[Latest comments will appear on top.]
– Well, this ends our live blogging of the 2006 NFL Draft. At first blush, the big winners in the draft are the Saints who somehow have Reggie Bush fall in their laps, and Matt Leinart/Arizona Cardinals. The Cards get a player they coveted last year and save a ton in guaranteed money. Leinart, on the other hand, gets to be in a great situation in Arizona with Edgerrin James, Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. Someone the Saints and the Cardinals, two of the worst franchises in the league, come out on top.
(32) The Giants immediate take Mathias Kiwanuka (a projected end of second round pick) and the Giants fans are just hearing it from the Jets fans. They waited 2 hours for this?
(31) Only two more picks left. We’re waiting for Bill Leavy to rob the Seahawks of this draft pick somehow. The Seahawks take Kelly Jennings even with Jimmy Williams left on the board. What’s wrong with Jimmy Williams? Is it the questions about his attitude?
(30) We’ve had later rounds in Fantasy Football drafts go slower than this. Tags is back at the podium announcing that the Colts take Joseph Addai from LSU who wasn’t expected to go until the mid to late second round. Indy might have been able to trade up in the second round and still get him. NFL Network just showed LenDale White and Mayock made a great point earlier that all he had to do was work his ass off for 3 months after the championship game and stay in shape to be a multimillionaire and White couldn’t even manage that.
(29) And now there is electricity in the air as the Jets are on the clock. You know Tags is secretly hoping for a Jets boneheaded pick so the crowd can go nuts. And the Jets take… Nick Mangold to replace Kevin Mawae. Jets fans are happy with the pick and we are robbed of the perennial Jets fans going nuts in disbelief.
(28) Jax takes Marcedes Lewis to complement Matt Jones, an aging Jimmy Smith, and Ernest Wilford. Very good pick by the Jaguars who have Kyle Brady (Jets fans love Kyle Brady) as their TE.
(27) Carolina Panthers take DeAngelo Williams. Remember they had basically no one at RB in the championship game against the Seahawks. Panthers shore up their RB corps with a very good pick here.
(26) The Bills trade up to take John McCargo, the third NC State D-lineman taken in the first round. Not sure about this pick – McCargo could simply have benefited from being on the same line as Mario Williams and Manny Lawson.
(25) The Steelers trade up to take Santonio Holmes, which addresses the need left by the departure of Randel-El. It’s interesting that the Giants didn’t feel a need to draft Holmes themselves to give Eli Manning another weapon and as a replacement for the aging Amani Toomer. Great shot of the Holmes draft party and one of his posse members just going nuts with joy because he’s a Pittsburgh fan. Good stuff.
(24) Cincinnati Bengals take Jonathan Joseph CB despite having the top turnover creating secondary in the league. And now the excitement is building as the NY Giants are on the clock… Just flipped over to ESPN in time to see a Giants fan flipping the bird to the camera. Klassy.
(23) Despite a need in the secondary, Chucky goes with Davin Joseph, the best guard in the draft.
(22) The Niners didn’t take much time to select Manny Lawson to fill their LB needs after the departure of Julian Peterson and Andre Carter.
(21) The Patriots taking Laurence Maroney with this pick was such a shock that the Jets fans forgot to boo. Why wouldn’t the Patriots address a need at WR when Chad Jackson and Santonio Holmes are still on the board? It’s hard to question the Patriots draft but this is a head scratcher.
(20) The Chiefs take Tamba Hali out of Penn State and Mike Mayock just said “relentless motor”. This is probably too early to take Hali. He’s a good player but not an impact DE worth a top 20 pick. After a rip roaring start in the first 10 picks, this draft has grinded to a halt and everyone is starting to lose focus. Still no WR taken yet and no RB other than Reggie Bush.
(19) The Chargers take Antonio Cromartie as expected. A very risky pick in the first round because Cromartie missed the entire 2005 season after tearing his ACL last July.
– The Chargers are taking their sweet time with the #19 pick so the NFL Network interviews Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear about the new Eagles movie about a walk on who made the team. Then Rich Eisen just made a very uncomfortable joke about Dirk Diggler and the ultimate measurables.
(18) Dallas Cowboys select Bobby Carpenter and Mike Mayock just uttered “he has a great motor”, meaning he’s probably not that good.
(17) Minnesota Vikings pick is in. Corey Chavous said they would take Chad Greenway and… the Vikings take Chad Greenway. Good work, Corey. Although it wasn’t much insight. Most folks had the Vikings taking Greenway and filling a huge need.
(16) Everyone is so surprised by the Jason Allen pick by the Dolphins that there’s complete silence. Mike Mayock just said that he might have Bo Jackson disease. We didn’t realize Bo Jackson had his own disease.
