Addenda Provided

I’m in the process of writing a mock draft as well as an in-depth as to what the Vikings should do at No. 12, but something else has occured which has taken me to look with a different perspective.

As my university American Football Team (Go Wolves!) prepares to do a mock draft of our own, team-mates are assuming the roles of GMs across the NFL in making decisions for the franchises they represent. The Vikings were already taken, so in addition to my in-depth review that I am planning to write for them, I will also be looking at my initial second choice, the New York Jets. But when deciding on what other team I would do, I didn’t go for one of my other crushes in the Ravens, as that would be too easy. Instead, I went for one of the most interesting options in the draft – what will Carolina do at #1?

It’s always a quandry for teams at the top of the draft, as the money involved is so high and picks can seem obvious, but as  can be seen in many instances (JaMarcus Russell over Adrian Peterson, Troy Williamson over Aaron Rodgers, Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers etc.), top 10 picks can be some of the hardest to nail down, and can often cost a head coach, scouting director and GM their reputation and jobs with a team reasonably quickly, as well as setting a franchise back for many years. So assuming the role as GM for the NFL’s worst team last year, this is what I came up with:

Looking at the roster and the talent that is available, I believe that this pick can be spent on one of three areas: a quarterback, a defensive tackle, or a wide receiver.

A.J. Green

I’ll get the ludicrous one out the way first – there is no way this pick will be a receiver. Despite Steve Smith losing the speed burst he relies on to be a big play threat, the rest of the corp not playing at all well and with A.J.Green sitting right there, it’s the smallest of the three considering they have no defensive tackles that could even be labelled as a serviceable starter, and the QB situation doesn’t look great.

Discussion into the QB and DT options after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

NFL Pick Review

Well, it’s been a long time since there’s been a post here. In fact it’s been five months since the last post, and six months since the last post that had any meaningful content that wasn’t a funny video or me bragging about GamerFM.

However, since the NFL came to an end a couple weeks ago with the Green Bay Packers  beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl in Dallas (as well as costing me £15 and a lot of pride in the progress), I thought I’d take a look back at the picks I made in August last year and see how close I came. Whilst I didn’t create a physical bracket for the playoffs this year, my record was not as good as last year’s 9-2 mark, going 5-6. In a pointless comparison, I did get one of the teams right in August for the championship games.

AFC East

Well, turns out you never know what Bill Belichick will do next. After trading Seymour last season and moving Randy Moss at the trade deadline this season, the Patriots are suddenly bursting with young talent, such as Brandon Tate and Patrick Chung, as well as the full emergence of Jerod Mayo as a cornerstone of the defence. That’s not to say that my pick of the Jets was misplaced though, going 11-5 is still no easy feat, considering the schedule. But Miami as a wild card pick?

More after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »