Commentary: Draft

day hype grows and grows
By Steve Behr, sports editor

You have to be at least in your 40s to remember that “the draft” used to involve the military and the NFL draft was a mild diversion from the baseball season.

Then ESPN — the Entertainment (Mark) Sanchez Promotional Network — took to the airwaves. Suddenly, the NFL draft has turned into a huge springtime event.

The first draft I remember watching was in 1988, when the Denver Broncos bypassed a pretty good running back out of Oklahoma State to take an undersized nose tackle, Ted Gregory, from Syracuse.

That running back, Thurman Thomas, was taken by Buffalo in the second round and did pretty well for himself. Gregory, who had an injured knee when selected, was an instant bust who eventually was traded to New Orleans for its No. 1-round bust. Both were gone by the end of 1999.

In the old days, hardcore football fans kept a radio on at the office, hoping to catch a update of who their teams took. Getting expert analysis consisted, at least in the Denver market, of interviewing somebody from the Touchdown Club.

“Oh, he’s a good pick,” some guy who probably had little idea what he was talking about would say. “We’ve never heard of him, but we think he’ll be a good one.”

Thankfully, those of us who take an interest in the draft have ESPN to give us pick-by-pick coverage. We also have the Internet to catch up on things, just in case we want to have a life and not spend our entire weekend — which was simply beautiful by the way — glued in front of Mel Kiper’s hair.
I admit I’m a little harsh on ESPN, but mostly because in this 24-7 sports world, they’ve taken it a bit far. They’ve got an army of studio analysts saying the same thing about the same players for a month.

As the interest in Sanchez went up, ESPN couldn’t get through a Sports Center broadcast without putting him on the program.

”Today, Mark Sanchez ate an egg salad sandwich. Will that affect his draft status? Suzy Kolber has more in the four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11-o’clock hours.”

For average fans, the draft is only interesting when their team is picking. Some fans who are more into it take a look at divisional foes.

Here’s the folly of all of this draft hype: Nobody knows, I mean really knows, how it all will work out.

Top picks in the draft — can you say Tim Couch — (remember had the Browns not been added to the league that year, the Panthers, coming off a 1-15 disaster with Chris Weinke at quarterback, may have taken him instead of the second pick, which they used on Julius Peppers) can explode in team’s faces.

And the money that is involved. Is Matthew Stafford, the Lions’ and the league’s top overall pick in 2009, worth the $41.7 million he signed for?

Well, no. Not even close. Tom Brady’s worth every penny. He’s won three Super Bowls. Ben Roethlisburger is, too. He’s got two rings on his fingers.

Meanwhile Lions fans are just hoping Stafford doesn’t get Joey Harrington disease, which consists of getting buried by tons of defensive linemen each week, throwing bad interceptions and generally taking the blame for a horrible franchise’s continuing futility. Stafford will be thrust into the starting lineup, either on the request of the general manager or the pressure of the fans, and then either thrive like Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, or fail like Harrington. The best way to stay popular in the NFL is to be the be the backup quarterback.

On paper, the Panthers did all right. They filled a need for another pass rusher by taking Florida State’s Everette Brown with San Francisco’s second-round pick. He better pan out since the Panthers traded their No. 1 pick in 2010 to get him.

They drafted a running back, Mike Goodson of Texas A&M in the fourth round, which was a bit curious since they spent No. 1 picks on DeAngelo Williams (2007) and Jonathan Stewart (2008) in successive years.

Then again, both Williams and Stewart were dinged last year, and Denver went through seven running backs in 2008, so you can’t have too many guys carrying the ball in Jon Fox’s ball-control system, I guess.

They also drafted a fullback, Tony Fiammetta of Syracuse, in the fourth round. Adding some depth to the position, plus finding a probable special teams player, isn’t such a bad idea. It should be remembered that current fullback Brad Hoover enters his 10th season, well beyond the four-year life span running backs average.

That’s actually not bad for a free agent from Western Carolina. Wonder if Kiper or the rest of the ESPN crowd had even heard of him.

Personally, my favorite Panthers pick was Oklahoma guard Duke Robinson, a 6-foot-5, 338-pound mountain who has been called a “road grader” by NFL.com. They got Robinson in the fifth round, so who knows if he can crack the starting lineup. Even if he doesn’t, he’ll add depth to a line that lost guard Geoff Hangartner and tackle Frank Omiyale to offseason free agency period.

They all are new cars now. Come September, we’ll see which ones drive the best.