Recap of the 2013 NFL Draft

So it's finally over, the dust has settled on the NFL draft and the day has passed which will determine so many young athlete's careers for many years to come. In this post I am going to examine some of the surprises of the draft, which teams have spent their picks wisely and those who may have made some blunders. Another small section will be devoted to my favourite players in the draft and where they landed.

The two most intriguing picks in my eyes in the whole process was undoubtedly the Jets drafting Geno Smith and the Eagles selecting Matt Barkley. Let's examine the selection of Geno Smith from a team who has already failed to cope with one quarterback controversy and is now adding a rookie to the mix with Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow. Geno brings an outstanding career at West Virginia to a close and joins a team that desperately needs someone to take the helm of the offense and lead it back to the playoffs. Smith finished with an outstanding completion percentage of 71.8% in his senior year. setting records for yardage, touchdowns and completions: this is the kind of quarterback that the Jets need with the current lack of offensive playmakers. However, with the continual support for the dismal Mark Sanchez, it seems that something dramatic will have to happen for Geno Smith to be given the reins. However, with patience running thin in New York with Rex Ryan I believe that this opportunity will come sooner rather than later and Geno needs to be prepared to take full advantage.

The other puzzling decision was the Eagles' decision to add another quarterback to a team that already has both Michael Vick and Nick Foles. Although it is clear after last year that Vick is slowly on the decline, we did manage to get a glimpse of Nick Foles and it seemed as though he was perfectly capable of managing an offense that at the time was without LeSean Mcoy who is undoubtedly one of the premier backs in the league. Matt Barkley is a quite confusing figure in my eyes as he was projected to be one of the top picks in the 2012 NFL draft but instead decided to stay at USC for his senior year. Whether this shows an admirable dedication to his academic studies or that he feared that he wouldn't get drafted that high because of the presence of Andrew Luck and RG3, we will never know. However I think that we can safely say that this decision has backfired so far as he was picked 98th overall which is significantly lower than his projection for last year. This can be attributed to the fact that although Barkley had a decent Senior year at USC it wasn't comparable to the exceptional performance of the previous year when he threw 39 touchdowns and only 7 picks.He ended up throwing less touchdowns in 2012 at 36 and more than twice as many interceptions at 15. This decrease in production meant that there was an increase in the amount of criticism and doubters that plagued Barkley at the end of the year: the fact that Barkley had sustained a shoulder injury no doubt added to the doubters. This has all helped to make this decision extremely puzzling as Barkley is the accurate, slightly weaker-armed quarterback who will be third in the rotation in Philly. The only reason that I can come up with for drafting Barkley is that they believe he could eventually lead the Philly offense or he might be a decent backup for Foles when Vick eventually throws the towel in. Whatever happens it comes across as a quite puzzling decision and raises the question whether they are confident that Foles can handle the starting job.

Now to some of my favourite selections of the draft. Easily the most promising prospect in my eyes was Notre Dame TE Tyler Eifert who has all the physical talent and mental intangibles to experience sensational success. Most people thought Eifert was a potential late round first pick or even an early second rounder. I was happy to see that they were proved wrong and that he was drafted with the 21st overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals, hopefully creating a partnership with the already impressive Jermaine Gresham in order to increase the offensive firepower of the Bengals and give Andy Dalton a better chance to finally claim a playoff win.

Another great pick in the draft and much more expected to occur was the Pittsburgh Steelers selecting Jarvis Jones, the outside linebacker from Georgia, to replace James Harrison who ironically enough joined the Bengals in the offseason. At 6 feet 2 inches and 245 pounds he is a physical specimen at the OLB position with the explosiveness and physical talent to be a threat immediately in the gold and black, who are well known for their fearsome pass rush in previous years, which has become slightly stagnant due to age and injuries. Hopefully Steelers fans will be able to experience another year where the defense dominates opposing teams and contributes to returning them to the playoffs.

Tavon Austin was one of my other favourite players entering the draft and I was glad that he was picked at number eight by the St Louis Rams. However, the only concern that I have for Tavon is that, although he instantly upgrades the threat of the Rams on the offensive side of the ball, they have downgraded their threat in the run game with the departure of Steven Jackson and this should make it significantly harder for an already sputtering offense. However we should hopefully see some electric plays from this young speedster that will improve the Rams passing attack dramatically and maybe even make them competitive again. This all lies on the shoulders of Sam Bradford and with his ability to utilise his weapons to maximum effectiveness or else the Rams will still lie at the bottom of the NFC west for a while due to the strength of the 49ers and Seahawks.

Manti Teo was my other big pick of the draft as I believe that he can go on to have a stellar career despite the scandals that plagued him prior to the draft. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers with the 38th overall pick and will slot straight into a 3-4 defense that has not had a leader at that position since the late Junior Seau. He will attempt to help a defense that was 6th in the league in rushing yards given up over the entire season at 1,542 and 3,681 in the air which stood at 18th overall. He should help to boost a defense that is already strong and maybe provide Philip Rivers with an opportunity to steer them back to the playoffs even with the presence of the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos, who are going to be an offensive juggernaut with the addition of Wes Welker alongside the imposing physical specimen of Demaryius Thomas. With the addition of Teo they might be able to contain the Broncos during their two meetings in the regular season and definitely against their other opponents. The Bolts could see a resurgence with the presence of a defensive leader in the locker room alongside 2011 pro bowler Eric Weddle and new coach Mike Mcoy collaborating with Rivers. This is why I picked Teo as one of my favourite players in the draft because of his ability to add so much to any team that picked him.

