2 posts tagged “nfl draft”
Been a while, I appologize. But lets jump right into the meat of the discussion, the NFL Draft. I'm going to avoid doing mocks, or giving generalizations, but instead I'll try to look at some of the sub top-15 prospects, and give my take on how they played, their strengths and weaknesses, and where they may end up going (and how they may end up doing). I'm going to start with one Felix Jones, runningback, Arkansas. Jones sat behind Darren McFadden on the depth chart for two seasons, but put up impressive numbers. He has had over 1,150 yards two seasons running. However, he has only carried the ball 387 times in his career. Two running backs put up the same number of rushing attempts this season in college football (Ray Rice and Kevin Smith), in fact over 120 runningbacks had more carries this season than Jones. Even in the NFL, a prototypical split-back like Julius Jones had 46 more carries this season than Jones.
With that being said, Felix Jones is no slouch. His nearly 3,000 yards as a backup is impressive, and Jones also returned kicks and punts, a demanding activity. With the return success of Maurice Jones Drew (another <6'0'' <210 lbs running back), its likely that Jones will get some views in returning kicks on the next level. Jones has also shown his stride to be great, he's able to really put the speed on when he needs it and use what height he has coming out of the pile. That being said, he needs to show he get hit and come back from it. He played in the SEC, which is a bonus, but he played in the Wild Hogs formation where he wasn't even the most focused target. He bounces off tackles rather than plowing through them, and makes a better outside guy than inside guy.
Jones impressed with a solid 4.47 40' and a great 20' drill. I think Jones will be a change of pace back, and if he can prove that he can catch in the NFL, a 3rd down back. Like Reggie Bush, and Adrian Peterson, Jones runs upright a lot. He has a whole lot of power coming from his legs and can move like lightning in the open field. But in the redzone or against tough front sevens, I think he will have problems. Jones will not be drafted to be a primary back, but he will probably be drafted 2nd-3rd round, maybe the first if a team like Dallas really wants him. Dallas would be fine to pair him up with Barber, especially given Dallas' plethora of picks and lack of need. A team like St. Louis or Kansas City could use him as well, as both teams need to lighten the load on their primary runner (who is a between the tackles guy). Unfortunately for both teams, they have more important needs, and secondary runners can be found in the later rounds.
My prediction is that Jones goes to Dallas, either in the late first, or early second. He will probably play out 4 years or so in Dallas, possibly earning the starting spot. But I do not think he will be able to lead a team in carries, at least not for a long time. Whever he goes, he will add an excellent special teams boost and a great split-back situational guy.
Now, this is truly a Brownie dreaming, so it wont be completely without bias. It will show what might have been. The first pick would then have fallen to the New Orleans Saints, who would have taken Ricky Williams. Coming up right behind them would be the Philadelphia Eagles, who, taking the best QB available, would have selected Tim Couch. The Bengals really wanted Akili Smith (and thus did not trade with New Orleans). So that would have fallen like it did.
Indianapolis already had its QB of the future in Peyton Manning. Therefore, it would still select the Edge with the 4th
But this is just my dream, so don't put too much into it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On another note, here are some funny things I've been mulling over concerning drafts.
In 1999, the year of the quarterback (Donovan McNabb, Tim Couch, Daunte Culpepper, Akili Smith and Cade McCown all went in round one), Peter King of Sports Illustrated had this to say.
"3.) I think -- still -- Cade McNown will be the best quarterback to come out of this draft.
4.) I think I'd feel a lot better about the Donovan McNabb pick if he'd played well against Miami and in the Syracuse bowl game."
Amusing no?
Likewise in 2000, the same medium labled Courtney Brown- "the perfect player." This wasn't universally agreed on, as Trev Alberts disagreed. But he also said the following- "The worst picks in this weekend's draft? First, there's Baltimore, who took Jamal Lewis with the fifth pick in the draft"
Just goes to show how little pre-draft, and even post draft, beliefs really mean.
