28
Apr
2011
The NY Jets sure know how to draft (VIDEO)
In honor of tonight’s start to the NFL Draft, we bring you this look back on some of the more memorable draft picks in the storied history of the New York Jets franchise. From Johnny Lam Jones to Jeff Lageman and Blair Thomas, the Jets’ brain trust have consistently made a habit of going against the grain and driving their fans insane with their seemingly out-of-nowhere first round selections.
Enjoy this stroll down memory lane:
Ah yes … the Jets’ draft reach is one of the game’s grandest traditions, and we look forward to it continuing tonight.
6
Mar
2011
2011 NFL Scouting Combine photo album
A few photos taken at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis:
New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin
5
Jan
2011
The five deadly sins of Mike Holmgren and the Cleveland Browns
The spotlight now falls to Holmgren to get it right. (Source: Cleveland.com)
On Monday, Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren went from wise father figure atop a rebuilding Browns organization, to a man under significant pressure to deliver.
It’s one thing to tell a fanbase that Eric Mangini hasn’t met expectations — it’s another to meet them yourself. While Holmgren excels at win-you-over press conferences, it’s his football decisions this offseason that will define his tenure with this star-crossed franchise.
The Browns are about to hire their sixth head coach since their return in 1999. Whoever finally turns the ship around will never buy a drink in Ohio again — but it’s no small task, and one that’s left wheelbarrows of dead along the road out of town.
Here are five mistakes Holmgren must avoid, if he wants to turn this ship around:
MISTAKE #1: Miss on the coach
While some were thrilled to see Mangini swept aside, they might look back and wonder why the move was made if Cleveland goes in the direction some predict.
Holmgren talked about spreading a wide net, but lead candidates for the coaching vacancy appear to be limited to those also represented by Holmgren’s agent, Bob LaMonte. He fronts John Fox, Jon Gruden, Jim Mora, Brad Childress, Pat Shurmur and — ugh — Marty Mornhinweg.
“I don’t want to have to do this again, so I have to get it right,” said Holmgren.
It’s hard to get excited about that “right” choice being Mornhinweg, who went 5-27 as coach of the Detroit Lions.
16
Jul
2010
Oh yeah, the Supplemental Draft happened
Once again, mid-July rolls around, and we here at ReadAndReact are settling nicely into our summer, blissfully unaware that the NFL’s annual Supplemental Draft is taking place. Which it did, yesterday.
For those who don’t remember (or care), the Supplemental Draft is intended for players who failed to declare for April’s draft, or had other issues affecting their eligibility. This year, there were a grand total of 4 players eligible for the draft, and the Chicago Bears played it crafty, waiting until the 7th and final round to select RB Harvey Unga from BYU. They were quickly followed by the Dallas Cowboys, who pounced on Illinois DT Josh Price-Brent later in the round.
BYU Running Back Harvey Unga is now a Chicago Bear (Photo: Christopher Hanewinckel/US Presswire via ESPN.com)
As we’ve discussed here before, the Supplemental Draft is something of an enigma, in that it holds very little significance, even for draftniks like ourselves. Hell, it doesn’t even seem to be a real event — more likely a conference call or online draft, a la fantasy football. But do you think that they make some poor sucker sit through hours of calling out team names and waiting for their time on the clock to run out? I mean, there were only four players entered in this thing, and the first one was taken with the 12th pick in the 7th round!! Even if there’s only 2 minutes on the clock per pick, that works out to over SEVEN HOURS before the first pick was made!!! I guess that’s why this isn’t a televised event. Goodell certainly isn’t hanging around and watching it unfold.
Of course, every time I think about the supplemental draft, I always wonder how many players taken here have really made an impact in the NFL. Read the rest of this entry »
25
May
2010
Q&A with Brandon Kopceuch of 27Pitches and NFL.com’s Blog Blitz
This week, we have the privilege of sitting down to talk with Brandon Kopceuch, a writer for NFL.com’s Blog Blitz and www.27pitches.com. Brandon has been following the National Football League for years, and gives us his impressions of this offseason, and takes a look forward to 2010. Brandon can be reached at brandon@27pitches.com.
