NFL Draft: First Round Analysis Of Top 10 Picks

1. Indianapolis Colts – QB Andrew Luck, Stanford – No surprise here.  Luck was crowned the top overall pick of the 2012 draft the moment he announced he was coming back to Stanford for one more year.  Many draft experts rate Luck as the best QB to come out since John Elway and I think that is overrating him.  I do not follow the logic that Luck is a can’t miss prospect.  He is going to a team where he is replacing a legend, possibly the best QB in NFL history.  The team, particularity the offensive weapons that Peyton Manning had, have been jettisoned.  The Colts fans are used to winning and Luck will be thrown to the wolves from day one.  He has an uphill battle in front of him and it will be a daunting task to turn that franchise around.

2. Washington Redskins – QB Robert Griffin III, Baylor – No surprise here either.  Mike Shanahan and the Redskins mortgaged their future in order to get the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.  In exchange for the St. Louis Rams’ 2nd overall pick, the Redskins gave up their first round pick in 2013 & 2014.  They also gave up their 2nd round pick this year and swapped their 6th overall pick this year.  Out the gate, I believe that RG3 has the best chance to succeed.  He will have TE Fred Davis, who had a Pro Bowl caliber season in 2011 and was given the franchise tag this offseason.  The Redskins also went out and signed WRs Pierre Garcon from the Colts and Josh Morgan from the 49ers.  He should also have a solid ground game with Roy Helu and the zone blocking scheme the Redskins deploy.

3. Cleveland Browns – RB Trent Richardson, Alabama – The Browns swapped picks with the Vikings moving up from the 4th slot to the 3rd slot in order to draft Richardson.  I think this was a big overreach.  There was a chance that Richardson would have still been there at that 4 spot unless the Bucs were hell bent on getting him.  You don’t draft a RB this high unless his name is Barry Sanders, Marshall Faulk, LaDainian Tomlinson, or Adrian Peterson.  RBs have an average shelf life of 3 years and let’s be honest RBs are a dime a dozen.  Arian Foster, LeGarrette Blunt, and Fred Jackson were all undrafted RBs.  Richardson doesn’t have a lot of wiggle in his run, he is stiff, which opens him up to injuries.  For this reason I think that Doug Martin out of Boise St. was the better first round value.  Martin can run between the tackles, has the same size and speed as Richardson, he is great in pass pro, and catching the ball out of the backfield.  To put it simply he is an every down back.  The Browns would have been better served to draft Oklahoma St. WR Justin Blackmon with this pick and pick up Martin with their second first round pick.  This would have given them two quality weapons to pair with Colt McCoy.  By the way, Blackmon went 5th to the Jags and Martin went 31st to the Bucs, both would have been available for the Browns at 4 and 22.

4. Minnesota Vikings – OT Matt Kalil, USC – The Vikings made out great in the trade with the Browns.  They moved back one spot and still got the player that they wanted.  Additionally, they picked up the Browns’ 4th, 5th, and 7th round picks.  Kalil is a very talented, athletic tackle and should be the starting LT from day one.  This gives Christian Ponder the blindside protection that he needs.  The Vikings gave up 49 sacks in 2010, tied for 5th in the league.  So Kalil is a much needed addition to their offensive front.

5. Jacksonville Jaguars – WR Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma St. – The Jags traded up from the 7th spot to the 5th spot, swapping picks with the Bucs in order to draft Blackmon.  Blackmon is only the second WR to win the Fred Biletnikoff Award twice (Michael Crabtree).  He certainly is a good receiver but he often times drops passes that he should easily catch.  He also did not face a lot of press coverage while at Oklahoma State so there are questions about his ability to be successful against it in the NFL.  While I think he is a great receiver, I believe that Michael Floyd out of Notre Dame is a better receiver.  Floyd has better hands, has a bigger frame to be physical with, and runs in the 4.4 range to get downfield.  The only knock on Floyd was some off the field character issues.  Blackmon also is going to a team where there is a huge question mark at QB with Blaine Gabbert.

