If there is an afterlife, I want to come back as NFL draft analyst. This must be the best job on the planet, next to being a weatherperson. It fascinates me every year how this NFL show has turned into such a big event. Every year this event gets bigger, the NFL chooses new locations, charges admission and thousands of screaming fans show up to yell at names on a board, amazing what the American public will pay admission for.
Around this event, these mock drafts start appearing all over the internet and then almost like when the swallows return to Capistrano, ESPN brings out this slick hair conman Mel Kiper to give his insight on this year’s draft. Now, Mel is quite the used car salesman, he blurts “this one is a stone-cold lock, or this guy can’t miss” and this goes on for weeks. Mel isn’t the only analyst, they are all over tv and the internet, blah, blah, blah, just say whatever as there are no consequences for being incorrect!
I believe my favorite part of the pre-draft nonsense is the NFL combine. The NFL network covers this nonstop. I mean you can learn so much from watching a QB in a t-shirt throw to a wide-open receiver, but you see these analysts saying “Man, this guy looks fantastic! It’s so ridiculous.
I decided this year to see how the many draft analyst out there do on their pre-draft predictions. There were 31 selections last night and here is how they did:
Daniel Jeremiah, NFL Network: 6 picks correct
Todd McShay, ESPN: 4 picks correct
Peter King, NBC Sports: 2 picks correct
Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN: 1 pick correct
Pretty impressive considering all these guys do is study these players and the draft and still manage to get so much wrong.
One of their predictions a quarterback named Will Levis, they all had picked as shoe-in number one pick. No team selected him, probably still sitting in the green room with his soft drink, not to worry, they all still have jobs and will be back for the next two days, bloviating on the best picks in the draft for the most part incorrectly, but who cares. We all need jobs like this, the only one better, the local weather people!
I remember back in 2014, a defensive end from the University of South Carolina, Jadeveon Clowney, made a hit in a bowl game and knocked a guy’s helmet off. This one hit got him selected number one in the 2014 NFL draft, he has played for four different teams and has 43 sacks, around 4.5 a season, what a stud! I don’t want to remind anyone but none of these draft analysts saw Tom Brady coming, not one. Seven Super Bowls and done with some average running backs and receivers, eh I’m sure it was just a glitch.
Today, I decided to join the world of sports analysts and give my insight on what I see in the awful league.
All the quarterbacks who were drafted in the first round this year, STINK! Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson are all horrible. I wouldn’t draft any of them in the third round let alone the first. How many quarterbacks have come out of Ohio State and stink, C.J. Stroud will keep that rally going. While I’m on the topic, you can keep Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and Kyler Murray too, RPO quarterbacks will not win in the NFL, to me, they are nothing more than running backs who throw the ball. I’ll take a pocket passer every time!
There it is my assessment of this year’s NFL draft and league. Of course, if I’m wrong, there are no repercussions, just eating some crow and coming back next year to bloviate some more!