ESPN NFL Re-Draft
So i was looking around on ESPN and found this. It is some ESPN columnists "re-drafting" the NFL drafts of the last 3 years. In the 2007 draft we have 3 of the top 13 picks! But then in the '08 Jake Long fell to 10, not sure how that works but what the hell i guess you can't win them all. Kind of interesting nonetheless.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6528474
Without looking at it, I doubt ESPN took into account the main reason he was picked: Miami felt no qb was worth the exorbitant passer guaranteed money. Plus it's hard to put him as top impact player when a) he's a lineman and b) the Wildcat got figured out quickly
Left tackles are the second highest paid players because they are impact players and a good one lasts a long time. Running backs seem to flame out pretty quickly today. I think the real moral is the Rick Reilly just babbles for page views.
Flash = redraft, not necessarily fair assessment
That sir is probably the worst thing that you can say to a sports journalist - well done.
So early in the thread. Saved me clicking on it.
Back in his SI early days, he wrote some good stuff, but he went through that whole Mitch Albom I'm bigger than the story phase, and jumped to be an ESPN personality, and is pretty unreadable now.
I used to follow Pat Forde for a period 5-10 years ago, especially his work on the college basketball scene. He published in smaller papers in the midwest and once in awhile in Chicago. It was really detailed and objective work. This was obviously before, however, ESPN brought him onboard and gave him "Forde Yard Dash" and the entire profession of journalism as well as the English language degraded.
Compared to most of the other 1st-round picks, Jake did reasonably well holding position. To put it another way, many fell farther than he did.
Jake Long has made the Pro Bowl every year of his career, and has been named a first team All Pro and second team All Pro. Long doesn't have a "problem." He's one of the top 3 LT's in the NFL. Rick Reilly is just a douche.
Ive heard some scouts on the radio say that hes the second best LT in the league. If the entire NFL had a fantasy draft of all players on every team, Im not sure he falls much past 10. Rick Reilly is just a moron.
Ive heard some scouts on the radio say that hes the second best LT in the league. If the entire NFL had a fantasy draft of all players on every team, Im not sure he falls much past 10. Rick Reilly is just a moron.
Rankings in 2007:
- #9 Lamarr Woodley (drafted #46)
- #10 David Harris (drafted #47)
- #13 Leon Hall (drafted #18)
- #28 Steve Breaston (drafter #142)
Rankings in 2008
- #10 Jake Long (drafted #1)
With the exception of Jake, the other Michigan players mentioned exceeded expectations - none more than Steve Breaston.
Rick Reilly is an idiot - Mason Crosby as a first rounder in 2007? Pierre Garcon ninth overall in 2008?
Blah.
If any team ever takes a kicker in the 1st round, I'm done watching the NFL Draft. Kickers going in the 3rd round seems crazy to me.
Clearly you are unaware of Oakland's 1st round selection in 2000.
Sebastian Janikowski, 1st round out of FSU i believe
drafted Jason Hanson in 2nd round...
Lamarr is an obvious choice to jump up because he is a monster, i like seeing Leon jump a little bit. If he wasn't on that horror show of the Bengals he would be getting a lot more recognition. And i agree about Stevie-B, one of my all time favorite Wolverines. David Harris is a beast for the Jets as well.
I find it hard to believe Jake Long, a guy who's made the Pro Bowl every season of his career and has been named first team All Pro once and second team All Pro once, would be taken after either Pierre Garcon and his 1,500 yards and 10 TD's in 3 season (never had more than 782 yards in a season)., or Ryan Clady, who hasn't been good since his rookie year. I promise you, a Hall of Fame quality LT is not falling out of the top 5. Reilly is a numbskull.
Garcon is especially ridiculous. I think it'd be hard to find any team -- even one with a star left tackle -- that would take Garcon over Long.
recruited and produced NFL talent.
Interesting how the past 2 super bowl champions had the 2 highest redraft change in draft position of their players. Goes to show you build champions through the draft.
Also telling, although sad, is that my Browns and many other mgobloggers' Lions had very poor draft results in that time period with cooresponding results on the field.
Wow, I'm glad The Lions took Harris over Stanton in the 2nd round! O wait never mind, millen was running the team at that point.
Rick Reilly wrote it. He has no clue where guys would go and what role positional value plays into the draft.
If it was scouts inc. or football outsiders or someone who knows football then yeah go ahead. I know free speech and 'we should be able to discuss our opinions' and all, but picking apart this article is like sifting through dog shit for something good.
And if we wanna get real technical, it doesn't take into account of the team needs. Geez!
Looking back, the 2008 draft was one of the shittiest in recent memory.
Really Reilly? Gosder shouldve gone undrafted? Its apparent that this guy doesnt even watch NFL games, let alone the Lions. Gosder had his best year as a pro last year prior to getting hurt. What a clown.
With all due respect to Apocalypse Now, which is a very good film in it's own right, I still like Kramer vs. Kramer better. I'll be in the minority maybe, but making Apocalypse now was a shit show (watch the doc "Hearts of Darkness"), the whole thing seemed a little thrown together as there was no real good way to end it (again, watch the making of doc), and a very good anti-war Vietnam movie called "The Deer Hunter" came out the year before and was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 5, including best pic.
The Halle Berry paragraph I cannot argue however.
Have not read the article but I have to agree that Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now are awesome movies. Although that doesn't change my hatred for Heart of Darkness.
There was a time when Ricky Reilly was readable. That time has passed.
Okay, at first I looked at this and said, 'Hey, that's classy, he rated the guy who died of sudden cardiac arrest at the lowest spot. Stay classy, Rick.' Then I realized he had him listed as N/A in the draft position change status. My thinking is you leave the deceased guy off the table, because JaMarcus Russell should still be on the lowest line of that data table, just for clarity sake.
I'm a Browns fan, and I loved Kam Wimbley because by all accounts he was a great guy, but there is no way he's still a top 15 pick. He should have dropped to the 25-32 range.
Yes, it was written by Rick Reilly, but the 2007 re-rank is hard to argue with and it gives us 3 of the top 6 defensive players that year. I had two reactions: (1) proud of our guys and (2) less impressed by Ron English. Which hurts, because I love the man and thought he was terrific with that 2006 group. But man alive, the talent he had to work with. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Michigan_Wolverines_football_team#Dep…; Along with Woodley, Harris, and Hall, he had Alan Branch, Jamar Adams, Terrance Taylor, Crable, Burgess, Biggs...Dear God, that's an insane group.
Am I the only one who thinks he always sucked?
Id like to see Reilly's entire draft for those 3 years to see who the late round selections are that he has ahead of the 1st round picks he has as now undrafted. Although guys like Cherilus and Brady Quinn havent done much they have at least got on the field and contributed a little compared to many picks that year who failed to make the team, and the furthest they may have gotten was the practice squad