OT: NFL Draft Day 2 Open Thread
OK, it's still early, but the board is slow, and I've had enough of Sportscenter reruns hearing what they think of round 1, and while Day 2 isn't as exciting as Round 1, there may be some interest (and it practically carries us right up to the Red Wings game start). So till they hit the podium, who were the winners and losers of day 1 to you?
I hope I'm wrong, and it's NOT off-topic, but I'm thinking our players don't get drafted till tomorrow. So the Pats are on the clock. And are probably working on trading it as we speak.
I'm curious if Schilling will be drafted (not only today, but at all). Seems like 50/50...he's buried on most pundits' OL draft boards.
I wouldn't put much weight in pundits' draft boards. Most of them aren't real scouts and build their boards off of information fed from team insiders. Information becomes much more scarce as the draft moves on. Plus, later round draft picks are much more about what a specific team/scout sees in a player rather than consensus thought.
Nice pick the Lions had yesterday. As a Bills fan, the people I was with all erupted when you took Fairley. Fairley and Suh is downright scary.
Bills took Dareus which I was thrilled with. I'm hoping they snag Bowers at 34. Hope the 2nd round is as whacky as the first.
I didn't like the Fairley pick as his expressions when on the phone tell me he’s not excited at all to be in Detroit. I can only hope Suh’s work ethic rubs off on him, he doesn’t appear to be the most motivated player.
I read somewhere today that he said he's ready to get to work and play his butt off or something like that. Put it in perspective, for a long time he was supposed to go anywhere in the top 3, then he slips to number 13. Not only that, but what Lions fan actually thought we would pick him? I'm pretty sure everybody thought we were taking Prince with that pick. I'm hoping that was more of him being pissed at the 12 teams that passed on him.
"I am a hard worker," Fairley said in a short telephone interview. "I am willing to come in, work my tail off and earn everything I get."
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<br>He said he wasn't bitter or bothered by slipping to 13.
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<br>"You never know what's going to happen on draft day," he said. "For Detroit to pick me, it's a blessing. I can't wait to get to town and get this thing started."
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Schwartz needs to walk up to Fairley with Suh and Vanden Bosch and grin. I'm pretty sure he'll get the message.
I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of those two either.
to get all those picks for the 6th spot is a crazy deal. That might trump the Roy Williams deal with the Cowboys. Falcons just passed up the opprotunity for some decent depth in the future to win this year.
Have you seen Roddy White's twitter since last night? Sounds like he's not too impressed with the Falcons' decision to trade away all their picks for Jones (though, he seemed excited for Jones himself): http://twitter.com/roddywhitetv
Agreed. I also think, although Julio is a great talent, he isn't the type of WR the Falcons needed. They needed a true vertical threat to stretch the field, Julio is great. But I don't see him being the vertical threat they needed. AJ Green would have been a much better fit.
That and his hands are not that great. He drops quite a bit of easy catches.
Didn't they say the same thing about Braylon? They both make the realy difficult catches but drop many easy ones.
Winner: Saints for sure
Loser: Vikings, IMO Ponder was a reach at 12(?)
As a Pats fan, I hope they don't trade this pick too, they need to get a solid RB and some help in the DL and LB areas. I don't see the bottom end of this year's draft being quite as strong / deep as years' past, but that's me.
I think the defense has gotten weaker as some guys got older and others moved on. They need to bring in some good young new talent to help out Wilfork and Mayo in the front seven. They have a lot of picks in these next two rounds. I hope they bring in some quality players.
Yeah the front seven is a little weak. Wilfork and Mayo are the best players on the defense and the secondary is decent, but I agree they need guys to help Wilfork out. A nice rush end would be a huge pick up for the DL.
DMC is looking like a shutdown corner. BMW is great when his head's on straight. Chung is great when healthy. I mean they could may be use one more player in the secondary, but I think their main problem is in the pass rush as you said. Getting a bulldog down there to make up for the loss of Seymour from a couple years ago would be nice. I expect Belichick to stockpile a bit....or at least I hope.
Yeah... I guess I am not too worried because Belichick has proven time and time again that he can get just about anyone to be a serviceable player, whether it be on offense or defense. We will just have to wait and see I suppose.
I hope they draft some sort of rush OLB, I think they can get better value by waiting for a RB in the later rounds.
I like Daniel Thomas from K-St. is he is available in the later rounds.
They need someone more than "serviceable" when they get into the playoffs...
Agreed on McCourty. Halfway through his rookie season last year teams were already avoiding throwing to his side of the field. Although I suppose that could also be because we had the poo poo platter for CB on the other side. Getting Leigh Bodden back this year is gonna be huge for that secondary.
