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It's Almost Here

The NFL Draft is this Saturday and I am very excited. I get pumped about the draft every year, in fact, the draft is my second favorite day of the year behind Christmas. The idea of my favorite team (the New York Giants) getting give or take seven new players excites me.

I've been reading about prospects and watching the combine on the NFL network for the last two months or so in anticipation of the 28th. With that said, I'm going to give you my opinions of some of the draft's top prospects. Here we go.

LSU QB JaMarcus Russell and Safety LaRon Landry

Over the last five years or so, LSU has been a factory for NFL talent. LSU's players compete in practice against the top talent in the country, much like USC now and Miami before them. NFL caliber players at these big schools come in bunches. LSU's bunch is starting to take shape after last year's solid group of rookies, headlined by Joseph Addai and Dawan Landry. Both had ROY (Rookie Of The Year) caliber seasons for their respective teams. Dawan Landry, the older brother of LaRon, had a stellar season of the Baltimore Ravens recording 69 tackles, 3 sacks, and 5 interceptions. This bodes well for the younger Landry who is clearly the more gifted athlete of the two.

JaMarcus Russell is pretty much a lock to be the first QB taken in the draft. This guy has a cannon. I've been a fan of his for a while know, but I never really thought of him as the top overall pick. I do think he is a much better prospect than Brady Quinn. Russell has the stronger arm, delivered in big games, and played against far better competition in the SEC than Notre Dame did. Russell also has a higher career completion percentage than Quinn, showing that he has the touch to complement his cannon arm. Aside from Russell being a bit heavy at 260 lbs., he is a very complete prospect.

Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn

I don't like Brady Quinn nearly as much. I've watched him tear up mediocre teams for the last two years and there was only one game that really impressed me. That game was Notre Dame's home game against USC in 2005. This was a great game from start to finish and Quinn displayed the leadership and toughness that scouts love but his team lost. After watching Quinn play against the likes of North Carolina, Navy, Army, and Michigan State in '06, I found myself wondering why everyone was so enamored with him. He played crap teams and wasn't dominant against the weak competition. He played a mediocre game against USC and his Notre Dame team mailed it in against the JaMarcus Russell-led LSU Tigers in the Sugar Bowl. Here is a video that sums up how I see Brady Quinn.
In all fairness to Quinn, playing college football is hard and grueling, but he seems like a narcissistic pretty boy to me. Did you notice him chewing out whoever he was playing catch with? I'm not about to judge the guy over this one isolated incident, however, he does seem like an arrogant guy in a lot of his interviews and appearances. He and his agent, Tom Condon, are telling anyone who will listen that he should go number one, and I'm tired of it. In case you haven't already noticed, I really dislike Brady Quinn. That is all.

Geaorgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson

This guy is a freak. We've all heard about the 4.35 second 40 times and the 42 inch vertical, but he does it on the field as well. At 6'5'', 239 he's as good as it gets. Will he be great? Yes, but I do think that guys like Dwayne Jarrett out of USC and Robert Meachem out of Tennessee can be very good receivers and great value picks later on in the first round.

Oklahoma RB Adrian Peterson

This guy is a horse. Watching him run the football is like watching a runaway train. I really think he's a psycho, which is a good thing in my book. The only issue is his build. He's already a tall back at about 6'1'', but he doesn't help himself with his running style. He runs tall and when you combine that with his reckless style there is a lot to be worried about in terms of staying healthy. I think he's the second best player in this draft, but injury concerns will hurt him. I see him going seventh, but not necessarily to the Vikings. I wouldn't be surprised if Buffalo traded up to get him if he fell to the 7th pick.

Well that's all I've got today, but I'll be back tomorrow with my take on Louisville DT Omobi Okoye, Cal RB Marshawn Lynch, and a few others. Have a good one.

Four Months

Four months.

It seems like it was eons ago when the Colts and da Bears waited for Rex Grossman to failingly flail around Joe Robbie Stadium. It seems so long ago, it feels like we should be fast approaching another September: a time when ever fan says to all their friends, “This year, the [insert favorite team name here] are going to win it all.”

But alas, September is four months away. A third of a calendar year. What’s a fan to do? Voluntary mini-camps are hardly engaging, and an early off-season rich with big names headed to new towns has long since passed.

So here we rest, midway between seasons, with only one thing on our collective minds: the 2007 NFL draft.

Who’s the #1 pick? Who’ll get Calvin Johnson? Which QB is going to go first? Who’s [insert favorite team name here] going to pick? Who’s going to trade?

Over the past month and a half, these same types of questions have been asked and answered, and answered, and answered again, and then analyzed, and then reanalyzed, and finally second guessed, by the otherwise unemployed folks over at ESPN and the NFL Network. I’ve seen every possible permutation of how the first round could possibly go. I even saw a list of draft picks if—instead of drafting in the current order—teams drafted based on their teams total fantasy football points last year. When will all this ridiculousness end?

Saturday.

Have a great day watching, and I hope the [insert favorite team name here] draft the missing piece to their soon-to-be new-born dynasty.

NFL Draft - Notre Dame's QB Brady Quinn: 'I'm Going To Be A Bust' - The Onion



Thanks to a nice woman at Murray's Bagel's, I spotted this article, which I'm going to show to Brady Quinn later today.

DUBLIN, OH—Top draft prospect Brady Quinn, a strong-armed quarterback out of Notre Dame who is expected to be taken with one of the first five picks in the draft, told scouts interviewing him at his family home Monday that he would in all likelihood be a huge NFL bust. "While it's true I have impressive arm strength, and that I'm willing to stand up in the pocket against the rush, the fact remains that my lack of downfield accuracy gets me in trouble on the deep throws and my field vision is suspect," Quinn told draft evaluators from the Raiders, Browns, and Cardinals."Combine that with the enormous starting bonus I'll receive and the tendency for teams to try and develop quarterbacks long after they should give up, and I really just have 'bust' written all over me."

While Quinn recommended teams look to solid prospects such as quarterback Jamarcus Russell, tackle Joe Thomas, and running back Adrian Peterson, Raiders owner Al Davis is reportedly more interested than ever in signing Quinn.

Zennie's In New York For The 2007 NFL Draft

As I write this I'm sitting at a kind of "slice of life" bagel joint called Murphy's on 242 8th Avenue in Manhattan. I commuted into the island from Hicksville, where I'm staying with my friend Bill Chackhes and his wife Ann Rose. I'm having a fantastic time, plus he's working with me on our NFL Draft Web Show from Radio City Music Hall.

More about that soon.

But today -- in fact this trip thus far -- is a page right from Americana. I'm seeing New York from a "regular person's perspective" (and not a tourist's one) for the first time. It's rather cool.

Right now, I'm enjoying coffee, blogging, and waiting for Wil Mara and Bill as a flood of people come in for their bagels and coffee.

It's about 8:34 AM.

The group represents people from many different apparent walks of life, and while mostly White, certainly there are a set of people of color who walk and and out -- coming in, ordering, buying, and leaving. It's like the Penn Station of bagel places.

Pretty Cool.

I even made a video which I'll add below, later..
 

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