The 2013 NFL Thread

[OEP]

Okay it's time for the bottom 4 teams for the 2013 draft. It was going to be 5 but I decided to round it down to 4 because these teams really stood out to me and I would've just been adding a fifth team just to make it 5 teams.

Some of these teams had real stinkers while others just missed the mark, again there were teams that could've substituted in for some of these teams but in the end these were the ones that gave me the biggest WTF response to their draft picks.

Without further ado I bring you (drum role please) the bottom 4.

Dallas Cowboys

The draft picks -
Travis Frederick
Gavin Escobar
Terrance Williams
J.J.Wilcox
B.W.Webb
Joseph Randle
DeVonte Holloman

After giving such a massive (and unjustified) contract to Romo you would've thought upgrading their OL at the Tackle and Guard position would be high on their agenda. I mean why pay the guy so much money to throw the ball but not have an OL in front of him that can provide him suitable time to throw the damn thing. So with that in mind they took a Centre (Frederick) in the 1st round that they could've nabbed him late in the 3rd or early in the 4th and instead grabbed Menelik Watson (who can play both Tackle and Guard and was taken in the 2nd round), or Larry Warford (Guard who was taken in the 3rd), or Terron Armstead (can play Tackle or Guard and was taken in the 3rd). Given the fact they had two 3rd round picks and much, much bigger needs on the OL this was a massive waste and an epic reach on a player.
Escobar is a solid TE with fantastic hands with smooth route running action and as most experts point out he's basically a glorified WR and as such his ability to play in blocking formations is limited to non existent, because to put it simply he can't block. Not a bad pick but again there was so much more available to them that would've been of greater value.
Williams is a solid pick in the 3rd, a great WR who'll do very well in the NFL but again his not really a needed player with the Cowboys having Dez Bryant and Miles Austin as their starting receivers and some decent depth behind them.
Wilcox I like, he's listed as a FS but played WR, RB and KR in college so he's a multi-skilled player who will offer depth at multiple positions and could push for the starter FS position. BUT, again, there was soooooooooo much available at this point that would've been of greater value to the Cowboys.
Webb is a CB that will make his greatest impact in the return game.
Randle (yay) finally a decent pick. Took until the 5th round but at least they finally got there. This is a guy that could take the top spot from Demarco Murray but at the very least will provide a high quality no.2 RB for the Cowboys.
Holloman was a SS that moved to the OLB position so for the NFL he may be a little undersized. A project player that could be a real steal in the future.
The Cowboys needed OL, DL and LB players and haven't addressed these needs to any real degree. Could've been a great draft for the Cowboys with smarter decision made but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Cleveland Browns

To be fair to the Browns they didn't have a lot of wiggle room in this draft after trading their 2nd rounder for Josh Gordon but that doesn't mean you can't get value for picks even at the back end of the draft.

The draft picks -
Barkevious Mingo
Leon McFadden
Jamoris Slaughter
Armonty Bryant
Garrett Gilkey

Mingo has wonderful talent but is to small for the NFL to play every down and runs the risk of been devoured by bigger OL. Personally I think he's a season or two of bulking up from making a real impact in the NFL and considering the Brown need help now and at different positions I think they could've traded back, picked up some quality late picks and still stayed in the 1st round, then grabbed a player later who could've been of just as much value and given them extra picks. I can't say it's a bad pick but I just thought they could've done a lot better.
McFadden is a quality pick and a needed one in the 3rd round. Great pick.
Slaughter and Gilkey could've been picked up after the draft and Bryant has undisputed talent but was arrested in his senior year for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer so there has to be concerns about his ability to stay out of trouble.

Given the fact they needed help at a lot of positions it seems a waste to take Mingo, who in reality is a project player, with the 6th pick instead of trading down and collecting some real value for later in the 2013 draft or even the 2014 draft. The other picks, aside from McFadden, seem to be picks made by throwing darts at a dart board. A wasted opportunity to really have a productive draft given the deep talent pool in this draft.

