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National Football League
Draft King Mailbag
April 8, 2006
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
Reader feedback is always welcomed here at DraftKing.com. Send your thoughts to me at LouPickney@gmail.com.
From: Sheldon Manaster
To: LouPickney@hotmail.com
Date: 4/08/06 7:40 PM
Subject: Rams
I think your mock draft work is excellent, but there is no way in hXXX the Rams draft Watson in the 11th slot.
Is that a typo? or a pipe dream?
Keep up the good work.
Lou: Defensive tackle is a boom/bust position in the first round of the draft, right up there with QB. There are some who might put Brodrick Bunkley in that slot, but I think a run-stuffer like Watson fits the bill. Is he a stretch for #11? Perhaps. But there will always be stretches in drafts, and that is the challenge in creating a mock. It's like when you fill out an NCAA basketball bracket and you try to figure out where the upsets will be. You know that they'll be in there SOMEWHERE, but where is the key.
As for the position, the Rams lost DTs Damione Lewis and Ryan Pickett to free agency, so DT is a position that I imagine they'll be looking to fill on day one. In my mock draft, I have them filling that need in round one.
By the way, I didn't X-out the word hell. But I try to keep these e-mails as they were sent to me, at least within reason.
From: Josh Obergfell
To: loupickney@gmail.com
Date: Apr 8, 2006 5:38 AM
Subject: Vince young Rumors
Great web site, i've been reading alot of rumors about vince young going to the texans. i would just like to know yours thoughts about that. and i like your pick with the boys going for wr in the first round being a cowboys fan i'd like to hope T.O and the rest of the gang get along but whos knows and the thrid receiver would help old bledso alot
another topic I've been doing some reseach and some of the other sites say that the boys will pick the tennesse DB Allen i don't like that because of the past injuries ya they say he is a 100% better but i'd say that to if i was going to get payed millions.
Lou: I took the liberty of combining the two e-mails you sent me, since there were elements of the T.O. question in both.
Terrell Owens should have an excellent season for Dallas this year. My friends who are Cowboys fans have begrudgingly come to accept the fact that he's part of the team; when he starts making TD catches in bunches, I think they'll come around on him. You need a coach like Bill Parcells who can be the Enforcer (capitalized on purpose) to everyone. I'm not going to try to psycho-analyze Owens, but I know that Parcells has a good track record of taking head cases and/or ego trips at WR and maximizing their potential (Terry Glenn is the best example, though he also coached Keyshawn Johnson without having Keyshawn turn into Me-Shawn.) Notice though that when Keyshawn wanted a new contract, and when Owens became available, the Cowboys had no trouble cutting K.J. (why is he never called that?) loose and bringing Owens on board.
As for those nagging Vince Young to Houston rumors, I think it's nothing more than emotional-based speculation relative to what having Young would mean to the Houston area. Yes, the Texans want to sell out every game and to have a rabid fan base, but they will do that by having a winning team, not by killing their salary cap by having two #1 overall picks used on QBs on board.
Funny how you don't seem to hear any Matt Leinart to Houston rumors. Why? Because Houston doesn't need a QB! It's real simple, see. One possibility is that if New Orleans does trade its #2 pick to a team wanting a QB (say, Denver or Oakland), Tennessee could counter by moving from #3 to #1 if there's one QB in particular it feels it must have. Houston could see QBs go off the board at #1 and #2, then take the player that would actually be the best fit among the elite, OT D'Brickashaw Ferguson, at #3. But now we're talking multiple trades and many variables involved, and it's entirely possible that Tennessee will stand pat at #3 and say: "There are three great QBs in this draft, and we're guaranteed to get a shot at our pick of at least one of them." At that point it starts to gain chess game qualities and become really tough to figure out.
I have high hopes for Jason Allen. There are some who see him moving to CB in the NFL, and perhaps they have information that I don't, but I see him bouncing back from the injury that prematurely ended his final year of college ball and becoming a solid contributor on the pro level as a safety. Right now Allen projects to be high on the safety board in the draft (I figure Michael Huff leans more CB than S, while Donte Whitner is more S than CB; besides Ko Simpson, actually, most of the elite safeties are "tweeners"), so why go into the CB mix where it would be easy to slide down the board? If Dallas has the chance to take Jason Allen at #49, presuming that the Cowboys don't go safety in round one, I think he'd be a nice pick for them.
From: Danny Stone
To: LouPickney@gmail.com
Date: Apr 8, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: Who will Colts take in the 1st round?
I must say, I'm glad to see somebody that constantly updates their mock
drafts. I'm tired of seeing Cutler going to the Saints at #2 after Brees
signed. I'm a huge Colts fan and I'll drop dead if they don't pick a RB in
the 1st round to replace Edge (please don't hold me to that). Anyhow, the
Colts have the 30th pick and it looks like Reggie Bush and DeAngelo Williams
will be out of the question. Many people think Maroney will stick around but
now that the Jets have Atlanta's pick at 29, I have to think they might take
him to replace Curtis Martin in the next couple years. So if the Colts get
the 4th RB selected in the draft, do they take LenDale White who had an
aweful pro day at USC, or Joseph Addai from LSU? Also, if they are fortunate
enough to get Maroney, do you think he'll fit into Indy's system that places
a premium on pass protection and a RB that can catch and run
Lou: I try to keep the mock updated as much as I can, plus I hear about it when things are out of alignment, which is a nice motivation to keep it updated.
The Colts need a RB, and it should be no secret that if the right guy is there at #30, they'll take him. LenDale White turning into a "fatbody" (as my brother Matt might call him) doesn't help things in that regard. Indianapolis needs to have teams like Minnesota, New England, etc. not take a RB, and also hope that teams won't go the "best player available" route and take RBs off the board even though they already have a solid RB.
Part of the problem with this draft is that, while there are some excellent RBs out there, the crop this year doesn't have many big guys who are good blockers. White would've potentially been a nice option, but overweight and unprepared are not adjectives that one wants going into the draft. Could you imagine Peyton Manning yelling at him on the sidelines, with White staring into space with a malcontent expression on his face? And just think of all of the fodder that this would give Bill Simmons!
You might see the Colts go for a couple of RBs in the mid-rounds, perhaps Brian Calhoun from Wisconsin and then Mike Bell from Arizona. Calhoun is a speed guy but not much of a blocker; Bell is a big guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield, and he could potentially win a job outright if he goes to the right team (like Indianapolis.) Of course, Bell will probably end up on Denver, which has a radar for sleeper RBs, and then they'll have Tatum Bell and Mike Bell, and we'll hear endless bell jokes. For our collective sanity's sake, let's hope that doesn't happen.
The Colts have Dominic Rhodes, but even he is 5'9" and 203 lbs., so it's not like he's a bruising force.
I think that what all of this shows is that Edgerrin James is a very difficult player to replace. You have to be an all-around good player to block well, catch the ball out of the backfield and rush for an acceptable yards per carry average. This puts the Colts in a bind. But that's the point of the salary cap, isn't it?
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