It's draft week! The final week before the draft always feels more like a month.
No matter how many times we are told and/or tell ourselves never to take seriously what we hear during these final days before the draft we still take seriously.
Despite the long final days before it, the NFL Draft is fun.
A lot of fun.
The importance of the quarterback position in today's NFL can be seen in the attention paid to a modest quarterback class. In a draft with franchise-changing talents like Myles Garrett, Jamal Adams, Malik Hooker, Leonard Fournette, and others the quarterbacks still get most of the attention. One or more of DeShaun Watson, Mitchell Trubisky, DeShone Kizer, Patrick Mahomes, Davis Webb, Brad Kaaya, Joshua Dobbs, etc. might become NFL stars but they are longshots compared to the pro potential of many of their draft peers.
If the Minnesota Vikings had their first round pick (14th overall) Western Kentucky offensive lineman Forrest Lamp would be my choice for that pick. Maybe the draft analysts are right and Lamp's best professional position is at guard but he was terrific at left tackle against Alabama's NFL-like defense. He would look great as a member of the Vikings offensive line. Tackle, guard, center, I really don't care where.
Funny stuff from Baltimore Ravens receiver Mike Wallace. When asked by ESPN how he might fill the void left by the retirement of Steve Smith Sr., Wallace said "I just have to curse a couple more people out, choke a couple more people out."
NFL Media Senior Analyst Gil Brandt has ranked NFL draft prospects for 57 years. Here's his top-10 for this year's class.
1. Myles Garrett, DE, Texas A&M
2. Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU
3. Solomon Thomas, DE, Stanford
4. Marshon Lattimore, CB, Ohio State
5. Jamal Adams, S, LSU
6. Malik Hooker, S, Ohio State
7. Jonathan Allen, DT, Alabama
8. Mitchell Trubisky, QB, North Carolina
9. DeShaun Watson, QB, Clemson
10. John Ross, WR, Washington
Brandt likes the top quarterbacks more than most. The ranking of John Ross ahead of fellow pass-catchers Mike Williams of Clemson and Corey Davis of Western Michigan is also striking. Some teams are reportedly dropping Ross down their draft boards.,or from their boards entirely, due to injury concerns.
Brandt has my personal favorite Forrest Lamp at #41. That's within reach of the Vikings first pick at #48. Hopefully enough teams see Lamp as Bandt does.
The NFL schedule makers came up with 52,128 failures before they landed on the one that stuck.
No bye weeks until Week 5. It's stunning that it took as long as it did for the NFL to realize that early byes are stupid. Week 5 is still a little early but it's a move in the right direction.
The Vikings have a nearly two month stretch (10/23-12/16) with a single home game. That's ridiculous. And one of those road games is in London (Week 8). Maybe the schedule makers actually had 52,129 failures. At least the Vikings have a Week 9 bye. After that London trip and before a road-heavy close to the season.
The final Sunday of the 2017 season finds all four California teams playing in Los Angeles. Imagine that. Until last season there were a grand total of zero teams playing in Los Angeles.
Every draft is unique. The players are unique and team needs are unique. So much so that it strikes me as a stretch to compare one draft to another.
NFL Media Draft Analyst Chad Reuter posted a seven-round mock draft. He had these picks for the Vikings.
2. Raekwon McMillan, LB, Ohio State
3. Jaleel Johnson, DT, Iowa
3. Taywan Taylor, WR, Western Kentucky
4. Elijah Lee, LB, Kansas State
4. Samaje Perine, RB, Oklahoma
5. Pat Elflein, C, Ohio State
6. Damien Mama, G, USC
7. Jonah Pirsig, T, Minnesota
I would not be a fan of this draft.
Based on the players available when Reuter made his picks these are the picks that I'd make for the Vikings.
2. Alvin Kamara, RB, Tennessee
3. Marcus Maye, S, Florida
3. Isaac Asiata, G, Utah
4. Elijah Lee, LB, Kansas State
4. George Kittle, TE, Iowa
5. Pat Elflein, C, Ohio State
6. Jalen Myrick, CB, Minnesota
7. Isaiah Ford, WR, Virginia Tech
I'd be a fan of this draft.
Several weeks ago Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said that DeShone Kizer should've stayed in school, that he could use another year of college football. Kelly got a lot of gried for those comments even though he's right. The knock on nearly every quarterback that bolts for the NFL with college eligibility remaining is that he isn't ready. Everyone's saying it so what's wrong with the one person that probably knows best saying it as well? The criticism of Kelly became even more foolish when Kizer agreed with his coach. The media always bellyaches over the "scripted" answers given by football coaches to pointed questions. When one of those coaches answers a question honestly he's bashed. It's enough to make one wonder why coaches respond to the media at all.
More Kizer. The ever-churning media cycle decided that the quarterback "stepped in it" during an interview with USA Today Sports last week. In that interview it was decided that Kizer claimed he has the mind of Tom Brady and the body of Cam Newton. Very bold. After immediate criticism Kizer said that the comment was taken out of context and he's right. Just as John Lennon sang decades before, Kizer actually said "imagine taking Brady's intellect and Brady's preparation and putting it on a guy with Cam Newton's body." Many people lost the ability to imagine when everything they needed was put in their phone so Kizer's supposition eludes them. Nowhere in the comment does Kizer say that he's some incredible mash-up of Brady and Newton. He believes that he's blessed with unique traits and that he has the potential to be great, possibly the greatest, and that it's all up to him. The one bold statement that Kizer made, and he admits that it's bold, is that he has the ability to be the greatest quarterback to ever play. The NFL Draft is all about potential and Kizer was simply talking about his. It's crazy and unfortunate that this "mind of Brady, body of Newton" comment, a comment that he never truly made, will likely follow Kizer his entire career. Imagination, people! It's a beautiful thing.
Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has done just about everything right since he was drafted out of Fresno State in 2014. He's helped lead his team back to relevance on the field and he's been an ideal "face of the franchise" presence off the field. Last week he made his first real mistake. He criticized the loyalty of Raider fans that might not have it in them to follow a team that's up-and-leaving their Oakland home. For a second time. It's easy for Carr to say "just jump on the bus and follow us to Las Vegas." It's a business move for him and his teammates but it's an intensely personal loss for many in Oakland. They feel betrayed. They feel ignored. And now Carr says that they don't matter, that they aren't true Raider fans. In my years as a football fan, in general, and as a Vikings fan, in particular, I've learned that there's no one way to be a fan. It's different and personal, often intensely personal, for each fan. It's wrong to say one is more right, or more "true," than another. It just is. Carr walked back his comments a day after he made them in the following tweet:
Just in case I was misunderstood...I love ALL Raider fans, wherever they are from...We are in this together, always! #RadierNation
He wasn't misunderstood and it's real clear that RaiderNation isn't in it together.
As Sports Illustrated and MMQB's Peter King noted following the Raiders decision to move and the league's overwhelming approval of it, the NFL has chosen new stadiums over fans three times in just over a year. That's a horrible precedent. The league takes the people most responsible for their ridiculous financial success for granted. It's that simple. The league wouldn't be able to build these beauties if there weren't fans to fill them. And fund them. Too often, the league is blind to the fans. Carr's comments are simply in line with that.
The draft really needs to get here. I need some of that draft day fun. Too bad the Vikings aren't scheduled to draft until Day 2. When Forrest Lamp should be hob-nobbing with the team that drafted on Day 1.
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