6. Dallas Cowboys – CB Morris Claiborne, LSU – The Cowboys traded up to get the player they wanted.  When they initially announced the trade, I thought it was to get Alabama safety Mark Barron.  So the fact that they did it to pick Claiborne was a surprise to me.  They went out and signed Chiefs’ CB Brandon Carr to replace former starter Terrance Newman and their other CB Mike Jenkins is in the final year of his contract.  Jenkins has been somewhat of a disappointment after being drafted in the first round of the 2008 draft.  The arrival of Claiborne might signal the end of Jenkins’ tenure with the Cowboys and at least for this year a demotion to nickel corner.  Claiborne is a compete CB, he has great ball skills and is not afraid of contact in run support.  Rob Ryan’s defense is reliant on having CBs that can hold up in man coverage, Claiborne paired with Carr now give Dallas the ability to use their exotic blitz schemes.

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – S Mark Barron, Alabama – It was expected Morris Claiborne would end up as a Buc and Mark Barron would be a Cowboy, so it is kind of funny that the opposite happened.  The Bucs got a quality safety in Barron.  He played in a complicated scheme in Bama and was an enforcer against the run.  He doesn’t quite have the range of an Ed Reed but not many do.  Will need to match up against some high powered passing attacks playing in the NFC South with Atlanta, New Orleans and Carolina.  He has the tools to get the job done and should have a very successful pro career.

8. Miami Dolphins – QB Ryan Tannehill, Texas A&M – Miami finally got their first round QB, the only problem is that it was a HUGE reach.  While Tannehill has a huge upside, he is not worthy of a top 10 pick.  He is closer to a 3rd or 4th round pick at this point in his career.  He is a very athletic guy, starting at WR for two years prior to moving to QB.  However, he only had 19 starts at the QB position and is still very raw.  Hopefully the Dolphins have a plan to bring him along slowly.  Throwing him in early will be a disservice to him and the franchise.  He needs at least 2 years to develop and to really learn how to play the position.  Mike Sherman, his offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, is now the new offensive coordinator for the Dolphins.  This should bring him familiarity with what the play caller is looking for and an understanding of the offense right out the gate.

9. Carolina Panthers – LB Luke Kuechly, Boston College – Kuechly was a tackling machine at Boston College racking up 532 tackles in 3 years and 191 tackles in 2011 (102 solo).  In 2011 he also won the Lombardi Award, the Lott IMPACT Trophy, and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy before declaring for the NFL Draft.  He has great instincts and pass coverage ability.  He should be a great addition to the Panthers defense when paired with Jon Beason who is returning from an Achilles injury.  I don’t know if he is on the level of a Ray Lewis when he came out, but he is rated as one of the best LBs to come out in a while.  The Panthers need the defensive help as they lost many games in 2011 as the result of poor defensive play.  They also need some help in the secondary and there was some talk that South Carolina CB, Stephon Gilmore, would go here.

10. Buffalo Bills – CB Stephon Gilmore, South Carolina – The Bills should be much improved in 2012 on the defensive side of the ball.  They signed Mario Williams away from the Texans and Mark Anderson away from the Patriots to improve their front 7.  If Shawn Merriman can stay healthy and regain form, their defense gets even scarier.  To help in the secondary they drafted South Carolina CB Stephon Gilmore, a very solid player.  He didn’t play a lot of man press in college, instead played a lot of off man and zone.  Will need to be solid in man at the NFL level, especially in a division where he will see the Patriots twice per year.  He is a very smart player, has 4.4 speed and great overall athleticism.  Has great height at 6′ 1″ to match up against taller receivers in the league and is great in run support, not afraid to mix it up.  This is a solid pick for the Bills but I believe that Janoris Jenkins, who excels in man coverage, might have been a better corner to go after.  Jenkins has a number of red flags from his time at Florida that caused his stock to drop.  So taking that into account you can understand taking Gilmore here.

Ryan Unable to Turnover A New Leaf

Ryan Leaf's booking photo

Before the 1998 NFL Draft, there was much debate about who would be the better professional quarterback – Ryan Leaf or Peyton Manning.  My answer back then to all my friends was Manning over Leaf.  I remember one of those friends calling me a few years back to recall the football debates we had as college teammates and telling me that I called this one right (as I often do! ha!).  It wasn’t that I didn’t think that Leaf wouldn’t be a good NFL QB, I just thought from the games that I had seen, Manning would be better.  There was no question that Leaf was a talented, strong-arm QB coming out of Washington State.  In retrospect the biggest question shouldn’t have been about his talent but his mental capacity.

