1. I can't for the life of me figure out how Sam Bradford ended up the obvious pick at the top of the draft. I get that his measurables are great and all, but let's list a lot of his defining traits all at once:
- He played in a spread offense.
- He won the Heisman Trophy.
- In his Heisman-winning year, his offensive system (an extreme hurry-up) was designed in such a way that it inflated his totals beyond what they would normally be.
- He was in college for four years, but basically only played two thanks to a red shirt and being out most all of last year injured.
- He enjoyed the luxury of a behemoth offensive line in his two full seasons, and we never got to see him play much without it.
The guy has all those strikes against him, and yet the Rams are betting the farm on him? I got nothing against Bradford, and he may prove to be an excellent pro. There's an awful lot of risk involved here though, and it seems imprudent to me to invest top-pick-in-the-draft money in a guy who is not a sure thing.
2. I will be interested in seeing where Tim Tebow ends up going, naturally. I have to say though, the coverage of him in relation to the draft feels eerily similar to what I heard about Danny Wuerffel coming out.
Wuerffel was never thought of as a possible first round pick at any point, of course, as he didn't have much arm strength and had a funky, shot put-style throwing motion. Still, he was a Heisman winner from Florida who set all kinds of records yet got bashed by the draftniks. He even had the fact that he played in a relatively pro-style offense going for him, as Steve Spurrier's Fun 'n Gun used plenty of conventional offensive theory.
Tebow has the physical size and arm strength the pros are looking for, but he's got a long windup that he's working to shorten and didn't play in a pro-style offense. In his favor though are his incredible work ethic and a fiery demeanor that the old school football guys like (and that Wuerffel never had). I give Tebow a better shot at making it in the NFL than Wuerffel ever had, but he's going to need some time to adjust. I just hope he goes somewhere that will give him that time (i.e. not Jacksonville).
3. As long as we're talking quarterbacks, I'm curious as to why most folks see Colt McCoy as a better pro prospect? He's shorter, doesn't have as strong an arm, and, like Tebow, regressed statistically from his junior to senior year. He also played in a spread offense and wasn't asked to make many NFL-type throws.
Call me crazy, but wouldn't the guy with superior size under these circumstances be the preferred prospect? Maybe that's why I'm not a scout.
4. The NFL Draft is good TV, but I'm skeptical of the new three-day format. It's true that having the draft on all day on the weekend becomes a chore after a while, and the first couple rounds are the only ones people care about anyway. However, spreading things out even further is probably not the way to go. The most fun of anything about the draft is looking at each team's haul at the end, and now we're stretching out the wait for that from two days to three.