NFL Draft 2010: was it all just a fun dream?

The NFL Draft 2010 edition played out on television from Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon, with just a few breaks for a little sleep in here and there, and with some of the strangeness that transpired over those three days, one is left to wonder: were we perhaps instead asleep during the draft itself? Not that it was snooze-worthy by any means; just the opposite in fact. But some of what took place felt like it simply had to be a dream.

Did the Denver Broncos really move and down four times in the first round and end up with Tim Tebow? Did the league really collectively decide that tight end is the new premier position? Tight end? Was that Olympic legend Carl Lewis announcing one of the draft picks? Did Jimmy Clausen and Colt McCoy ever get drafted, or are they now waiting for the league to add an eighth round so they can continue to get passed over by every team that needs a quarterback? Wait, what’s that, you say – they finally went in the third? Hmm, maybe we did take a nap in there somewhere.

By the way, did Rhodes Scholar and future doctor Myron Rolle really fall to the last pick of the sixth round because he was considered too smart? Did the Raiders just go through a whole draft without doing anything insane for once? And did Jason Campbell really get traded for a draft pick in 2012? Perhaps someone saw the movie and mistook it for a documentary and thinks none of us will be around by that time anyway, in which case the pick wouldn’t matter.

The addition of a handful of rookies rarely turns a franchise around in their first season, so some would argue that the entire draft doesn’t really matter, at least until the draftees have been in the league long enough to make a major impact. But if the draft is all that NFL fans are going to be given between now and August in terms of league activity, then at least it was entertaining – if indeed any of it really did happen.

NFL Draft 2010 ruled by tight ends

Tight end isn’t a sexy position. Quarterbacks get all the credit for a strong passing game, and wide receivers get all the glory, while tight ends are just as likely to end up slamming into someone as a blocker on a given play as they are to get a chance to make a flashy downfield catch. Put another way, what percentage of NFL fans even know what their team’s starting tight end looks like with his helmet off?

But that doesn’t stop tight end from being a valuable, dual position in the league. And teams demonstrated that this past weekend by letting big name quarterbacks fall down the board and largely ignoring running backs altogether in favor of drafting boatloads of tight ends. While the first tight end of the draft wasn’t taken until Jermaine Gresham went to the Cincinnati Bengals with the 21st pick of the first round, the middle and later round featured so many tight end selections that multiple teams ended up drafting more than one player at the position.

The NFL is often referred to as a “copycat league” due to the fact that unsuccessful teams tend to mimic the moves of the contenders in an attempt to tap into their winning formula, as evidenced by the popularity of the “Wildcat” formation after the Miami Dolphins successfully began using it in 2008 (interestingly enough, few teams had success with the experiment beyond the Dolphins themselves). Now it seems the latest copycat trend is to load up on tight ends, after this past season’s Super Bowl participants relied heavily on their tight ends to get there; Dallas Clark for the Indianapolis Colts and Jeremy Shockey with the victorous New Orleans Saints.

Matt Millen apologizes to Ron Jaworski

After apparently making a Polish-related derogatory remark toward fellow ESPN commentator Ron Jaworski during the network’s NFL Draft 2010 broadcast (we didn’t catch the remark, likely a “Polish joke” of some kind), Matt Millen formally apologized to Jaworski as well as anyone who was offended by the remark. We did catch the apology, and while Millen appeared to be confused as to precisely what he was apologizing for (then again, Millen always looks confused), he appeared to be sincere in his regret over having created the situation, saying that he “didn’t mean anything” by the remark. Millen’s name briefly became a trending topic on Twitter after the apology aired.

Still no word on whether Matt Millen plans to apologize to the city of Detroit for having turned the Lions into a national joke during his tenure in charge of the team. Millen, a former NFL linebacker, repeatedly used the Lions’ high draft picks to take wide receivers who typically ended up as busts, along with quarterback Joey Harrington, also a bust, while surprisingly ignoring the team’s needs at position such as the one he himself had played.

Ron Jaworski, nickamded Jaws, was quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles during the Dick Vermeil era, leading the team to the Super Bowl but not winning it.

