NFL FANS NOT FEELING THE DRAFT
If you scrolled Twitter for NFL news and commentary late Thursday night or early Friday morning, one theme stood out. A slew of NFL fans were steaming mad over players their beloved teams’ picked in Round 1 of the league’s three-day draft on Thursday night.
Like, torch-and-pitchfork angry.
Many Detroiters seethed that the Lions picked a centre (Frank Ragnow of Arkansas) and not an edge rusher or running back. Many in Denver yearned for one of the hot young quarterbacks, not edge rusher Bradley Chubb of North Carolina State, when the team already has one of the NFL’s best in Von Miller. Similarly, Baltimore fans wanted the widely perceived top wideout who was available at No. 25 (Alabama’s Calvin Ridley), not the top tight end (South Carolina’s Hayden Hurst).
And Seattle fans wanted a desperately needed top-flight offensive lineman at No 27, not another running back (San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny, whom few draftniks had as a Top 50 pick). Angriest of all seemed to be Bills fans, with the trade-up selection of Wyoming ’s Josh Allen as the franchise’s future quarterback at No. 7. Some in the Western New York media stoked those torch fires, as they felt the Bills picked the wrong Josh; that is, they should have taken UCLA’s Josh Rosen (who was available), not Josh Allen. Bills GM Brandon Beane was asked late Friday night if he cared at all about the “overwhelmingly negative” reaction. “No,” Beane said. “We have to do what’s best for the Bills. We understand the position we are in. Not everyone is going to agree with the decision. If we had drafted a different quarterback I’m sure people probably would’ve disagreed with that for other reasons, and we all know that quarterback is a hot topic, no matter what.” One reason some Bills fans are livid is Thursday’s revelation of massively offensive racially derogative comments and words Allen tweeted out at age 14 or 15. One caller to Buffalo sports-talk radio station WGR 550-AM on Friday afternoon said he is a person of colour who is so offended, he wasn’t sure he if he could continue rooting for the Bills. “We researched that and followed up with (Allen),” Beane said Thursday night, adding that numerous people in the team’s front office immediately made calls to contacts in Wyoming to see if the Bills had missed anything about Allen personalitywise. The calls confirmed that no one they talked to about the 21-year-old, Beane said, had a bad word to say about him. “We feel really good about it. He is Buffalo. You guys will see that when you meet him.” That issue aside, no team, no GM, no scout, no coach, no teammate past or present, no draftnik, no reporter and no fan ever knows for sure whether any player — drafted or undrafted — will make it in the NFL.
We do our research. We guess. Then we wait a couple, three years to find out who was right.
RANKINGS VS. MOCKS
To expand on that last point, remember this — always. It’d be a minor miracle for anyone just to predict the final team-by-team, 1-32 order of the first round correct, after all the trades are done — let alone guess which players these frenetically rearranged teams select. Mock drafts are fun. And they sure help pass the time between New Year’s and the draft. But they’re never based on reality because no one has ever correctly prefigured the final 1-32 draft order.
It’s like guessing the number of cars that’ll stop at any stop light four months from now. You can research until your eyes bleed who normally drives on that road at that time, and what traffic patterns in the area apply, and project. But in the end it comes down to hunches and guesses. Far more informative are the top draftniks’ “big board” or “Hot Hundred” ranking of recruits. All but four of NFL Network’s Mike Mayock Top 32 went in the first round. That’s outstanding. And no coincidence, folks. Mayock is as plugged in to top decision-makers across the league as anyone in the media. His only asterisk is that he waits until just days before the draft to release his Top 100.
In contrast, Dane Brugler and Rob Rang of NFLDraftScout. com begin putting out their long lists of player rankings each year in January and February, well before the Scouting Combine. When you consider that Top 10 talents generally don’t fall out of the Top 10, it’s mighty impressive that both Brugler and Rang months ago correctly guessed eight of Thursday night’s Top 10. The dean of NFL Draft predicting, Gil Brandt of NFL.com, did well again, too. Twenty-six of his Top 32 (released last week) were selected Thursday.
JOE TO GO?
Does Baltimore’s drafting of QB Lamar Jackson in the first round, albeit at the end of it, mean Joe Flacco’s days as the Ravens’ face of the franchise are nearing an end? Probably, if he doesn’t perform better than he has since landing his nine-figure contract extension after leading Baltimore to a Super Bowl championship after the 2012 season — especially while battling a back issue over the past two years.
The Ravens last month also signed Robert Griffin III to back up Flacco and if you don’t see that as another sign the club is prepared to segue to a new college-style attack, you’re not paying close attention. Flacco’s contract is backloaded such that, according to reports, the team could save US$18.5 million if makes him a post-May cut next year, and split $16 million in dead money over the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Meaning, unless Flacco gets his mojo back this fall, he can expect to be cut next spring.