Wellness

[gardenman]

And the draft is finally here! These are the days of whine and poses. Players who expect to go high and don't will be whining that teams undervalue them, while teams will try to convince their fanbase that the guy they took in the sixth round had a first round grade and they were lucky to get him with that very last pick in the draft. Most teams will insist that whoever they get is the guy they'd targeted the whole time and they were lucky to get him and every other team in the league will kick themselves for not taking the guy.

It's hard to know what to expect tonight, but I think it's reasonable to assume that the Chiefs will pick an offensive tackle with their first pick. Their decision to let Branden Albert talk with Miami for a trade tends to imply they're going to have a rather large hole in their offensive line in the very near future. The question then becomes which of the three offensive tackles generally considered the best will they take? Most have them taking Luke Joeckel, but some have them taking Eric Fisher instead. After the Chiefs pick then all heck breaks loose as no one really has a clue what else will happen.

Some reports now have the Bills drooling over Matt Barkley instead of Nassib. Barkley scares me though. He regressed in his senior year and while part of that was the talent around him and his injury, I'd be nervous that he'd already reached his ceiling. I'd prefer taking Geno Smith who improved each year he played and hope he keeps improving.

The Eagles are a wild card. Chip Kelly likes a certain type of player (big, rangy, game changer types) and you don't know if he'll reach for one of those guys, maybe Dion Jordan will fall into his lap, maybe he'll grab a playmaker outside that mold in WR Tavon Austin, maybe the Eagles will trade down for extra draft picks. I believe the latest mock draft roundup has fourteen different guys for the Eagles picked by the various experts around the country. I don't think it will be Geno Smith as Chip Kelly values a quarterback who doesn't turn the ball over and has said since day one that his quarterback has to have big hands. Geno Smith had 30 some fumbles in his college career and has smallish hands. That would tend to make him a less obvious pick for the Eagles. Reportedly they really like EJ Manuel, but picking him fourth would be a big reach. I'm thinking it may be Star Lotulelei for some reason, but we'll have to see what happens.

This is a scary year to be a prospect coming out. There are probably twenty or more guys who could go as high as second overall, or they could drop into the middle of the second round. Chances are about fifty guys have been assured they'll go in the first round and with only 32 guys being picked, some of them will be very disappointed. It's going to be fun to see how it all plays out!