Miami Dolphins draft strong safety

Miami Dolphins can breathe easy – perhaps – as the team has selected safety Reshad Jones out of Georgia in the fifth round to take the place of veteran Gibril Wilson who was cut earlier in the offseason after one disastrous season after having been signed as a high profile free agent. The Dolphins traded with the Rams to get their hands on the pick, which was their second of the round, the first having been acquired in the Ted Ginn trade. While fifth round picks are far from sure bets to become quality NFL starters, Jones may provide some hope at the team’s one remaining glaring position of weakness, which was a consistent problem throughout the 2009 season. Free agency is also an option for the position.

New York Jets trade Leon Washington

New York Jets running back Leon Washington knew his remaining time with the team was limited, and now it’s official: he’s been dealt to the Seattle Seahawks in an NFL Draft 2010 day three trade which involved a swapping of late round picks. Washington will join former Tennessee Titans running back LenDale White, who just became a Seahawk a few hours ago as part of another pick-swapping trade.

Leon Washington, the former Florida State University standout, had been a Jets star since 2006 but missed most of the 2009 injury with a devastating leg injury. LenDale White previously played for Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll when the two teamed up for a national championship winning run at USC.

Pete Carroll turning Seattle Seahawks into USC North

Pete Carroll isn’t wasting any time putting his stamp on the Seattle Seahawks after bolting from his championship-laden run at USC in favor of taking over the NFL’s only northwestern team. Before the draft, Carroll signed former University of Southern California wide receiver Mike Williams, who had busted out of the league after being drafted in the first round by the Detroit Lions back in 2005 before bouncing around to a few other teams. Now, Carroll has taken his USC theme a step further by swapping a series of late round draft picks (a fourth and a sixth for a fourth and a sixth) with the Tennessee Titans and acquiring his old running back LenDale White, who had teamed with fellow running back Reggie Bush and quarterback Matt Leinart to win a national championship for the Trojans when they were college teammates. White had been stuck behind Chris Johnson on the Titans’ depth chart.

The Seahawks also acquired Kevin Vickerson in the trade with the Titans, who had originally been a late round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins.

NFL Draft is inherently flawed for quarterbacks

Congratulations, Sam Bradford. You’re a wealthy man today. And statistically speaking, your NFL career may be over already.

The first overall pick in the NFL Draft 2010 is about to be handed fifty million dollars on a silver platter by the St Louis Rams, one of the league’s worst teams, where he’ll likely be pressed into action as the starting quarterback his rookie season – much of which he’ll spend flat on his back. Remember David Carr, who went first overall to the Houston Texans, back when they were an awful expansion team? Last we checked, he’s a gun-shy backup somewhere else now, after taking one too many hits while playing his first few years behind a non-existent offensive line. Bradford’s fate might not be quite as ugly in St Louis (after all, Stephen Jackson managed to run for well over a thousand yards behind that same offensive line), but suffice it to say that he’s facing long odds in terms of having a productive first few years of his career.

Not that it can’t be done. Peyton Manning was drafted first overall by what was then an abysmal Indianapolis Colts team, and we all know how that played out. But that was as much to do with the fact that the team was then able to properly build around him (Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, Jeff Saturday). Which is why the career prospects may be brighter today for Colt McCoy, who went in the third round to the Cleveland Browns after having been expected to go higher. He’ll only be making a fraction of the money that Bradford gets, but with proven winner Mike Holmgren having taken the reins of the Cleveland franchise, there’s at least hope that the roster around him will be properly built.

And then there’s Jimmy Clausen, who won the draft lottery by going in the middle of the second round to the Carolina Panthers, a perennial contender who simply needed a new quarterback after veteran Jake Delhomme finally ran out of gas. Again, Clausen will only get paid a fraction of the cash that’s in the Brinks truck currently en route to Sam Bradford’s front lawn – but assuming Clausen can win Carolina’s starting job in first year or two, we could be hearing his name called in the playoffs before too long. (We don’t know what to make of Tim Tebow’s NFL prospects, both due to his unorthodox skill set and the fact that Denver Broncos coach John McDaniels is clearly insane).

