After way too many hours sitting on my butt staring at the tv and/or computer (and way, WAY too many hours of listening to Mel Kiper), here are some of my thoughts after the 2013 draft.
-The Lions made a real boom-or-bust pick at 5th over all with DE Ziggy Ansah. A native of Ghana, Ansah is still very new to football but had a big senior season at BYU.
-My first “Facepalm Of The Draft” award goes to the Buffalo Bills. Florida State QB E.J. Manuel at 16? That’s a big reach, Buffalo. You could have easily gotten an impact player there and gotten a QB- probably even Manuel, if he’s your guy- in the second round.
-I like what the Rams did at the wide receiver position. They knew they needed to get some targets for Sam Bradford, so they traded up from 16th to 8th in the first round to get speedy Tavon Austin out of West Virginia. Then they took his teammate Stedman Bailey in the third round. My only concern would be that both guys are on the small side at 5’8″ and 5’10” respectively.
–Mel Kiper, your hair is ridiculous.
-My second “Facepalm Of The Draft” award goes to the New York Jets. Sharrif Floyd and Star Lotulelei are still on the board, and you skip over them for Sheldon Richardson? Not to mention, there are things you need more than a DT- like, basically everything on offensive.
-The Jets would go on to take West Virginia QB Geno Smith with their second round pick. This pick means the Jets have 6 QBs on their roster right now. After last year’s Tim Tebow/Mark Sanchez fiasco, you’d think they would want to avoid another QB controversy, but apparently not.
-During the season, there was talk about LSU defensive ends Barkevious Mingo and Sam Montgomery possibly both being top 5 picks. Mingo went 6th overall to the Browns, but Montgomery fell all the way to the third round. What the hell?
-Speaking of LSU, Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu ended up going to the Cardinals in the third round at 69th overall. (26 picks before Montgomery. Again, what the hell?) I think Arizona is a good landing spot for him. Former LSU teammate Patrick Peterson is there, and Peterson is, from what I’ve heard and read, a fairly mature and responsible young man. He’ll set a good example for Mathieu, who will hopefully be smart enough to follow it. At least of couple of ESPN draft commentators mentioned that new Cardinals coach Bruce Arians is known for being good at dealing with, shall we say, “issue players”. On the field, Mathieu could have an early impact returning punts and/or kicks, something he did successfully at LSU.
-My third “Facepalm Of The Draft” award goes to LSU DB Tharold Simon, who managed to get arrested in his hometown on Thursday night. He went on to be drafted in the fourth round by the Seahawks.
-Last LSU-related thought, I promise: the Tigers had EIGHT defensive players drafted through five rounds, a school record. These coaches, particularly defensive coordinator John Chavis, are doing a lot of things right. (Now if they could just stop with the kids getting arrested and failing drug tests…)
–Notre Dame‘s Manti Te’o ended up going to the Chargers early in the second round. Considering the comparisions to Junior Seau, that’s an apt spot for him. An added bonus for Te’o is that San Diego is the closest NFL city to his family in Hawaii. It’s hard to know what had more to do with Te’o falling out of the first round- the fake girlfriend thing, or the BCS game.
-It’s impossible not to be happy for South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore going to the 49ers in the fourth round after the gruesome knee injury he suffered in the Tennessee game. By all accounts, Lattimore is a humble, respectful young man who is well-liked not just by his teammates but by his opponents as well. Frank Gore – who, incidentally, suffered a serious knee injury coming out of Miami- plays a similar game to Lattimore and should be a good role model for him.
-The Jacksonville Jaguars made two fourth-round picks that I really like. At 101, they took WR Ace Sanders from South Carolina. Sanders is just 5’7″ and 173 pounds, but he’s incredibly shifty and good at making guys miss. He could have an impact early on in the return game. Then at 135, the Jags took QB Denard Robinson from Michigan. Robinson isn’t likely to be a QB in the pros, but he’s a talented athlete who could transition to WR, RB, or maybe even DB, in addition to being used in Wildcat-type packages.
-The Bengals’ second-round pick is a guy I’ll be keeping an eye on. Margus Hunt is a native of Estonia and a former shot-putter and discus-thrower. I watched his last college game, and I can tell you that he is one LARGE human being- it was never difficult to pick him out on the field. NFL.com lists him as being 6’8″ and 277 pounds. In his career at SMU, Hunt blocked 17 kicks. (The NCAA record is 19).
– How much money did Matt Barkley cost himself by going back to school? In the 2012 Draft he would have been a sure first round pick. Now one year later, he went to the Eagles with the first pick of the fourth round. Barkley is a pure pocket passer, so it will be interesting to see how he adapts to Chip Kelly‘s new system in Philadelphia.
– The Packers got great value in drafting Alabama Running Back Eddie Lacy at the end of the 2nd round. Its a full round later than many analysts had him going, and Lacy could be the starter (And a productive one) in Green Bay’s offence. He really played well for Bama and had a huge BCS title game. If he’s not the starter in Green Bay, they also drafted Jonathan Franklin from UCLA in the fourth round
-One last thing, if you haven’t seen Frank Caliendo’s Mel Kiper, you need to see this now. I thought Caliendo’s Jon Gruden impression was good, but this one puts it to shame.
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