Fuck.. 2 picks away, first snipe of the mock for me. I already had it queued. I’ve been on a roll after the controversial Pickett at #3 overall.
Fuck.. 2 picks away, Cross is the first snipe of the mock for me. I already had it queued. I’ve been on a roll after the controversial Pickett at #3 overall.
I will say though that I still do not believe in the idea that a team wanting a QB absolutely HAS to take that sure thing, can't miss phenom QB in the top five. I don't know for sure how that became conventional wisdom, but I blame Kiper. (Specifically, I'm thinking of the 1994 draft when he ripped into the Colts because they picked some bozo named Marshall Faulk at #2 overall instead of guaranteed Pro Bowl megastars Heath Shuler or Trent Dilfer.)
Houston Texans select: Damone Clark, LB, LSU With as many picks as the Texans have, they can afford to take a flyer on a guy that could be a steal in 2023 after taking 2022 off for surgery. He's a beast, but the fact he isn't available this year will make him move down a few rounds. Without the back issue, he is most likely one of the top LBers on the board.
I was just watching some shows on NFL Network today about past drafts and that was one of them. Great TV, made the draft watchable and now there is a world full of draftniks. Still can't stand Kiper, but he did pave the way.
It also means he won't take up a roster spot. You'll have him under contract for three years instead of four, but if you grade him as a first or second round talent, getting him in the fourth is certainly a worthwhile investment.
Hell yes he did. The wall of hair and all the stats coming at ya rapid fire.... I never understood all the hate for Mel... He found a niche.
The one I really miss was pre-Kiper. He was a pharmacist for his regular job. His name, ironically, was Jerry Jones, and somehow back in the 70s or so he got so tight with Gil Brandt that Brandt had him in the war room during drafts. He got to know pretty much the entire scouting community and was widely trusted and respected. He put out the first draft guide that I know about. It was called "The Drugstore List", and it was a self printed thing where the pages were just ordinary 8x11 sheets of copy paper folded so that each sheet became four pages of the "book", which had a construction paper cover and a few staples for the binding. He would have been far more knowledgeable and a better choice for a TV "expert" than Kiper, but Kiper managed to get in with ESPN somehow and built it into a franchise. So yeah, gotta give due credit to the Essex Community College brat for sheer persistence and making it happen.
Much of the anti-Mel sentiment came from the earlier days, like that 1994 rant about the Colts not taking a QB with either of their two top picks. He really made himself look like an idiot on that one. And many of the things he said throughout the 1990s or early 2000s were just plain wrong. One that comes to mind for me (Falcons related, naturally) was when Dan Reeves made a point of correcting ESPN on something that Kiper had said earlier. Kiper didn't like Reeves' selection of Justin Griffith in that particular draft because Atlanta "didn't need another running back". Griffith was a fullback, and Atlanta's fullback (Bob Christian) had just retired due to concussions and other injury concerns. When they interviewed Reeves later on in the draft, Reeves made sure he got across that Griffith was a FULLBACK. Unfortunately Kiper wasn't on set at that point, and I don't think anyone on the ESPN side understood that the coach was calling them out for Kiper blowing it on a player's position.