I'm kind of ambivalent about the Lions' pick yesterday. Of all the units, D-Line was already the best, so it seemed odd to spend a first round pick on it. Also, I absolutely hated Fairely with Auburn, and I'm having a hard time coming around on liking such an unapologetically dirty player.
Then again, Fairely was clearly a "oh shit, that guy's still available" pick up. And the D-Line will be even more killer with some added run-stopping ability. I'll try to hold back too much judgment on how the Lions did until the rest of the draft shakes out. They can easily pick up solid CBs, LBs, and/or OLs in later rounds (especially, since round 1 was almost nothing but DL and questionable QBs; speaking of QBs, will Hill still be around next season?).
I don't see any Michigan players going before the 4th round. I think Schilling and Mouton will both get drafted at some point, maybe Webb, but not until later.
He has number one overall talent, so if you can get that type of talent where the Lions did, you have to be happy. Sometimes, it is the best thing to take the best available player. Defense wins championships, so if you can get more talent on that side of the ball, which I believe the Lions did, they can improve their team. I'm not a Lions fan, but I think the Lions are a team I'm going to keep an eye on in the coming years. They should pick up some lineman though, so Stafford doesn't die.
The line wasn't that bad. Stafford got hit less than the league average. He got hurt on a play where he held the ball, and ran out of the pocket. A defender made a shoe string tackle and the guy fell on his shoulder. I don't normally defend Lions offensive lines, but they are not dying for an OL.
I agree about last season's OL. I think everyone is just used to the Lions having a terrible line, combined with Stafford (and Hill) getting hurt, the knee-jerk reaction is to assume the Lions need to pick up O-Linemen. I think they need work in the run game, but QB protection wise, they were in the top 3rd of the leagure (see my comment further down for actual rankings).
Thanks for backing me up with the info. Not only was I too lazy to look up the stats, I was too lazy to actually read the rest of the thread. I did "moderate" you with plus ones, or at least I tried to.
We Lions' OL apologists need to stick together.
I think Webb will end up being a steal for some team in the later rounds. The worst 1st round goes to the Patriots. Yeah it's great you have all these picks but what good is it if you never use them for 1st round talent? They clearly have needs that need addressed and when Brady is gone so goes the Patriot dynasty. So why not use them now? They have become full of themselves in thinking they can win SB's while handing off to Danny Woodhead. 30 teams took a shot at getting better yesterday and they weren't one of them.
Brooks Reed was a borderline first rounder, anyway, so if they can get him in the second round, good for them. The Patriots have done very well with lower picks and veterans, so I trust them to get good players, regardless of where they select.
The Patriots haven't had a RB since Corey Dillion. I don't think any of the RB are worth first round picks and they can get better value from RB in the later rounds anyways. The Patriots know what they are doing.
Laurence Maroney would like a word with you. Seriously though they do pretty good for themselves but they are not the draft gods most make them out to be.
And his limited return burned them bad. Might have cost them a Super Bowl too.
I see Aaron Hernandez (4th), Zoltan Mesko (5th), Sebastian Vollmer (2nd), Brandon Tate (3rd), Julian Edelman (7th), Rob Gronkowski (2nd), Stephen Gostkowski (4th), Ellis Hobbs (3rd), Nick Kaczur (3rd), Matt Cassel (7th), Asante Samuel (4th), Dan Koppen (5th), Tully Banta-Cain (7th), Deion Branch (2nd), Jarvis Green (4th), Matt Light (2nd), and Tom Brady (6th).
All of those guys have been key parts of very good teams in New England.
Additionally, they pick up "old beat up RB's" but they also get guys like Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Rodney Harrison, Junior Seau, etc. who fit in nicely.
Their strategy works, so you can't really argue with it too much. It helps that they do well with their 1st round picks, but hey . . . they've been winning for the better part of the last couple decades. They must be doing something right.
I agree but most of that success for these lesser known players falls on Brady's shoulders. Branch and Moss for that fact are mediocre at best when he isn't throwing him the ball. Seau did about jack shit for them as well. My point is that while they do well, this team isn't getting any younger and by that I mean Brady. He may only have a few more runs left in him so why not sign some immediate impact players. I just think they are over playing their hand at this point.
Does it really matter if Moss isn't a great blocker when he catches 22 touchdowns? And sure, you can say that Brady is responsible for most of it...
...but Matt Cassel played fairly well for them...
...and Drew Bledsoe was a good quarterback who went to a Super Bowl prior to Brady.
Junior Seau had 74 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 3.5 sacks on the 2007 team that went 16-0. That's not exactly "jack shit."
It'll be what, 8 years since they've won one? Eventually you have to stop resting on what you did in the past, and worry about striking for a few more before Brady retires.
They went 16-0 and got to the Super Bowl three years ago.
They went 14-2 last year.
I don't think they're exactly resting on their laurels.