So that’s today’s NFL in a nutshell for rookie quarterbacks: you can either get paid like a king, or you can go to a team where you have a decent chance of succeeding, but you can’t do both. And while the draft has never been fair in that regard, one has to wonder if the starpower associated with the quarterback position, along with the speed in which a young quarterback’s career can go down the drain when playing on an awful team, one has to wonder if this is a good thing for the league. Not that the Rams shouldn’t have the chance to have a star quarterback on their roster that the fans can get behind has he’s ground to a pulp in St Louis.

But put another way: if the league offered Bradford the opportunity to give back half that money and go play for the Carolina Panthers instead, do you think he’d take it?

Colt McCoy finally goes to Cleveland Browns

Colt McCoy had to sit tight while the entire league passed on him at least twice – but he finally has home with the Cleveland Browns, who took with the the 85th pick in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft. McCoy is the final high profile quarterback to go off the 2010 board, after Sam Bradford went to the St Louis Rams with the first overall pick and then Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen went to the Carolina Panthers to replace Jake Delhomme with the 48th pick.

The Browns had also passed on McCoy multiple times in earlier rounds, but new boss Mike Holmgren must have finally decided the value proposition was too great. Hall of Famer Jim Brown had come onstage to announce one of the Browns’ earlier picks; McCoy must have been left wondering if the Browns’ backup place kicker might have been making the announcement by the time the team got around to drafting him (actually it was announced by McCoy’s college head coach, Mack Brown).

McCoy will be competing with Delhomme in Cleveland for the starting job, after the Browns jettisoned longtime co-starters Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson earlier this offseason.

iPad drafted by Baltimore Ravens – no, it’s a Kindle

Sergio Kindle may be heading to Baltimore to join Ray Lewis to join the Ravens fearsome front seven, but adjusting to the NFL isn’t the only challenge he’ll have to overcome. After much of the nation spent the past two years gradually learning to associate the world “Kindle” with a certain digital book reader from Amazon, Kindle (the player) will now have to make enough plays on national television to get the football world to change their perception of the “Kindle” name again; rather than the ability to read a digital book, Sergio is likely hoping he’ll be able to convince the country to think of the “Kindle” name as meaning the ability the read an offense and get to the quarterback.

In related news, the Oakland Raiders have announced their intention to draft Johnny iPad.

Perfect match: Tim Tebow loves Jesus, Josh McDaniels has a god complex

Tim Tebow hasn’t been shy when it comes to publicly displaying his religion on his face during University of Florida football games, so maybe it’s only fitting that the Jesus-loving guy with the John 3:16 warpaint on game day is headed to a team whose head coach seems to think he’s God. Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels has shown off more than a wee bit of a god complex in his short time in charge of the team, booting its biggest stars off the roster for unclear reasons and even getting into a fight with another team’s player.

But bad religious puns aside (and we mean no offense to anyone, except for McDaniels, who seems to worship at the Church of McDaniels), if anyone can forgive the Denver head coach for his egomania and figure out how to not step on his toes, it just might be the mild-mannered Tebow. So in that sense, if the Broncos organization really is committed to seeing the McDaniels experiment through to its entirely unpredictable conclusion (and at this point they kind of have to be, as far down the rabbit hole as they’ve already gone with him already), then perhaps Tebow was a smart move, all things considered.

Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford did well to stay in school

Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford came back to their respective college football teams for one more year than either of then had to, and neither really achieved what he was looking for by doing so. Tebow failed to win another national championship or another Heisman. Bradford fared worse, injuring himself and missing much of the season. But while those senior years may not have been what either imagined when they each decided not to enter the NFL Draft last year, they both did alright last night. In fact, Bradford, who went first overall to the St Louis Rams, is the only number one pick in recent memory who missed most of his senior year. And then there’s Tebow, who was projected all along as a third rounder with unpredictable NFL suitability, surprisingly being taken late in the first round.