Buffalo Bills

The Bills had the opportunity to have an amazing draft with a 1st round, two 2nd round, and a 3rd and 4th round picks in this draft but instead fell asleep and when they woke up realised the other teams had made their picks for them

The draft picks -
E.J.Manuel
Robert Woods
Kiko Alonso
Marquise Goodwin
Duke Williams
Jonathan Meeks
Dustin Hopkins
Chris Gragg

Were the hell do you start with this draft...oh yeah the first pick. Seriously WTF, they may very well have rated Manuel highly but no one else did so they could've grabbed him much later in the draft. Lets put it this way Geno Smith went in the 2nd round, Mike Glennon in the 3rd round, Matt Barkley in the 4th round and these were the only QB's taken to that point and all of them were rated higher than Manuel. Even after the Bills 4th rounder Ryan Nassib and Tyler Wilson were taken (both rated much higher than Manuel) so it's safe to say he would've been available for them to take with their 4th round pick or even 5th. Also no one and I mean no one was talking about Manuel before or during the draft so they had no reason to reach like that. He may turn out to be a fantastic QB (doubt it) but instead of being a (future) 4th round steal with the Bills being able to grab first round talent with their first pick they went the other way and have put Manuel under intense pressure to succeed and immediately. Terrible pick.
Woods may be their only decent pick in this draft and should make an immediate impact in the NFL. He's not elite but a solid WR.
Alonso was suspended the entire 2010 season for a DUI arrest, then sat out the 2011 openers after breaking into someone else's house and passing out intoxicated (anyone seeing an alcohol pattern here ), plus he has a history of injury. He has talent but with his alcohol and injury history he could've been taken much later in the draft. Another wasted pick.
Goodwin is a small (size and height) WR who'll likely get beat up by the bigger NFL CB's plus he doesn't have great hands or great route running ability. His greatest attributes are his speed and leap which while valuable won't help if he can't improve his catching. Again if they wanted to improve their WR stocks there were much better options available to them like Markus Wheaton or Quinton Patton. Wasted pick.
Williams is another player with off field problems and lacks size for a FS. This is a classic case were their 1st round pick could've been one of the high quality FS's and Manuel, instead, taken with this pick, added to this the fact (again) there were much better players available who could've helped the team immediately.
Meeks and Gragg won't help but Hopkins should be an excellent NFL kicker.

Needless to say if not for the Woods and Hopkins picks this could've been a totally wasted draft but at least they get the honour of worst 2013 NFL draft

New York Jets

I personally believed the Jets greatest needs lay on the offensive side of the field needing help at WR, RB, OL and TE. A lot has been made of Sanchez and his ability or lack thereof as a QB but to be fair to him he has a OL that allows defences to belt the hell out of him every week, no decent targets to throw to and the backfield wasn't a decent enough threat to make the defences play honest against the run. Any QB in that situation will struggle to produce decent numbers. The defence however was still pretty solid even after the loss of Darrelle Revis so they could've focussed on their offensive woes.

The draft picks -
Dee Milliner
Sheldon Richardson
Geno Smith
Brian Winters
Oday Aboushi
William Campbell
Tommy Bohanon

You can't say Milliner is a bad pick for them in the first round but the pressure will be on him because everyone will see him as the next Darrell Revis, which is unfair, and if he's not an instant star will call him a failure. That aside it was well known the Jets had their eye on Tavon Austin and it was equally well known that the Rams had their eye on him so given they had the number 9 pick it wouldn't have cost them much to make the move to 8 when the draft panned out that way to block the Rams trade for the 8th pick (it was also strongly rumoured the Rams were going to make this trade). They could've traded out their 13th pick and 3rd round pick (or maybe a little more) and moved up to the 8th pick giving them both picks and both players. As I said you can't say it was a bad pick but it could've been so much more.
Richardson has a lot of upside but has injury concerns plus lacks elite strength which means the bigger NFL OL may be able to move him around, plus he's more a pass rusher than run stopper which for a DT isn't ideal. Add to all this the Jets aren't really in need of a DT or DL so while, again, you can't say it's a bad pick one of the high end offensive prospects would've been better like a OL.
Geno Smith in the 2nd round is again like the other two pick were you can't say it's a bad pick but it wasn't a position in need. Smith has talent to be productive at the next level but he isn't elite and as I've said before this draft was full of backup QB's which I believe he's one of. Also he walks into a QB circus with the Sanchez business and the Tebow manic mania, which while Tebow is gone people will irrationably see Smith as the reason he had to go, and Smith is already garnishing enough bad press about his attitude of his own (which I believe isn't deserved) to only add to this poor situation. The Jets would be better off taking an offensive player here and giving Sanchez more opportunity to be successful in 2014 and if unable to produce with more offensive weapons around him then make a play for one of the better QB's in the 2014 NFL draft.
Winters is a solid and needed pick in the 3rd round and should develop into a very good Tackle even though he's listed as a Guard.
Aboushi is great and needed pick in the 5th as a Tackle.
Campbell and Bohanon seem to depth or Practice Squad players.