After dominating the regular season they keep struggling against defensive minded teams in the playoffs. Giants, Ravens, Jets. They don't need draft picks, they need to rebuild the defense to go with their elite offense. Because when they were winning it all, they were doing it with Brady and nobody on offense, but a good team defense.
Ok so I you plucked Seau's good year. NE is becoming the Colts in the way that they win a ton of games in the regular season but can't win the SB. When defenses dial it up in the playoffs you need players to make plays, which sometimes requires elite talent. NE never had a dominating defense and it is exposed now more than ever. You can rattle off all the names you want but the bottom line is Brady is that team.
April 30th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
Yes, of course Brady is their team. EVERY franchise quarterback "is the team." Do the Broncos win Super Bowls without John Elway? No. Do the Steelers win Super Bowls without Ben Roethlisberger and Terry Bradshaw? No. Do the Green Bay Packers win Super Bowls without Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers? No.
And guess what? Brady was a LATE PICK, which supports my original comment, which said that New England has done very well with late picks and veterans.
I'm sorry I cherry-picked Junior Seau's best season, which was a pretty good season (74 tackles, 3 picks, 3.5 sacks) for a team that went 16-0. But let's see here... Choose one of the two following options:
a) I said New England has done well with late picks and veterans.
b) You said Junior Seau "didn't do jack shit."
Tell me your statement is more accurate than mine. I dare you.
Furthmore, as for your comment that "New England never had a dominating defense and it is exposed now more than ever."
In the years that New England won the Super Bowl, they were 6th (2001), 1st (2003), and 2nd (2004) in points allowed per game. They were also 2nd in 2006, 4th in 2007, and 5th in 2009. So they've had top six defenses at least 6 times in the last decade, at least according to points allowed per game.
I look forward to your refutation of my factual statements.
So true Magnus. They really seem to get a lot of value with their late picks.
I agree about Fairley as a person, but he was by far the best player at that position and I suspect nobody was willng to trade up. That line will be terrifying.
I agree about Fairley as a person, but he was by far the best player at that position and I suspect nobody was willng to trade up. That line will be terrifying.
I hated Fairley at Auburn too. I think his actions were questionable at times, but I don't want players who pick daisies in their free time, especially on defense. I said yesterday how I wanted other teams to fear playing us. If other teams don't want him hitting their qb then they better find a way to stop him. People keep talking about his character, but it's not like he's going to be the face of our franchise; we have Stafford, Suh, and CJ for that.
We've been getting our asses kicked for as long as I've been alive, and once we finally start putting a real team together, people start bitching that one of our players is dirty. Everybody qb in the league crapped their pants once we drafted him. Mayhew used to play with the D-line coach at Auburn, and he was impressed with Fairley's personality. We'll be able to find starting corners and linebackers in free agency and in the later rounds. You can't find a Nick Fairley in free agency.
This isn't all in a response to you, and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth or anything like that. Just trying to add to the discussion.
I completely agree that Fairely is a great player and that the Lions' D-Line is going to be a terrifying force. I've never been more excited for the Lions in my life than I am this off season, and it's just an added bonus that the basis for that excitement is a brutal D-Line. I just don't want to see Fairely out there using his facemask to grate an opposing QB's face.
It's not about the other team finding a way to stop him. "Dirty" doesn't mean he plays hard or hits hard. It means he's the kind of guy who will spear QBs in the back after the play is done.
On top of being the kind of play I don't want to see on the field, period, let alone for the team I'm rooting for, if you want a concrete reason why dirty players are bad, just think of the penalties Fairely will get if he doesn't play cleaner in the pros. Suh was catching a ton of personal fouls that didn't exist. Imagine how many Fairely wil get if he's actually committing them.
I don't support any of the controversial hits/after whistle bs he pulled last year. I also don't want him getting penalties because he's out there playing like a pissed off teenager. I think that his dirty play was a result of immaturity and his "mean streak". I think with the guys around him, he'll tone it down a bit. Hardly anybody was calling out Suh for being a dirty player after that late hit on Delhomme last year. I realize that something like that is completely different from the controversy that Fairley brought last year, but I think/hope to God it won't be a major problem once he gets to the NFL. I think the coaching staff and surrounding players won't put up with his shit the way that everybody at Auburn did. I like that the kid plays with emotion, similar to Suh. Too much of it, however, is not good, and he needs to work on that.
Would like to see the Lions pick up an LB or CB. Some mock drafts have us getting CB Brandon Harris (Miami). Yeah, yeah, I know it's a mock draft.
I think the Pats are gonna use all 3 of their picks in this round only because every time I think I have Belichick pegged he does the exact opposite of what I was predicting.
I'm really hoping the Steelers get Ras-I Dowling, I'm really pissed they drafted Cameron Hayward in the first round... damn OSU grads.
This was a good name to throw out...