Are people too worked up over Sanchez and the Jets? (Source: nydailynews.com)
THEDARKHORSE: Brandon, thanks for joining us here at Read and React. It’s been an active few months for the National Football League. Give me your thoughts on one or two teams that have really improved this offseason.
BRANDON KOPCEUCH : Thanks for having me. I was saying it even before the draft, but, in my opinion, one team that has really impressed me this offseason is the Detroit Lions. Ever since they got rid of Matt Millen, they finally seem to be on the right path, and I can legitimately see them competing for the NFC North title as early as next year. Imagine if Millen was still in charge—he’d have drafted Dez Bryant and let the other areas of the team fall into ruin. But Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz actually seem to know what they’re doing. Matthew Stafford is the real deal and giving him a legitimate weapon in Nate Burleson opposite the beast that is Calvin “Megatron” Johnson will go a long way into opening up the field for them. Then going out and trading for one of the better receiving tight ends in the league in Tony Scheffler makes this a scary passing offense for their opponents to defend.
The other team I like is the Baltimore Ravens. They have given Joe Flacco a plethora of weapons and they should field one of the best offenses in the league next year, along with their normally stout defense, which got stronger with last month’s draft. Oh, and let me throw this out there: I think Flacco is, and will be, better than his quarterback draft partner, Matt Ryan. There, I said it.
THEDARKHORSE: How about a team that’s stumbled?
BRANDON KOPCEUCH: I have to say it’s the Broncos. Josh McDaniels has come in and gutted them of virtually every talented offensive player on their roster and now Kyle Orton will have to enter the season with Eddie Royal and Jabar Gaffney as his top-two receivers. Defensively they were solid last year until the final few weeks—and all of the credit for that has to be given to Mike Nolan—but McDaniels inexplicably ran him out of town. I just think McDaniels is in over his head and is trying too hard to put his own imprint on the team, but he simply hasn’t made the right decisions. He’ll be lucky if he gets the time to develop Tebow into the quarterback he apparently thinks he can be.
THEDARKHORSE: Who do you like in the always-under-a-microscope NFC East this season?
Click below to read the rest of our interview with Brandon Kopceuch.
7
May
2010
Is JaMarcus Russell the #1 Draft Bust of All Time?
Has Jamarcus Russell failed badly enough to make him the biggest flop in league history? (Original photoshop/hack job by ArtieFufkin)
When news broke that the Raiders released former #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell yesterday, the sports blogosphere collectively wondered weather Russell had claimed the throne as the biggest draft bust in the history of the NFL. And while it would be easy to place the Rotund Raider at the top of the list, we’re not going to hand him the crown just yet.
Until now, the general consensus has been that Ryan Leaf – the #2 overall pick of the San Diego Chargers in 1998 - is the biggest draft bust of all-time. For our money, it’s Tony Mandarich, who the Packers selected with the #2 overall pick in 1989 (you can read our previous pieces on Mandarich here and here). But most people seem to think it’s Leaf, and since both he and Russell are QB’s, it makes things much easier for the purpose of this conversation.
The guys at Shutdown Corner put together a nice statistical comparison between the two quarterbacks, and while both players were godawful, the numbers paint Russell in a more favorable light:
So based on these figures alone, Leaf has the edge (for being worse, that is … 14 TDs vs 36 INTs?!? Ouch.) And when you take into account Leaf’s locker-room outbursts and the fact that he was universally hated by his teammates, Russell doesn’t really even come close to eclipsing the train wreck that was Ryan Leaf.
For us, the question of how big a draft bust someone is always comes down to one main thing: expectations. Sports Illustrated took a look back at the pre-draft hype on JaMarcus Russell from 2007, which includes some incredible gems from some of the draft’s top prognosticators, including Mel Kiper:
JaMarcus Russell is going to immediately energize that fanbase, that football team — on the practice field, in that locker room. Three years from now you could be looking at a guy that’s certainly one of the elite top five quarterbacks in this league. …You’re talking about a 2-3 year period once he’s under center. Look out because the skill level that he has is certainly John Elway-like.”
