“The 2011 NFL Draft is officially open.” These words spoken by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, elicited boos on April twenty-eighth. With the on-and-off lock-out continuing throughout draft day, the 2011 NFL Draft was a great opportunity for NFL fans to forget about the politics of football and relax. However, for the coaches and General Managers drafting the prospects, the draft was the routine insanity that only comes once a year. There were 254 players drafted this year by the thirty-two NFL teams and as usual, there were players taken higher than projected as well as players drafted in later positions than expected. In the future, there will be some teams that look back at this draft and have thoughts of disappointment while others will have thoughts of genius.
The first round is by far the most exciting round year after year because teams are picking the best of the best college players and this year was full of talent. This year’s first round had some notable statistics. First of all there were four quarterbacks taken throughout round one (Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, and Christian Ponder). This was two short of the record six set in 1983. Second, there was only one running back taken in the entire first round (Mark Ingram).This shows the transition to teams’ dependence on the passing game in the NFL.
The first overall pick of the draft belonged to the Carolina Panthers, who posted the league’s worst record at 2-14 in 2010. They used the first pick to draft the 2010 Heisman winner, Quarterback Cam Newton from Auburn University. This pick was predicted but still highly criticized. Many critics say that Newton is not an NFL style quarterback however, only time will tell. The next pick was held by the Broncos who drafted outside linebacker, Von Miller from Texas A&M, who is known for his prolific sacking ability. He recorded 32.5 sacks over his four years at Texas A&M. Miller was also the only player drafted in the top five who did not play for a college in the SEC. With the third pick, the Buffalo Bills decided to build up their run defense by picking Defensive Tackle Marcell Dareus who recorded twenty-four tackles for a loss in three years at Alabama.
The first wide receiver, A.J. Green from Georgia, was pulled off the draft board by the Cincinnati Bengals with the fourth overall pick. He should prove to be a reliable weapon for whomever he is playing quarterback for the Bengals next season.
The Cardinals were expected to take a quarterback with the fifth pick in the weeks leading up to the draft; however, they decided to instead grab the best player available which was the lockdown cornerback Patrick Peterson who broke up twenty-two passes during his three year career at LSU and a career high of thirteen in 2009.
The Cleveland Browns possessed the sixth pick but they decided to make the first draft day trade with the Atlanta Falcons who gave the Browns the twenty-eighth overall pick along with their second and fourth round picks, as well as their first and fourth round picks in 2012. With the sixth pick, the Falcons found a new toy for Matt Ryan in Julio Jones, the physical wide receiver from Alabama. Jones will greatly enhance the Falcons’ receiving core.
The first Missouri Tiger was taken off the board by the San Francisco 49ers, not quarterback Blaine Gabbert but defensive end Aldon Smith, another sack master who totaled seventeen sacks in only two years. Not only was Gabbert not the first Missouri Tiger drafted as predicted but he was not the first quarterback taken after Cam Newton either. The quarterback who the Tennessee Titans picked eighth overall and became the second quarterback drafted was Jake Locker.
Locker was expected to enter the 2010 draft and was projected as the first overall pick last year but decided to finish his senior year at Washington, but unfortunately also watched his draft stock drop. The ensuing pick was held by the Dallas Cowboys, who had not had a top ten pick since the 2003 NFL Draft. Experts proclaimed that the position with the most depth in this draft was Offensive Tackle, but it took nine picks before USC’s Tyron Smith, first team All-PAC-10 player and winner of the Morris Trophy, which is awarded to the best Offensive lineman in the PAC-10 as voted by Defensive linemen, was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys.
To cap off the top ten, Blaine Gabbert finally heard his name called but not to become a Washington Redskin but instead a Jacksonville Jaguar. Washington decided to wait to take their future quarterback but Jacksonville felt that Gabbert was their guy so they executed a trade relinquishing their first and second round picks to grab the pro-style Quarterback necessary in today’s NFL.
Now that I have covered the coveted top ten, I will continue to highlight the most popular picks in the final twenty-two picks of the first round. Pick number twelve was not foreseen in the mock drafts and not even Mel Kiper predicted the Minnesota Vikings to take the Florida State Quarterback Christian Ponder who will most likely become a starter this year barring another Brett Favre comeback (Please no). The following pick was a pleasant surprise for the Detroit Lions who I’m sure were shocked to see Auburn’s break out, Defensive Lineman Nick Fairley still on the board at the thirteenth spot. Now with Fairley and last year’s second overall pick, Ndamukong Suh in the middle of the Lions 4-3 defense, the Vikings have some competition in the run stopping section of the NFC North. Skipping all the way to pick number twenty-eight now, I’m sure 2009 Heisman winning, Running Back, Mark Ingram would have expected his name to have been called by now but the fact is that his name had not appeared on one of Goodell’s draft cards yet, but at the moment it seemed that he would become a New England Patriot. The trade details entail the Saints giving up their second round pick this year and next years first round, a hefty load to give up. However, the Saints are getting another Heisman Running Back who can contribute right away to another Super Bowl run.
The end of the first round does not signify a drop off in talent; often times, later round players turn out better than first round players. The only certain thing about these players is that they will get a lower paycheck than the first round players.
The fifth quarterback taken came at pick thirty-five by the Cincinnati Bengals. Andy Dalton will arrive in Cincinnati with the starting job if Carson Palmer holds true to his promise to not play for the Bengals next year even if it means retiring. Dalton is the first quarterback to come into the NFL out of TCU since “Slingin’ Sammy Baugh” and he turned out to be a pretty good quarterback, considering he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Dalton and the Bengals’ first round selection, Green, may have the talent to put on an arial show in Cincinnati for many years to come. It did not take long for another quarterback to come off the board and people around Turlock will always remember this pick: you know who I’m talking about, none other than Pitman High alumni Colin Kaepernick. What a rush he must have felt when Goodell announced that the 49ers were trading up to the thirty-sixth spot. There was only one position that they would trade up to fill at this point and that was a quarterback, a quarterback who grew up in California and whose favorite team as a kid was always the Niners. I know I can speak for everyone at Pitman when I say we wish him well and support him, even myself being a Rams fan.
The Denver Broncos defense ranked dead last in 2010, so they needed to make some improvements to their defense via the draft and they did this in the first round with Von Miller as they continued to up their pass defense with the forty-fifth overall pick. They chose UCLA Safety Rahim Moore, who is known for his awareness and ball hawking ability. Moore picked off fourteen balls during his three year career as a Bruin, with a career-high ten in 2009.
Defensive End, Da’Quan Bowers was expected to be gone early in the first round but a bum knee seemed to have worried many general managers around the league which caused him to drop all the way to pick number fifty-one. However, I’m positive that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had the biggest turn around last year of any team, didn’t mind everyone passing up on Bowers who recorded 15.5 sacks during his 2010 season as a Clemson Tiger.
During a time in the NFL where the passing game reigns supreme, a great amount of focus is on the quarterbacks. The New England Patriots have a pretty decent quarterback in three time super bowl champ, two time super bowl MVP, six time pro bowler, and two time league MVP Tom Brady to say the least. Anyhow, Bill Belicheck likes to plan for the future and he displayed this mentality by using the Patriots’ third round seventy-fourth overall pick to select Arkansas Quarterback Ryan Mallet; Mallet, however, should take over Brady’s spot in roughly ten years.
The draft is a great opportunity for college players to start their careers in the NFL; all 254 players will have their opportunity to make a name for themselves in this league starting the first day of training camp, if there is such a thing this year. The draft does not signify an end to the college career. It, in fact, is a milestone in each player’s journey, an opportunity to be great, and a starting point for the rest of their careers.