Tag Archive: 2013 NFL Draft

Sadly, the NFL Draft Cannot Go on Forever…

April 29, 2013 Adam Thomas

But man oh man I wish that it could!  You know why?  Because it’s so much fun doing things like this: sitting in front of the TV, awaiting the Raiders to make their 2nd round pick, the pick comes in and it’s: Menelik Watson, OT, Florida State.

And here’s my reaction:

WAIT! WHO? Oh man, who! No seriously, who did we just…(goes on-line and googles Menelik Watson) THIS GUY IS AWESOME!

Now, will he ever be good in the NFL? Who knows. But it my mind, he’s already the Raiders starting RT and made back to back pro-bowls.

Also, keep in mind when looking at draft grades: they are meaningless. Case in point, the Miami Dolphins are roundly being praised for their draft while the Patriots are getting some heat for theirs.  I might be going out on a limb here, but I am willing to bet that Bill Belichick knows what he’s doing juuuuuuust a bit more than Jeff Ireland. Just a bit.

But alas, it is all over now. Now, it’s onto the NFL season…I wish we could just fast forward to 2014 so the Raiders can draft Jadeveon Clowney already. Now that’s a player I know.

Speaking of the Dolphins, how about those new uniforms?  You remember that game Echo the Dolphin for Sega? I’m willing to bet Echo would DESTROY that sissy little dolphin they have on their helmets. Yeesh.

And the Jaguars well…I just want to pretend that their two-tone helmets don’t exist.

It looks like the Nuggets are going to lose to the Warriors, which makes me happy for some strange reason. It’s weird that sports grudges carry over based on city, but because I don’t like the Broncos, I also enjoy it when the Nuggets fail. Also, the Nuggets have Iggy now, so it’s fun to see him put another team through so much playoff misery. You know that fool had 7 turnovers last night?  Ouch.

Speaking of 7’s, Delaware has a new D-League team, which is awesome. Blue Rocks games are incredibly fun, so let’s hope that the Delaware 87ers (nicknamed the Sevens…huh?) games are just as fun.

Also, and at the risk of upsetting a one of our loyal readers, Andre Miller got DESTROYED by Stephen Curry last night. The old man cannot play defense against the young gun. There was one play where it looked like Curry legitimately broke Miller’s ankles. It’s never easy to watch the elderly get abused like that (please, somebody out there who enjoys Andre Miller almost as much as Jason Statham, please comment! This is ripe for the comments section!)

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TheHeadrush Mock Draft (or at least the first 5 picks)!

April 25, 2013 Adam Thomas

Today is the big day. Arguably my favorite ‘sporting’ day of the year. I absolutely love the NFL draft and have been obsessed with it since January. You know why? Cause the team I root for (the Raiders) is terrible, and these are the 3 days of the year when I am filled with hope (well, I guess I am filled with hope on opening day too, but then that hope gets crushed).

Anyway, I am only going to try and guess the top 5 picks here, and since I expect there to be a gazillion trades on Thursday, if I mock a player to a team and they eventually get picked by that team, I am counting that as a win.

1.) Chiefs: Eric Fisher, OT, Central Michigan

2.) Jaguars: Ezekial Ansah, DE, BYU

3.) Raiders: Jarvis Jones, OLB, Georgia (Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie said that you have to evaluate a player by tape rather than workouts, and that you have to take a difference maker–rather than someone who does a lot of things OK but not any one thing great. He was also in person at Jarvis Jones’ pro day. I’m connecting the dots and going out on a limb and saying they trade down and eventually end up with the man who had 85 tackles and 14.5 sacks last year).

4.) Eagles: Tavon Austin, WR, West Virginia (It’s either him or Dion Jordan, but I see Chip wanting a playmaker on offense. This will also be after they trade down and then they’ll take EJ Manuel in the second round).

5.) Lions: Luke Joeckel, OT, Texas A & M (after trading up to Oakland’s spot).

Alrighty, that’s all I’m doing because the rest is a crap shoot.

I did enjoy Randy’s article yesterday about how Philadelphia still has a potent offense, only to see them put up a whole 3 runs on the Pirates. Randy has more faith than me, but I don’t want this to be misconstrued as me hating on the Phillies. I’m just realistic.

There are only 3 teams in the NL with worse records, and I don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel.  But that’s OK, you know why? Cause I love rooting for the underdog. So let’s hope they turn it around and Atlanta falls off as cliff shall we?  Here-here!

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NFL Myth: Teams Tank Games for Better Draft Picks

December 18, 2012 Adam Thomas

MB60T.St.81After the Raiders shutout the KC Chiefs and put on an absolute clinic about how to properly kick field goals on Sunday, I went over to Raiderfans.net to see how the Raider Nation was reacting. It was, after all, our first win in 7 weeks. And hey, even if it was a win over a terrible (and I mean tuuuuurrrrible) team, I’ll take what I can get at this point. A win is a win.

So what did I find? Fans bitching and complaining about the win!  And why is that, you may ask?  A.) It hurt our draft position and B.) Some sort of weird logic seemed to over take the board that the Chiefs team was “Tanking and just trying to secure the number one pick.”

Why oh why would any NFL team (which is comprised of 53 individual players on the active roster) tank just to get a better draft pick?  Does it make sense for the team’s GM to want the team to lose in order to secure a higher pick?  Sure, but that is assuming the GM will still be around after such a terrible year. Does it make sense for any of the 53 players to tank? Absolutely not.

Take the Raiders for example. Half of the guys on their team this year were not on the team last year. That means there are around 27 players who played for the Raiders last year and are now on another team or out of the league altogether.

So, if the Raiders were in contention for the number one pick last year and the team tanked towards the end of the season in order to get the number one pick, only half of the players would reap the benefits of said tanking. The other half would be out on the street, looking for work and having to explain to their future employers why they gave up on the season the year before.

In the NBA, I can understand a bad team tanking because the players have much better contracts and know that they will probably be back on the same team the next season.

In the NFL, players have terrible contracts and no incentive what so ever to mail in a performance and put out a bad roll of “TAPE” for the 30 other GM’s of the league and Jerry Jones.

So everyone claiming that a team like the Chiefs or the Jags are tanking and their players don’t care about winning or losing, there are probably around 55 guys who will be unemployed next offseason who would like a minute of your time.

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