Over the past week, the annual NFL Draft took place and left me with some observations.
1) The real winners of this draft were the 49ers, Bills, Seahawks, Vikings and Cowboys. The Niners took Anthony Davis after trading up 2 spots just to get him, as well as Taylor Mays and Mike Iupati all in the first 2 rounds. The Bills took running-back C.J. Spiller, which is a good move because now to get the team better, trading Marshawn Lynch could be their best option. The Seahawks, under coach Pete Carroll traded to get running-backs LenDale White and Leon Washington, but also improving their odds by selecting Russell Okung and safety Earl Thomas, in what could be a wild race in the NFC West division. The Vikings also took a gamble which could pay off by drafting Toby Gerhart to split the rushing duties with A.P. and got cornerback Chris Cook in the early portion of the 2nd round. The cowboys we'll get to later.
2) The losers of the draft include the Steelers. The Steelers without Ben Roethlisberger for the first 6 games of this upcoming season selected Maurkice Pouncey, and with Dennis Dixon or Byron Leftwich being the starting QB, get ready for a long season.
3) Other losers include Denver, who in may opinion did a good job in the draft, but selecting Tim Tebow with the 25th overall pick was wrong. They traded down twice and lost picks just to get Tebow (the 3rd string) to sit out for 2 years while they have Brady Quinn and Kyle Orton ahead of the former Heisman Trophy winner.
4) How many of you were shocked that Jimmy Clausen dropped deep into the 2nd round? I was. Clausen was a first-round pick and teams that needed a quarterback passed on him. You figure Oakland, Seattle or some other team was interested. Nope. With the 48th overall pick, the Panthers selected Clausen, which is a great move considering with the loss of Delhomme and starter Matt Moore needs to prove himself early.
5) The Raiders trading for Jason Campbell was great, signing him through 2011 is what they need in order to be more efficient for the quarterback job. Looks like JaMarcus Russell's future is in doubt because sources now are looking to release the former number-1 pick in the draft. It also makes Campbell happy because he could start over Bruce Gradkowski.
6) Lastly, let's talk about the Cowboys. Dallas traded up 2 spots in the first round to get WR Dez Bryant. I like the move to get Bryant because it will help the team in the long run. Jerry Jones is looking to the future and the performance that Roy Williams has showed so far makes him unreliable in Big-D. Bryant could be a number 2 receiver if Dallas chooses to trade/release Williams after the end of this season. Also Dallas does need help though because they need to add a safety (after releasing Ken Hamlin) and offensive tackle (Flozell Adams was also released) before teams open up camp.
Long seasons will await these teams and they need to address their issues sooner than later.
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The Bills are definitely losers from this draft. They didn't need Spiller. They needed help on their Offensive and Defensive lines and they didn't address them early in the draft. The Vikinga and Cowboys were middle of the road in my mind. I'm not too surprised that Clausen fell that far. Many teams questioned his maturity level. And The Raiders might finally be getting it. They didn't make any horrible picks and getting Campbell should definitely be a good QB for them.
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