Leaf went from signing a 4 year contract worth $31.25 million with the San Diego Chargers as the 2nd pick of the 1998 draft, to being out of football after 4 years.  To be fair, a part of his exit was due to a wrist injury during the 2000 season.  The biggest reason for his quick exit was his immaturity.  You can’t forget the confrontation that he had with San Diego Union Tribune reporter Jay Posner, which Junior Seau had to intervene in.  There was the shouting match with general manager Bobby Beathard that resulted in a suspension.  There is also the belief that he lied about a hand injury to get out of practice to go play golf.

In 2006 Leaf became a volunteer QB coach for West Texas A&M University.  It seemed that he had gotten his life together and had come to terms with his missed opportunity.  At some point Leaf got addicted to pain medication; it could have developed as result of his shoulder injury, a wrist injury, or another injury he sustained in football.  Two years later, in November 2008, his secret addiction would be exposed.  He was sentenced to 10 years probation for breaking into a player’s home to steal pills and obtaining more than a thousand pain pills illegally.

It had seemed after this situation that Leaf had overcome his addiction and found a comfortable life back home in Montana.  Then this weekend, on March 30th, he was arrested after the U.S. Postal Service tipped the Central Montana Drug Task force a month earlier about suspicious deliveries to Leaf’s home.  Leaf was apparently receiving packages of pain pills twice a week from Florida for which he was paying $500 to $700 per delivery.  He was asked to come to the Great Falls Probation and Parole Office  where a search discovered 20 oxycodone pills that seem to have been stolen from one of his friend’s house.  After posting $76,000 bail, he was released .

Just a few short days later, on April 2nd, Leaf was arrested again for breaking into a home and and being in possession of pills not prescribed to him.  He was discovered by the owner of the house, he told the owner he was at the wrong address and was in the house by mistake.  The man later noticed that there were three missing bottles of prescription drugs and called the police.  The description that the homeowner gave, lead police back to Leaf.  A search of Leaf’s home turned up 89 hyrdocodone pills but did not turn up the pills the homeowner reported missing.  A warrant obtained by law enforcement for Leaf’s GPS records, place him at the home at the time of the burglary.  The GPS data also places him at 5-10 other homes in the area.

Since Leaf was still on probation in Texas for the 2008 incident, there is a significant chance that his probation will be revoked by Texas officials on top of the criminal charges he now faces in Montana.  This is such a great fall for one of the most highly touted NFL prospects ever.  Addiction to pain medication is a serious problem, not just for athletes who battle with injuries but for the public as well.  It is estimated that over 7 million people in the United States abuse pain medication.  Let’s hope that Leaf gets the help he needs to overcome his addiction.

Nike Unveils New NFL Uniforms

The Seattle Seahawks have embraced the innovative designs that Nike provides

As expected, Nike unveiled uniforms for the 32 teams of the National Football League. Nike outbid competitor Reebok in 2010 for the apparel rights to outfit NFL teams beginning April 2012 by putting up a reported $1.1 billion to land a 5 year deal. Reebok was the official apparel provider of the NFL for a 10 year period that began in 2001 and ran through the 2011 NFL season.

With the exception of the Seattle Seahawks, there were no significant changes to team uniforms. This is kind of disappointing to me as a fan of college football. I like the tradition of the legacy uniforms that we have come to know. At the same time I was also hoping that the teams would have special alternate unis in the mold of the Nike Pro Combat designs we have seen from Boise State, Virginia Tech, and Oregon. While there is still a chance that we may see these designs down the road, it would have been an even bigger splash for Nike’s re-introduction into the NFL market.

Apart from uniforms, Nike also introduced equipment such as gloves and fan apparel. I have already per-ordered my new 49ers t-shirts & New Era cap through NFLShop.com.

For more on the new Nike uniforms and fan apparel please click here.