– The NFL Network is running Matt Leinart’s presser. We’re waiting for someone to ask him about waiting an extra year to come out and losing $10M.
(15) The Rams take Tye Hill. Interesting to hear Corey Chavous’ take on the Rams #1 draft choice as a player on the Rams. He seems to be happy with the pick but that could just be playing the company man.
(14) Eagles chants going off at the draft in anticipation of the next pick. There might be a riot between Eagles fans and Jets fans which would cement this draft as the wildest in history. The Eagles get a gift and get a top 10 pick at #14 with Brodrick Bunkley. Hey guess what, the NFL Network didn’t bring up the booing of McNabb.
(13) The Browns take Kamerion Wimbley which is a bit of a reach. They were probably taking the entire 30 minutes talking on the phone to trade down because Wimbley would’ve been there later.
– NFL Network’s coverage of the draft has been pretty good so far, except for this retarded Under Armor commercial. Click clack this. Hmmm… spoke too soon. The NFL just threw it back to the studio and Brentson Boogie Buckner just offered absolutely zero insight into Matt Leinart vs Vince Young.
(12) The Ravens trade up one spot and take Haloti Ngata. This doesn’t make much sense for the Browns because Ngata was a perfect fit for them. Hope they got some good picks in return from the Ravens. Although it doesn’t matter. Whoever the Browns take will end up getting injured.
(11) The Broncos just traded with St. Louis to take Jay Cutler. No pressure on Cutler being taken 11th and he’ll have a year or two to hold a clipboard while Jake Plummer infuriates Broncos fans again.
(10) The Cardinals finally save Matt Leinart from Green Room hell and this is a great pick for them. They need a QB that will last through the year and Kurt Warner isn’t it. Matt Leinart is ready to go today and he’ll fill the seats in the new Cardinals stadium. On the flip side, the Cardinals are a cursed wretched franchise so this might not be good news for Matt. By staying in school for an extra year, Leinart cost himself about $15 in guaranteed money. Ouch.
(9) The Lions take Ernie Sims, a concussion prone LB instead of a QB. So now the Lions still don’t have a franchise QB to throw the ball to the 487 WRs they’ve taken in the past 3 years. Leinart just got a call from Aaron Rogers.
(8) We have the first reach of the draft as the Bills take Donte Whitner who most people had in the 20s. Mike Mayock just said that the Bills had a lot of courage to take a guy who most people didn’t believe belonged in the top 10. Courage? Hmmm, we were thinking of another word. Matt Leinart is crying right now in the bathroom.
(7) Matt Leinart quickly becoming the Aaron Rogers of this year’s draft as the Raiders take Michael Huff to stablize their secondary. This means they actually think Aaron Brooks is their solution at QB. Al Davis must be happy to come in last in the AFC West.
(6) Vernon Davis goes to the Niners. Now, maybe Alex Smith can throw more than 1 TD this season. Again, no surprises in this draft outside of the first pick by the Texans.
(5) No surprise at #5 as the Packers take AJ Hawk. No brainer on this pick. I’m sure Brett Favre approved this pick.
(4) Jets take D’Brickashaw Ferguson over Matt Leinart and the Jets faithful are happy. It’s more fun to watch them melt down and boo.
(3) The Titans take Vince Young over Matt Leinart, which might mean that Leinart drops further into the first round because if Norm Chow didn’t want him, the rest of the teams might be wondering what’s wrong with him. Also, the Titans taking Young might just mean they overvalue their own ability to develop a quarterback. Hubris has been the downfall of many a coaching staff.
(2) The Saints take advantage of their gift from god and select Reggie Bush with the second pick. What if this makes the Saints a winning franchise like the 90’s Bulls? This is almost too surreal to be true. In his interview, Reggie Bush doesn’t seem all that excited to be part of the Saints.
-Flipping over to ESPN for a second, we hear Chris Berman on how teams think they have a shot at trading up to get Reggie Bush now: “THAT’S WHY THEY HAVE THE DRAFT.” Gee, thanks, Boomer. Can the NFL Network PLEASE somehow get Mel Kiper?
(1) There it is folks. At 12:12 EST, the Texans have made the biggest mistake in the history of the draft with Mario Williams. And that includes all the Jets mistakes. What an absolutely insane moment. Lots of boos coming from the crowd.
-We’ll live blog this thing for as long as we can take it but the ESPN intro might have been the indication that this is going to be a very short entry. It was absolutely the lamest thing we’ve ever seen. Then Chris Berman comes on and we are going to the NFL Network’s coverage. But before that, we caught Berman calling Vince Young “mercurial” – which we didn’t know meant “stupid”.
Now, as Suzy interviews Mario Williams, we know it’s time to switch to channel 212.
