Last night was a weird night for me. As soon as I got home, I turned on the Blazers-Mavs game. But I also wanted to watch the rest of the NFL draft. So I was flipping between the two for a bit. As the Blazer game progressed, the more and more depressed and angry I got. But the craziness of the first round of the draft was off the charts. The drama of the draft helped to take my mind off of the Blazers' season ending last night. So I was pissed off about the game on the one hand and intrigued with what was happening at the draft on the other. It was all very odd.
Anyway, since today there is nothing on the internet except morning-after draft day analysis (at least the first round), today's post is going to be all about the draft.
Now that Newton has been drafted, we'll finally get to see what he can do as a professional entertainer and icon. Oh and don't forget "football player" too. One thing we know for sure though, is that he got one helluva raise. Even with a rookie salary cap in place, the million dollars (or more) that he gets as a signing bonus will make the $180,000 he got last year at Auburn look like chump change.
Oh, and now he won't have steal any laptops. He can just buy one whenever he gets the urge to jack one.
Jake Locker: The biggest surprise by far of the first round had to be the Tennessee Titans grabbing Jake Locker with the 8th (!) pick of the draft. I think everyone can agree that, yes, it's a little high, but the Titans seem to know what they're doing and what they drafted Locker for, so I can't bang on them too much for reaching so far to get him.
I think Jake Locker is going to do fine. Maybe Locker isn't going to be a perennial Pro Bowler, but I don't see this pick as a total bust. Just a tad bit high. I would take him over Vince Young, and Vince made a couple of Pro Bowls in his day. Personally, I hope Locker turns into a great player. I think he'll be good. Not sure though about pick #8 good, though.
Seattle Seahawks: I'm not a Seahawks fan, but if I was, I would tweeting Pete Carroll "what the hell man" over and over and over today. I'm talking about all day long folks. I am no draft expert, but at least I had heard of everyone that was drafted in round one. That is, until Seattle chose James Carpenter. Here's a little bio in case you want to scan it over real quick before reading on.As Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer points out, the Seahawks had their pick of several quality players at pick 25, such as OL Gabe Carimi (was considered the best player available), CB Jimmy Smith, DE Da'Quan Bowers, QB Andy Dalton, and even a guy like DT Stephen Paea from Oregon State. They all could have helped Seattle tremendously. But according to Carroll and GM John Schneider, Carpenter was "their guy" and fit the "direction they wanted to go in". Sweet, so the direction they want to go in is to have the first pick overall next year and take Andrew Luck, right? Am I getting that right?
Schneider also mentioned that they had three deals that they thought about making, but only one was really considered. And they opted to pass on it. So when they couldn't find any deals for them to trade down, they stayed at 25 and picked someone who was graded as a mid-second rounder, at best.
But what do I know, maybe James Carpenter will be the next Walter Jones and I'm a complete idiot.
Minnesota Vikings: With the 12th pick in the draft, the Vikings selected QB Christian Ponder from Florida State. And I applaud them greatly. Not because I know anything about Christian Ponder and his quarterbacking skills. No, it's because he's got a really hot girlfriend.
Wait, stop the presses. Word around the internets is that Christian and Kacie have broken up. Shoot, in that case, Minnesota realllllllllllllly screwed this one up, huh?
Well that's all I've got for ya right now folks. Have a good and safe weekend.
