On this morning's ESPN First Take, the show took all six of its Cover Two reporters, put them in a war room and had them come up with a consensus mock draft. I know, I know, never can have enough of those.
Of course, I'm promoting this only because Newsday’s NFL columnist Bob Glauber – a longtime ESPN contributor dating back, and I might have my dates mixed up here, to 1984 – was among those in the ersatz war room.
Anyway, here’s the consensus of picks 1-7, with the panel guaranteed to at least have the first pick right.
Miami: Jake Long
St. Louis: Glenn Dorsey
Atlanta: Matt Ryan
Oakland: Darren McFadden
Kansas City: Chris Long
Jets: Vernon Gholston
New England: trading down with the Saints who pick Sedrick Ellis
If you missed Glauber this morning, here’s a Jets draft video he did with newsday.com’s Adam Abramson, a burgeoning Mel Kiper Jr. in terms of draft knowledge who facially has been trying to resemble Merlin Olsen [the Olsen of mid-80’s NBC fame]. Also, lots in Newsday today on the draft: Glauber did his mock draft; I wrote about the Jets trading D-Rob [could have sworn I heard canon fire across Jets Nation afterward] and Darren McFadden’s vibe regarding Saturday’s draft; Johnette Howard offered her thoughts about the Jets draft and Tom Rock wrote about the prospects of Jeremy Shockey getting dealt by the Giants.
Glauber and Abramson, by the way, will be live-blogging tomorrow’s draft starting around 2. Not sure what Abramson will blog about from 2-3 seeing that the draft starts at 3, but I covered the Heisman Trophy awards ceremony the last two years with him and each time he started his blog more than an hour before the festivities began. Expect lots on the pre-draft buffet, but some really good stuff once the draft gets underway.
Finally, to steal from Eric Mangini, there's some housekeeping I neglected to get to late yesterday. Lost in the headliner of the Jets finally dealing D-Rob was the release of four players: RB Alvin Banks (James Madison), CB Manny Collins (Rutgers), LB Jerry Mackey (Syracuse), and WR Shaine Smith (Hofstra). No shockers there.
Housekeeping item No. 2: Jay R., that takes some major brass defending Dewayne Robertson in the comments section here. Admirable.
And with that, tomorrow afternoon can't get here soon enough. All the pre-draft talk is great, but let's get it on already. As I've previously said, I go with McFadden if he's available but it would be tough to rip the Jets if they go with a pass rusher or cornerback, two huge areas of need.
Comments (10)
I think this whole McFadden thing is a smokescreen. Another smokescreen is the Ryan thing. Bottomline, with the 6th pick, Jets need to go defensive line. Either Long, Gholston, Dorsey, or Ellis. Trade down for CB or RB help.
I don't think it's going to be Gholston. Davis will remove the temptation of McFadden and I would personally like to see the Jets take that corner from Troy. I read a lot about him not being worth a 6 pick, but maybe an 8-15. WTF? If he's the right guy, just get him. I'm not sold on the idea of Ryan. I think both Clemens and Penny were victimized by a week suporting cast last year, so give them one more to work it behind a real o-line.
Roger u make no sense man. if u say they need rb help y not get the best one in the draft.
Enough with the D line. The bottom line is that the Jets need some players capable of making offensive plays. They need opposing defenses to say "wait, we can't get beat by that guy."
McFadden is that type of player.
If he's not there, I'm not saying we pass up Gholston. But we need a QB and a RB that scare people. We have neither. I like Thomas Jones. I really do. But he doesn't scare anyone. Pennington is a pure leader - defenses know he's not really going to beat them with any bomb. Clemens hasn't shown much.
It's time to rev it up a bit. We've worked on our lines and this first round pick needs to be on a player that can strike fear in an opponent. It needs to be McFadden. From there, we can work on CB and additional help on the d line.
But we need someone to give opposing defenses pause. I'd like to think our offseason moves and our moves the past drafts have us well enough ready to choose an offensive player with this kind of talent. McFadden it is. And then we hope he's mature enough to handle NY.
A good defense makes an offense a helluva a lot better. The quicker they get off the field, the easier it is for the offense to establish its rhythm. Short fields don't hurt either. Chad Pennington was able to score enough points to take this team to the playoffs two years ago. The line is improved and the running back situation is better now than it was in 2006.
Conversely, an offense that sits on the bench is an offense that doesn't score. If the Jets enter the year with this current crop of cornerbacks, their quarterback will spend his time watching David Barrett yield another first down. Oops. Another first down. Damn! Another first down. D'oh! another one...
yea great job erik boland....i see u have a lot of interesting articles about the draft coming up 2day. NOT!
Given the Jets recent history of marginal players selected within the top six picks I look at all the 'experts' who comment on which of the top rated players have the most potential to be busts. I base this on Terry Bradway, who still is the top college evaluator, penchant for falling in love with 'athletes' and his tendency to minimize actual NCAA performance.
Making a valid assumption that the Jets will continue their same failed draft philosophy there are two players who clearly have the most upside for being a bust and for the same reasons the Jets selected DeWayne Robertson and D'Brickasha Ferguson with htir very high first round picks.
Darren McFadden. World class athlete who can't break tackles and led the NCAA over the past three seasons in fumbles by a RB (see Blair Thomas).
Vernon Gholston. The most gifted, at least athletically, pass rusher in the draft. Wowed the scouts with his 40 times, bench presses, vertical leaps etc. Scouts who think he has an upside for being a bust noted that, like DeWayne Robertson, he goes long stretches where he is invisible, occasionally punctuated by Sportscenter highlight sack...See 'Bowling Ball with a Butcher Knife'.
If either Gholsten or McFadden winds up being the pick, and given the Jets recent draft history get ready for a few years of, 'He's a good kid, whose making progress, we don't regret selecting him at all'.
Don't screw up
If chris long falls, i have a tough time seeing the raiders passing him up. al davis loved his dad and he will take long. true, mcfadden is a trophy, but if he falls to six, the jets have to take him. Look at what he did to that LSU defense the day after Thanksgiving. LSU won a national title and he ran right through them. True, Dorsey was hurt, but that was a team that won it all.
Gholston scares me for one reason: Ohio State played in two national title games the last two years and you never heard of the guy. herm will take him because of how he is a John Abraham type player.
Can't see the Falcons taking Ryan at 3. This Atlanta GM comes from the Belichick school of don't pick QBs too high. Ryan won't go past 8 and I see either the Jets making a deal with Baltimore or Carolina for that pick.
man you have a crush on bob glauber dont you...every post it seems like you are promoting his blog or his doings...