With the Jets being blessed with two high end 1st round picks (9 and 13) plus front end 2nd and 3rd round picks the Jets were primed, even more so than the 49ers, to really shake this draft up and grab some needed offensive talent. Unfortunately that didn't happen and while they got some quality players they missed on making this an outstanding draft which is why they rate in my bottom 4.

Well that's that. Here's to it being another great NFL season in 2014 and more importantly that the 49ers win the SuperBowl .

[OEP]

Mod's, I'm assuming it was a moderator that made the change in my above post, in the future if I make a mistake like that in one of my posts instead of making an "I'm a racist" remark in it's place how about you correct the obvious mistake or PM me.

If you read the line it obvious it was meant to read bigger not with an "n" in front. That is easily figured out given the fact the letters sit next to each other on the key board.

[Pies4shaw]

Thanks for all the analysis, OEP. You know that I am - like many others - very appreciative of your efforts.

I am still digesting your observations about the draft.

In the meantime, I thought I should post a link to the news every Packer fan wants to read:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9277037/green-bay-packers-want-brett-favre-back-family-mark-murphy-says

I may be able to get out the "Favre 4Ever" t-shirt again sooner rather than later.

[OEP]

Yeah read that earlier this week. Hope it works for both of them because the bad blood between Green Bay and their former favourite son was unfortunate and Green Bay and its fans never really got to celebrate Favre's career because of the way it ended.

Did you watch the video with Stephen Smith discussing Favre, hilarious , I love listening to Smith he's a real sh%t stirrer who mixes insightful comments with a bit of pot stirring and it's a lot of fun to hear.

[Pies4shaw]

No, I didn't but I will, given your recommendation. As long as he isn't realistic about Favre's actual standing in the list of all-time greatest QBs, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

[Funkadelic]

Thanks OEP, if you could provide those links they sound very helpful! It's certainly a lot of information to take in but I'm lovin it. Haha yeah I saw Stephen A and skip going off about farve, tank johnson is sitting there just laughing at them!

[OEP]

[Funkadelic]

^ thanks for those, been pretty busy the last few days but will have a read through them.

[OEP]

Sometimes I just wonder if I'm a cursed supporter:

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2013/5/23/4357414/michael-crabtree-injury-49ers-anquan-boldin

Collingwood and now this with my 49ers

[Funkadelic]

That sucks man. Interesting stat of kapaernick's 10 starts, he went for Crabtree 94 times, more than vernon davis and randy moss combined. I guess the only positive is Crabtree would be getting a lot of attention from the opposition defence so now maybe it's a bit less predictable. Having said that brutal to lose your no 1 target.

[OEP]

[Pies4shaw]

Here's some better news for the 49ers, OEP:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000208405/article/san-francisco-49ers-hire-eric-mangini-as-consultant

Doesn't make up for losing a wide receiver of Crabtree's quality but with a QB with a powerful arm I reckon Boldin will be a huge downfield threat, anyway - just like he was for the Ravens when it counted last season.

[OEP]

Yeah it's a great move by my 49ers. They've added more quality to an already quality laden coaching staff and most likely got Greg Roman's replacement already in place and learning the role for when he departs for his own senior coaching role next season.

The 49ers front office are really gaining a deserved reputation as being shrewd, forward thinking organisation.

[Funkadelic]

Seen mangini on espn doing special comments for the past year, not surprised at all he got picked up. So was he the head coach at New York jets before Rex Ryan? What was he like as a head coach?

[OEP]