Monday, April 30, 2007

Best Team Drafts

I had originally planned on reviewing and ranking every team’s draft. But as I began to undertake that task, I realized that that is 32 teams a whole lot more time than I have to spend on this. Until someone wants to start paying me to write about the NFL full-time, then sorry but I have to cut it short. So what I will do is give a couple teams that I feel had the best draft and then hopefully tomorrow I can drop a few of the worst drafting teams.

First I will cover the teams that had the best drafts. A couple of teams mentioned as having good drafts are 49ers, Cardinals, Cowboys, Raiders, Browns, Falcon, Colts, Panthers, and Vikings. (Based on Pro Football Weekly and NFL.com. Before I give two teams that I believe had the best drafts, I want to qualify how I arrived at my decision. I considered what team’s picks will have an impact on their team immediately. Of course to truly evaluate a draft, we would have to look at least 3 years down the road, maybe even more. Since I am not John Tetor, I can only look at the present. Also I considered the team’s needs coming into the draft to see if they met their biggest needs. So judging on that criteria, my the two teams I feel had the best draft are the Carlolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings.

Carolina Panthers:
25. Jon Beason, LB, Miami
45. Dwayne Jarrett, WR, USC
59. Ryan Kalil, C, USC
83. Charles Johnson, DE, Georgia
118. Ryne Robinson, WR, Miami (Ohio)
155. Dante Rosario, TE, Oregon
164. Tim Shaw, LB, Penn State
226. C.J. Wilson, CB, Baylor


In no particular order, I had the Panthers biggest needs as OT, DE, WR, TE, LB. As you can see they covered several of those. I can see the first four picks starting or at least receiving significant playing time. Beason and Kalil were both tops at their position coming into this draft. Jarrett and Johnson both dominated competition at one point in their college careers. If they can carry that success over, they could both be great values. Finally, not many people know about Wilson, but he is confident and talented and could contribute in nickel packages and special teams.

The second team with the best draft was the Minnesota Vikings.
7. Adrian Peterson, RB, Oklahoma
44. Sidney Rice, WR, South Carolina
72. Marcus McCauley,CB, Fresno State
102. Brian Robison,DE, Texas
146. Aundrae Allison, WR, East Carolina
176. Rufus Alexander, LB, Oklahoma
217. Tyler Thigpen, QB, Coastal Carolina
233. Chandler Williams, WR, Florida International


In no particular order, here are the Vikings needs coming into draft. OL depth, firepower on offense, secondary depth, and a pass-rush. I don’t think I have to say much about Peterson. I believe he will be the Rookie of the Year. As for Sidney Rice, he had some injuries last year that made people forget about him some, but at one time he was the most consistent wide-out in college, even ahead of Calvin Johnson. In my opionion, Rice was the second/third best receiver in the draft. McCauley was potentially a first round pick. Robison, as anyone who follows Texas Longhorns knows, is a player. He has a motor and as he showed at the combine, he is an athlete. I also like the pick of Alexander. Alexander fell down many draft board because he is small and apparently not very strong. Alexander does however have a nose for the ball, as he proved as a standout at OU.

Check back later to see who did worst job drafting this week-end.

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