NFL Draft

The NFL Draft is this weekend, and it’s the one draft that I am actually interested in. I’m sure that has to do with ESPN’s coverage of it over the years, although, like most things ESPN covers, it takes too long. My interest also has to do with the fact that, at least lately, my school (Purdue) has been putting some guys into the league. Also, I’m a Bear fan, and far too often, the Bears have high draft choices. This year is no exception.

The Bears need help on offense at just about every position, including quarterback, where Rex Grossman is coming off an injury and they have no experienced backups. I’m not entirely sold on Grossman and never have been, but I’m open minded enough to think he should play some first before I give up on him, so I don’t think they should pick a QB in the first round.

At #4, the Bears figure to have their choice of some impact skill position players. They ought to be able to land someone like WR Braylon Edwards of Michigan, Mike Williams of USC, one of the two Auburn RBs, Ronnie Brown or Cadillac Williams, or Texas RB Cedric Benson. I think it’s interesting that many mock drafts have both Auburn RBs in the top 10, and a few even in the top 5. The Tiger QB, Jason Campbell figures to get drafted on the first day as well. And most people though of Auburn as a defensive team.

This in an interesting draft in that the consensus is that there is no real super-stud player, but some pretty good depth. That has a lot of teams trying to trade down from the top, but not a lot of interest in trading up. San Francisco picks first, and for the longest time, it looked like they were set on QB Aaron Rodgers of nearby Cal, but this week, they began negotiations with Utah QB Alex Smith. Those two could go 1-2, with the Dolphins taking whoever the Niners leave for them.

After that, not too many people expect a QB to go in the first round, but there are as many as eight DE prospects (that is, guys who were DEs in college – some may move to OLB in the NFL). The guy I think will get picked too low is Wisconsin’s Erasmus James. That guy tore up the Big Ten this year. In fact, I think he turned in the best individual performance by a defensive player this year when he single-handedly shut out Purdue’s high-powered offense for just over a half before leaving that game with an injury. He’ll go in the middle of the first round, but two or three DEs who aren’t as good or weren’t as productive will go ahead of him.

There are two other players I’m interested in that aren’t from Purdue. One is Arkansas QB Matt Jones, who may go in the first round, but does not figure to get drafted as a QB. He’s a guy, like Antwaan Randle El, that will likely get switched to WR in the pros.

The other is former Ohio St RB Maurice Clarett. Like Mike Williams, he sat out last year after declaring for the draft, but having a court deny him access to the draft. Williams still figures to go early in this draft, but Clarett’s prospects would have been shaky even if he had been in the draft a year ago. It will be interesting to see how teams view him a year removed from the game.

Of course, another player I’ll be watching closely is Purdue QB Kyle Orton, who had a very interesting senior season. He was the leading candidate for the Heisman until he fumbled against Wisconsin. He was injured the following week against Michigan, but played through that and about half the game against Northwestern before finally giving up and sitting down. Once he came back late in the Ohio St game, he more or less looked like his old self, although he had kind of an indifferent performance in the Sun Bowl.

Orton ranks between third and eighth on most draft experts QB lists, which means he’ll probably go in the second or third round. The basic criticism they have of him is that he has a slow release, which may or may not be true. I’ve also seen him criticized for not being accurate enough throwing downfield, which is a complete crock. That has always been a strength for him, and in fact, I’ve always felt he was more accurate throwing long than throwing short.

SI.com said that he was benched in his senior season, which is simply not true. He was injured, not benched.

At Purdue, it was natural to compare him to Drew Brees, but they could hardly be any different. Orton has a more prototypical pro body and arm, but nobody, could read a defense and see the whole field like Brees. Brees was also more accurate, but Orton is OK there as well. Brees’ decision making was better and quicker than Orton’s, but Kyle got better at that as he got older. I’d say he’s average in that area.

Brees has turned out to be OK as a pro, and I think a lot of Purdue fans are interested to see if Orton can do as well.

After putting eight defensive players into the NFL a year ago, Orton figures to be about it for Purdue this year. Someone may take a flier on WR Taylor Stubblefield, who owns a ton of records, including the NCAA record for receptions, but is considered too small and slow for the NFL. The league thinks so little of him that he wasn’t even invited to the combine.