Victory for the Saints
National Football League
Draft King Analysis
February 8, 2010
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
Reader feedback is always welcomed here. Send your thoughts to Draft King at LouPickney@gmail.com.
Congratulations are due to the New Orleans Saints, who won their first Super Bowl last night over the Indianapolis Colts. It was fitting that the Saints rallied from an early 10-0 deficit to win, given that they captured several regular-season victories with impressive comebacks. I'm happy for the city of New Orleans, which I imagine will be celebrating this victory for a very long time into the future.
The game itself drew in an estimation 106 million viewers, breaking the all-time television record set by the finale of M*A*S*H in 1983. With the Super Bowl, the NFL has a unique event in the modern television world, a broadcast where people actually go out of their way to watch all of the advertisements that run. There's nothing else out there quite like it. In a DVR world of commercial-skipping, this unique platform actually entices its audience to watch every advertisement.
Of course, where there's big money in the balance, conflict can arise. There's an ultra high stakes battle that is looming in the NFL, with a possible lockout for 2011 and the NFL holding some amazing contractual advantages (such as guaranteed money from DirecTV with or without a season). No one wants a labor stoppage, but it might happen. For those of you too young to remember the last time there was an NFL labor stoppage in 1987, it's a very unpleasant thing for all involved. I hope it won't happen, but I'm aware that it very well could.
With the 2009 NFL season now finished, attention turns toward free agency (which begins next month) and the upcoming 2010 NFL Draft. Remember that each team in the league has the option of using both a franchise tag *and* a transition tag on any pending free agents, and that a player will have to have at least six years of NFL experience to be eligible for unrestricted free agency.
What awaits us is likely going to be the most confusing off-season of the modern era (1993-present). There will be people who hear "uncapped year" and assume that it will be a Wild West style of spending. That's not the case, not with this country in an extended recession and money being so difficult to obtain from banks by small and large businesses alike. And, certainly, not without there being a minimum spending limit in the NFL.
It's mailbag time.
From: Patrik Nohe
To: LouPickney@gmail.com
Date: Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 3:10 PM
Subject: Your Most Recent Mock 2/3
I always respect anyone who takes the time to evaluate players and tries to forecast the draft. I realize it's very time-consuming and requires a ton of attention to a ton of details. That being said, I can't speak for other teams but I do help run a Dolphins blog and I can say with a very high degree of certainty that there is virtually no chance Miami selects Joe Haden in the first round of the draft this year. I was hoping you might give a reason for the pick on the mock draft that would at least let me see the thinking behind the prediction, but I didn't so I'm writing you be I'm curious what, in your opinion, leads you to believe the Fins may select Haden. I can just tell you from my perspective that Miami spent it's top pick last season and a second rounder on Vontae Davis and Sean Smith, both corners. And even despite defensive lapses in their last few games, the perception (because that's all you can really glean from any football team is a perception these days) was that the Dolphins were extremely high on both rookie corners (who ended up starting the majority of the season). Miami also has Will Allen coming back from an injury to provide veteran depth and most likely play nickelback, not to mention they also have rights to Jason Allen another former first rounder and a corner. All that said, I just cannot see any conceivable way Miami spends that pick on another corner, especially with many needs on their team that are far more pressing. Again, I'm not trying to come off like an asshole, I was just curious what your thinking on the subject was and hopefully, I can offer some perspective from the Dolphins side of things. Just trying to help. Again thanks for putting in the time and doing something like this, it really does make these couple months before the draft go a lot quicker
Lou: You're right -- Haden going to the Dolphins is highly unlikely for most of the reasons you mentioned. I wouldn't lump Jason Allen into that necessarily (he has been a disappointment in the eyes of most for Miami, and I hate writing that since I was pulling for Allen as a Tennessee Vols fan, but reality is reality), but the remarkable play by Sean Smith and Vontae Davis in 2009 is a sign that the Dolphins might be set at corner into the foreseeable future. Smith in particular played great and Davis, the younger brother of 49ers TE Vernon Davis, had some moments where his youth was exposed but for the most part he made up for it with his remarkable athleticism.