Way to go Mel. Good call. But he wasn’t alone … at the time, Todd McShay, Terry Bradshaw, and a slew of other “experts” were all drooling over Russell’s physical skill set.
Let's face it, we all saw this one coming
But while everyone seemed to agree that Russell’s physical skills warranted a roll of the dice, there were plenty of questions about his mental state of mind from the beginning. In the linked SI article, Peter King and Gil Brandt were among those who expressed serious doubts as to whether or not JaMarcus had the desire & work ethic to be a top-level NFL quarterback.
When Russell – who was the best QB in a weak draft class for the position – went to the Raiders, it seemed like a bust made in heaven. After all, Al Davis has made a living out of spending draft picks on physical specimens with questionable heads. And with Lane Kiffin taking over at the helm (if temporarily) for Art Shell, the Oakland organization was entering a dysfunctional heyday in 2007. We all knew how this story was going to play out, didn’t we?
29
Apr
2010
Holiday greetings from Bill Belichick
While rummaging through storage space on a recent trip to my parents’ house, I found this little gem tucked away in a box full of photo albums, letters, and diplomas that failed to amount to much: dated 12/19/1994, the above is the net result of a year’s worth of editorials and letters sent to Cleveland Browns Head Coach Bill Belichick. In 2010, he’s not lacking for fan support and football-world adulation, but back then, Belichick was constantly in hot water with Browns fans and detested by the Cleveland sports media, who viewed Bill as a cantankerous robot capable only of spitting out a rotating selection of sleep-inducing, post-game quotes that revealed nothing. People in Cleveland, for the most part, had a hard time adjusting to Belichick’s methods, secrecy, and generally distant demeanor. For the vast majority, he was a dead man walking after he cut Bernie Kosar in Week 8 of the 1993 season, following a 29–14 loss to the Denver Broncos (fittingly, a team that haunted Kosar his entire career).
Belichick didn’t win much in Cleveland, but in ’94 he led the Browns to an 11-5 record and a playoff win over his mentor Bill Parcells, Drew Bledsoe, and a young, upstart Patriots squad. Led by Vinny Testaverde, the Browns featured a workmanlike offense and a bruising, veteran-led defense fronted by safety Eric Turner, who became Belichick’s first-ever draft pick with the Browns in 1991. Despite the abuse Belichick took in Cleveland, there was a pocket of the fanbase who supported his long-term plan–with little but faith to show for it until that ’94 season.
Despite the record, most fans still wanted Belichick shot out of a cannon into Lake Erie, but he was never fired by the Browns. Art Modell utterly topped that general request by moving the team to Baltimore following the 1995 season. Belichick was dumped in the transition, in favor of Ted Marchibroda. One little gem: during the 1995 Draft for the Browns–a year before the move–an increasingly savvy Belichick showed us the future: he traded players, traded down, and stockpiled draft picks for the following year–which the Baltimore Ravens happily used in ’96 to produce a draft class that netted two players who could have been Cleveland Browns: Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.
It took Belichick a few seasons–and a number of wrong turns (including a highly bizarre, one-day stint as head coach of the New York Jets)–to get his mojo back. Three Super Bowl wins later, people forget he ever set foot in Cleveland, Ohio. So, the question stands: which heavily abused, yet-to-succeed head coach is the next Bill Belichick?
Let's see... who should we run out of town today? (Source: AP)
I found this quote interesting from a 1993 Sports Illustrated article describing the reaction of some Browns players to Belichick’s coaching style (these tended to be long-time Browns, who had starred with the team during its successful run in the mid-1980s, and weren’t about to change for some assistant-turned-head-coach with a personality deficit): “Several recently departed Browns–Brian Brennan, Paul Farren, Webster Slaughter–have blasted their former boss for being an automaton who offers no positive motivation and sees players only as faceless cogs. Last summer defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry finally had enough and briefly boycotted Belichick’s practices. Then, last month, receiver Michael Jackson upped the ante by fairly eviscerating Belichick during a meeting of the Ashland County Browns Backers, who are to the Cleveland brass what the UAW is to the Democratic Party. ‘If you question Bill, you’re out of line.’ Jackson reportedly said. ‘He can’t relate to the players.’ Tight end Scott Galbraith, cut earlier this season by Belichick and picked up last week by the Cowboys, calls Belichick’s coaching ‘bully-ball’ and draws comparisons to Napoleon.”
