiper/Todd McShay thing happening), and we aren’t worried about how much face time our increasingly oddly-shaped pompadour gets.

Rather, we would rather put out rookie  draft “shopping list” that we feel is our best effort to help you, the NFL fan who knows almost nothing about college football beyond the first few picks. We also won’t give you any flowery summaries of these players; there’s eight billion other sites doing that. Our model is you peruse the lists, both overall and by position, and decide which of these guys may help plug the numerous holes your favorite team has. However, we don’t bother with kickers and punters, largely because they are literally a “dime-a-dozen” and if you think a kicker is all that separates your team from a Super Bowl, you likely need a psychiatrist more than a draft board.

We will revisit this list with some advice on what your sorry-ass team needs to do in order to improve itself, and this board will play a large part in that counsel. The one thing I would caution you against is that we here at Dubsism are firm believers in the “Mike Mamula” rule; meaning we don’t put much stock in the witchcraft that are the NFL Combines, so don’t expect this board to change significantly.

To continue reading, click here…

“GameTime” Episode One

By Sam’s Sports Brief (http://sambrief.com)

Last night, my new radio show, “GameTime,” started off with a bang! In this episode, much was discussed, including the NBA Playoffs, the NFL Draft and the “Elbow Heard ‘Round the World” by Metta World Peace. Below is a partial recording of the first episode. Remember that we will be LIVE every Friday from 7-8 pm (Central Time) on http://novahpradio.net (to listen live you cannot use FireFox).

Link to “GameTime”

By Sam Brief

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, I would love to know what you think about these various topics!!

Follow me on Twitter!! (@SamsSportsBrief)

Coverage of the 2012 NFL Draft- First Round in Review

http://thesouthernfriedsportsgirl.blogspot.com/2012/04/live-coverage-of-2012-nfl-draft.html

Follow me on Twitter @southsportsgirl
and check out The Southern Fried Sports Girl
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