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Thoughts on the draft
I have been following the NFL Draft deeply for only the past six or seven years. But I know something wild when I see it. This years draft had more fluctuating stock then any other class in recent history. I have my gut feeling and some research on most players. When it comes to my definite  opinion of prospects however I look to notable experts such as Mel Kiper, The Sporting News Warroom, and Dr. Zimmerman from SI.com. Sporting News� draft preview magazine in 2001 is what originally turned me on to the whole selection process, so they are my number one source always. I recall notable �mock draft� mistakes such as Sporting News listing WR Ken-Yon Rambo to the New York Jets at 19th overall in 2001. He ended up going in round seven. Or Kansas City taking CB Brandon Browner 15th overall in 2005. He went undrafted. 2007 mock drafts have many glaring holes. More then a few experts had DT Alan Branch going in the top ten, if not the top five. Despite his April drop in stock, Peter King still had Branch going 11th as late as the Friday before the draft. Branch did not make it off the board until the 33rd pick, the first in round two. Paul Posluszny was in the top ten of many mock drafts, but he too also lasted until the second round. Ted Ginn was discussed with being a top five pick early on in the scouting process, had fallen to a possible round two pick, and ended up being taken 9th overall. All in all, the original Sporting News mock draft had four players in their first round that didn�t end up getting drafted until day two! After being mixed in with the other tackles behind Joe Thomas, Levi Brown went 5th to the Cardinals in a mild shocker. He had originally started off as a late round one to mid round two prospect. To sum up, this was one of the hardest drafts ever to evaluate, and it is hard to call anyone a reach or a steal with such an uneven consensus among the ability of majority of the players.
A few other things
Michael Smith is by far my favorite analyst on TV. While many of the anchors on ESPN and other networks seem to �dumb down� their approach for the mainstream audience, Smith goes deep and explains thing a casual fan may not know. I appreciate his knowledge however as I am a deeply devoted fan of the NFL and college football and do not want to be talked to like a young child. Host Trey Wingo tore into Michael Smith for comparing the Brady Quinn trade to that of Kyle Boller, although Smith made a perfectly good comparison between the two deals. I feel for you Michael Smith. Its like being too smart for your own grade, and having to sit with the uneducated and loud mouth freshman as a valedictorian senior in high school. I was also very impressed with Keyshawn Johnson, who had a very good knowledge of teams recent player movement and contract status of certain players. Chris Berman is such a mouth piece for ESPN �hype�. He is in no way an expert on the level of Mel Kiper or Chris Mortensen and it shows. Suzy Kolber is even worse as the head anchor of the draft and made several mistakes while discussing prospects and draft picks. My last complaint about the draft telecast was ESPN�s insistence on running seemingly the same twelve commercials over and over. Its hard enough to try to draw people to watch an eleven hour broadcast without making me watch Mike Ditka press conferences edited to fit some awful beer commercial ten thousand times.
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