How funny. Last February, shortly after Mangini was hired to rebuild the Browns, a team insider was quoted as saying that “the atmosphere at headquarters is, to put it mildly, miserable. New Head Coach Eric Mangini is running the place like Napoleon.”
Well, well, well.
Maybe it’s time for some patience in the city of Cleveland. Otherwise, 15 years from now, some poor sucker’s left holding a Christmas card from then-Browns coach Eric Mangini–run out of town in 2010, only to end up with the Houston Texans, winning three Super Bowls and defining the next decade of pro football.
24
Apr
2010
POST-DRAFT WRAP-UP … WAIT, THAT’S IT?
Oregon's LeGarrette Blount went undrafted ... but well rested. He later signed with the Titans as an undrafted FA (Image: Deadspin.com)
Is anyone else uncomfortable that the draft is over and it’s only Saturday? What the hell am I supposed to do with the rest of my weekend? Go outside or something??? Oh well … since Thursday night was the highest-rated draft ever, we’d better get used to this new format.
Now that Mr. Irrelevant has been picked, it’s time for armchair GMs everywhere to start second-guessing NFL executives and handing out their annual draft grades. Nevermind the fact that we’ll have no idea how this draft is going to pan out for at least 2-3 years … these type of knee-jerk assessments are what the draft is all about! At first glance, we really like what the Raiders, Seahawks and 49ers did over the last 3 days. In case you’re interested Pete Prisco at CBS has graded every single pick of the draft, and Shutdown Corner has their Best & Worst of the 2010 draft.
And just because the draft is over doesn’t mean teams are done adding players. Keep track of all this Undrafted Free Agent Signings list to see what camp fodder each team is bringing in. For your reference, here’s NFL.com’s list of the best players available after the draft.
In case you missed them through the sweat dripping off of Berman’s huge cranium, here are a few more stories of note from the weekend:
- The Raiders got QB Jason Campbell from the Washington Redskins [ESPN.com]
- The Seahawks traded for RB’s Leon Washington of the Jets and Lendale White of the Titans [NFL.com]
- The Jets released all-pro G Alan Fanceca [NY Daily News]
- The Jaguars traded for Raiders LB Kirk Morrison [PFW]
- Lawrence Taylor’s memory of the day he was drafted in 1981 is a little bit fuzzy … probably because he had 41 Coors Lights [SI.com]
23
Apr
2010
2010 NFL DRAFT – 3RD ROUND LIVE BLOG
How long will Colt McCoy last?
We’re sticking with the NFL Draft on Friday night, all the way through round 3, baby! Still plenty of talent available at this point in the draft – most notably players like QB Colt McCoy, OT Bruce Campbell and LB Navorro Bowman.
For all the hype surrounding round 1 of the draft, rounds 2-4 are where a team’s draft are really made or broken. So it’s worth paying attention to the guys who are being selected tonight.
Follow the action in the comments section, where you’ll find highlights of as many draft selections as we can find!
23
Apr
2010
THE 2010 NFL DRAFT 2ND-ROUND LIVE BLOG
April's version of Santa Claus is ready to rumble (Source: Baltimore Sun)
Round Two is just hours away, and we’re already hearing buzz about heavy trading activity at the top of the round. As always, the QB-focused media is asking where Clausen and Colt will end up–but there’s talent all over the place, and Rounds 2 and 3 are where teams are built.
To help you get up to speed for day 2, Gil Brandt at NFL.com has his list of the Top 100 players available: guys like Clausen, Sergio Kindle, and Taylor Mays are certainly going to be hot properties this evening. At this hour, both Cleveland and Buffalo are negotiating with St. Louis for the 33rd pick in this year’s draft–which guy are they after?
As always, we’re following the action right here. Artie and TheDarkHorse will be filing commentary, breaking news, and analysis from around the league.
Want in? Click the comments section to join the conversation.