In conclusion to this rather brief overview of the 2013 NFL draft, it is clear to me that whatever many experts said about there being a "lack of outstanding talent" that actually, there are some supremely gifted players who are going to go on and have a successful career if they can deal with the transition, the amount of new plays, shifts and audibles that are going to be thrown their way over the upcoming few months until the pre-season where they will get their first taste of competitive professional football. If so, this season looks set to be another great year for the sport, hopefully culminating with another superb Superbowl.

Will Larry Fitzgerald have a resurgent year with the addition of new Head coach Bruce Arians and QB Carson Palmer?

Larry Fitzgerald, best known for his outstanding year in which he helped to lead the Cardinals to Superbowl 43 against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa. Although the Cardinals unfortunately fell to Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes on the final drive, they portrayed beautifully the underdog who fought resiliently until the final whistle. Fitzgerald spearheaded the passing attack led by Veteran Kurt Warner and accompanied by Anquan Boldin (later to move to the Ravens and claim a Superbowl title with them) and Steve Breaston. However ever since the retirement of Warner and the inability of the Cardinals to find a suitable replacement Fitzgerald has been eclipsed by new up and coming wide receivers such as Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones and  AJ Green most notably. Although his statistics have noticed changed dramatically their has been a noticeable decline in the amount of receptions and touchdowns since 2009.

This can be attributed to the lackadaisical performance of the Arizona quarterbacks through these years, the disappointing performance of the outrageously over paid Kevin Kolb, Derek Anderson, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley and even Brian Hoyer, have all had a start at the tiller of the Arizona offense and none of them managed to bring any consistency. Even though they had a good start in 2012 at 4-0 this can be mainly attributed to the superb play of their defense who were extremely stout, most notably in their two point win over New England in week 2. However at the end of the regular season their offensive statistics are miserable: 31st in points scored (15.6), 32nd in yards per game (263.1), 28th in pass yards per game (187.8) and 32nd in rush yards per game at a miserable 75.2. These statistics are appalling for what was a few years ago one of the better passing attacks in the NFL.

So what do the cardinals need to do to try and restore some resemblance to a team that was a contender only 3 years ago. Firstly they need to re-establish there non existent running attack, the acquisition of Rashard Mendenhall in this off season is a step in the right direction but the question arises about his ability to be able to carry the load for this team after coming off an injury. Another issue is the offensive line, is is apparent that they are not only failing to dominate defensive lines in the rushing game but they are also rather poor at protecting their quarterbacks, last year the 4 starters under center were sacked 58 times (the most in the NFL) which is too much punishment for the person who is meant to be one of the centerpieces of your offense.

Another and more troubling problem is the amount of turnovers that came from interceptions, quarterbacks in 2012 threw a total of 21 interceptions to only 11 scores. This ratio is putrid as it is only one of four teams who actually managed to turn the ball over in the air than put it into the endzone (these teams being the Jets, Chiefs, Browns and of course the Cardinals). Their apparent solution is seemingly to plug in the aging Carson Palmer into their offense and hire Bruce Arians to co-ordinate the whole team. Arians did an outstanding job as the interim coach for the Indianapolis Colts this season during the absence of Chuck Pagano helping to direct rookie Andrew Luck and the Colts to a playoff appearance against the Ravens. Admittedly the motivation and emotion that fueled the team to this outstanding season may be partly due to the illness of Pagano, but there in no doubt that Arians played a major role. If Arians and Palmer can manage to orchestrate a balanced offense with at least a hint of a running game then Fitzgerald should have some coverage removed and be able to shine once again as the star of the Arizona Cardinals.

What are the Ravens going to do about the departure of Dannell Ellerbe and Ray Lewis?

So, I have been a supporter of the Baltimore Ravens for the past 7 years and have always loved watching the hard hitting defense that they have boasted year in and year out, unfortunately after their recent Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers their two middle linebackers have departed. Ray Lewis made the decision to retire after 17 seasons in a Ravens uniform and will no doubt be enshrined in Canton, Ohio, their other younger linebacker, Dannell Ellerbe, who was expected to pick up the mantle that was worn by Lewis as the leader of the defense has departed to greener pastures in Miami, of course a large contract offer by the Dolphins no doubt helped to sway his decision.

The Ravens are now faced with the awesome task of totally re-building the core of their defense which wasn't helped by the departure of long time Raven Ed Reed, even though he was visibly slower and starting to deteriorate, most fans believed he had a few good seasons left to give the Ravens before he also retired. His decision to join the Houston Texans for a meagre salary (3 year $15 million) compared to some other free agent safeties that had moved to other teams in the off-season (4 year $24 million For Laron Landry and the Colts)   especially when looking at the fact that he is undoubtedly bound for the hall of fame as one of the greatest defensive backs to ever play the game. This has left another gaping hole in the Ravens defense and needs a substitute, quickly. 

However even before the season had ended I was eyeing up potential candidates to step into roles to lead the purple and black, one candidate who seemed primed in my eyes to be this man was the Notre Dame linebacker Manti Teo. His combination of speed, athleticism and the fact that he was one of the top Heisman trophy candidates meant that he could potentially answer some of the Ravens cries for a player to plug the middle of the field for a good ten years. Unfortunately the scandal involving his fake girlfriend seems to have damaged his reputation and also his position in the upcoming draft (I still don't understand what actually happened), this led me to ask the question, "With this lapse in potential suitors for his services could he fall to the Ravens with the 32nd pick?". It seems that this may happen, there are two potential teams that could hamper these plans. The Chicago Bears with the 20th pick and the Minnesota Vikings at 24 both have gaping holes in their linebacking core with the departures of Brian Urlacher and Jasper Brinkley and may decide to chose Teo to fill these gaps. 

In the end whatever happens in the upcoming draft Ozzie Newsome needs to address these holes in his defense or the Ravens are going to have an extremely tough campaign which may ultimately end up in them not even making it to the playoffs to have the opportunity to defend their title as world champions.