| NEW YORK — Jimmy Johnson may have been in front of the camera this
year instead of in a war room, but that didn’t stop NFL teams from wheeling and
dealing during the two-day draft. Eighteen trades were made during the selection meeting,
as teams dealt up or down to get the players or draft choices they wanted. In fact, one
trade was announced even before the draft had begun Saturday, as Seattle traded
third-string QB Brock Huard to Indianapolis in exchange for a fifth-round draft choice. One
result of the maneuvering was a record-long draft. The seven rounds consumed 17 hours, 30
minutes, easily surpassing the previous record of 16:52.
To say the first day of the NFL draft was a long one would be an understatement. The
first round lasted a record five hours, 48 minutes, prolonged by six trades among the
first 21 selections. The first three rounds totaled 10 hours, 33 minutes as 98 players
were selected.
Choosing the winners on Draft Day is always a premature speculation, and this year the
task seems more difficult than usual. Nevertheless, we’ll stick our neck out and say
that Dallas and San Diego appear to have fared particularly well, with Buffalo, Carolina,
Houston, New Orleans, Oakland and Tennessee also looking promising.
Coach-turned-TV commentator Johnson should have been proud of his former team, the
Cowboys. In Johnson fashion, they traded down two spots in the first round and still got
the player they coveted, Oklahoma S Roy Williams, and they picked up an extra third-round
pick (Ohio State CB Derek Ross) and a sixth-rounder next year.
Philadelphia had the most bizarre draft — at first glance, anyway. Entering the
draft with one of the best secondaries in the NFL, if not the best, the Eagles selected
defensive backs with their first three picks — Florida CB Lito Sheppard, Colorado S
Michael Lewis and South Carolina CB Sheldon Brown. According to PFW draft analyst Joel
Buchsbaum, the Eagles followed this strategy for several reasons. First, coach Andy Reid
believes he needs four quality corners to match up with the Rams’ high-powered
offense, and Reid realizes that the road to the Super Bowl goes through St. Louis.
Secondly, the Eagles’ secondary has quite a bit of mileage on its tires. Newly
acquired SS Blaine Bishop is going on 32 and has a history of injuries, CB Troy Vincent is
also about to turn 32, and CB Bobby Taylor will be 29 this season. Lastly, Sheppard is a
dangerous kick returner, and at 34, Brian Mitchell can’t handle the kick-return
chores forever.
Buchsbaum says the overall draft was weaker than people originally expected. As a
result, by the second day, teams were running out of healthy players to select. This may
explain why kickers and special-team players played a more prominent role in the draft
than usual. Three placekickers and two punters were drafted, including a combined three in
the fourth round. In addition, two long snappers and one kick returner were chosen.
Quarterbacks were generally avoided on the first day, with only four being selected,
three in the first round. However, 11 more signalcallers were named on Sunday. The total
of 15 QBs actually exceeded the 11 chosen last year. Houston is clearly tying its future
to the arm of No. 1 overall pick David Carr, and Detroit obviously believes that Mike
McMahon isn’t its QB of the future but that Joey Harrington is.
For the second year in a row, defensive tackles were in demand early. Four were taken
among the first 15 picks, including teammates from Tennessee, John Henderson and Albert
Haynesworth. As expected, tight end proved to be a very deep position, providing three
first-rounders — Jeremy Shockey, Daniel Graham and Jerramy Stevens — the most
tight ends taken in the opening round since 1970, the only other time that three were
picked that high. Overall, 24 tight ends came off the board, far surpassing the 15 who
were picked last year.
There was a tendency for teams to place more importance on character rather than
potential early in the draft. Players who had any questions about their behavior often
dropped, as evidenced by Miami (Fla.) CB Phillip Buchanon’s fall to No. 17 and
Haynesworth’s slippage to No. 15. Buchsbaum called Buchanon the biggest steal of the
first round.
On the other hand, Seattle seemed to ignore the character issues when it drafted
Washington’s Stevens with the 28th pick. Buchsbaum says Stevens is the
biggest reach of the round, reasoning that the Seahawks likely could have picked him up in
Round Two. No doubt Seattle was spurred to action by the "run" on tight ends
ahead of it in the opening round.
Injury and health questions played an even bigger role than questions about character.
Brigham Young RB Luke Staley, Stanford OG Eric Heitmann and Colorado OT Victor Rogers were
all graded by Buchsbaum as talented enough to be drafted on the first day, but all three
dropped to the seventh round because of health concerns.
Draft notes
 Although there
was speculation that the University of Miami might have as many as six players drafted in
the first round, the Hurricanes had to settle for five. That still tied an NFL record for
most players drafted in the first round. USC had five players drafted in the opening round
in 1968. A sixth Hurricane, RB Clinton Portis, was chosen in the second round with the 51st
pick by Denver.
Miami led all
colleges in players drafted, with 11, followed by Tennessee with 10, and Florida, Georgia,
Ohio State and Virginia Tech with eight each.
The
Southeastern Conference led all conferences in players drafted, with 47, followed by the
Big Ten with 36, the Pacific-10 with 32, the Big East with 27 and the Big 12 with 25.
Twenty-two
underclassmen were drafted on the first day, including 12 in the first round. Only four
more underclassmen were taken on the second day. North Carolina DE Julius Peppers was the
first underclassman chosen, going to Carolina with the second overall selection.
PFW draft
analyst Joel Buchsbaum was on the mark with the first five selections of his last mock
draft, posted on ProFootballWeekly.com early Saturday morning. The string was broken when
Kansas City traded up to get North Carolina DT Ryan Sims, although Buchsbaum’s mock
draft did correctly have Sims going to the Chiefs, albeit at No. 8. Buchsbaum had the
first eight draftees matched up to the teams that drafted them. For the first round as a
whole, PFW's draft guru correctly matched 12 players with the teams that drafted them,
including Wendell Bryant, Jeremy Shockey, Javon Walker and Charles Grant in addition to
the first eight selections. Buchsbaum's record of 12 matches is the best we have seen
among the various experts' mock drafts this year. Twenty-six of Buchsbaum’s
first-round projections actually were selected in that round, with four of the misses
going among the first seven picks of the second round and the other two being taken later
in the round. |
