Ducks QB Darron Thomas Declares For The NFL Draft. Sweet, man. Wait, what?

Those tattoos are NFL ready.

Yesterday, Oregon QB Darron Thomas announced that he would skip his final year of eligibility and make himself available for the upcoming NFL draft.  I was at a 3 year old's birthday party yesterday (which I consider a mild form of torture in most cases) afternoon and had no reception where the party was at, so I didn't see anything about the announcement until after I got reception back and checked my Twitter feed.

To be completely honest, the first tweet that I saw only mentioned Thomas by his last name.  So when I read "Oregon's Thomas to declare for the NFL draft" or whatever the headline was, I thought the Thomas being referred to was receiver DeAnthony Thomas.  And then I was like 'wait, he hasn't been in college long enough to leave for the NFL, right?'  Took me a minute or so to figure out that it was Darron Thomas who was the one making the jump to the NFL.

When I first heard this news, I thought 'what's Thomas thinking by doing this?'  It was just confusing to me I guess.  Don't get me wrong, Thomas is a good football player and a good quarterback too.  And although he's a very effective QB in Chip Kelly's offense, he's never been hailed for his accuracy, arm strength or throwing mechanics.  These traits are usually the traits that transfer over to the NFL game most often for quarterbacks.

I don't think that Darron Thomas will even get drafted, unfortunately.  The offense that he ran in college, which he excelled at, does not exist anywhere in the NFL.  Ty Duffy over at Big Lead Sports doesn't think he'll get drafted.  Neither does the Oregonian's John Canzano.  I'm not rooting for the guy to fail in the least.  It's just the harsh reality that, at least right now, Thomas doesn't do any of the things well that are high priorities on what NFL scouts are looking for.

McLovin Takes a Stab At The 2012 NFL Draft

No, not that McLovin.  Different one.  For those of you who listen to the Dan Patrick show at all, you know McLovin.  One of the reasons I'm posting about a mock draft for NEXT year is that it's McLovin's fine journalistic work, and we can all make fun of how wrong he was when the real draft finally rolls around.  He thought Ryan Mallett would go number one overall in this past draft, for crap's sake. 

And the other reason is, hey, there's always room for a mock draft alright?  I mean, they create entire websites about these things, people.  They're of the utmost importance.

Looking up and down the list, I've only heard of 4-5 of these guys.  Andrew Luck, Justin Blackmon, Matt Barkley, Landry Jones, Cliff Harris, and Trent Richardson.  And that's about it.  The rest of them, I couldn't pick out of a lineup if my life depended on it.  That doesn't really say anything, seeing as I'm not a college football analyst by trade or anything.  I'm sure after watching this next season of college football, I'll be better equipped to know who's good and who's not.  Let's face it though, no one really cares about offensive lineman and what they look like.

Friday Wrap Up: 2011 NFL Draft Edition

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.

Cam Newton:  As expected, Carolina made Cam Newton the top pick of the draft.  Whatever your opinion of Cam Newton is, you can find a journalist out there that agrees with you.  Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorenson seems to be on the positive end of the opinion spectrum.  To put it mildly, opinions about Cam Newton's potential may vary a bit, depending on who you're asking.

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.