Final thoughts on the 2007 draft…

Back at the end of the 2000 draft one lonely little-known draft analyst stood at the back of an almost deserted MSG draft room and proclaimed to anyone who would listen: “Where is everybody going? We’re just getting started!” And with another draft – our tenth here at the GBN – that’s kind of how we are feeling at this moment, although Saturday’s 6-hour plus opening round certainly put us to the test.

In the end, the draft went off pretty off pretty much by the numbers save perhaps for the unexpected precipitous fall of Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn who almost inexplicably lasted until the 22nd pick. If there was an emerging trend, though, it was the lack of trades at the very top of the board. Indeed, if there ever was a year where trades should have taken place with a number of apparent mismatches between team needs and BPAs on the board for teams making early picks. However, for the second year in a row there were no trades involving top ten selections. What this may mean is that given the steep gradation in contract expectations of players taken with early picks, teams have come to the conclusion that trading up in the top 10 just doesn’t make economic sense any more.

SEC leads the way… After something of an off-year in 2006, the SEC reclaimed its title as the most talented conference in college football this past weekend. Fueled by a big first round, the SEC led all conferences with a total of 41 players selected including 21 on the first-day, 11 of which came in the opening round. The latter figure was almost double the total of 6 players both the ACC and Big 10 had taken, while the big 12 had four and the Big East two. Overall, the Big 10 trailed the SEC with 33 total picks, followed in close order by the ACC with 29, the Big XII ith 28 and the Pac-10 with 27. Meanwhile, the Big East had 17 players, only one more than the emerging WAC which had 16 players taken including 5 from Hawaii. Among the other conferences, the Mountain West had 11 players selected, while the MAC had 8, Conference USA had 6 and the Sun Belt had 5.

Gators still the champs… As befits the defending national champions, Florida led all schools with 9 players selected at this weekend’s draft. Fittingly, the Gators edged out BCS title game loser Ohio State which had eight players taken, followed by Michigan, Texas and Notre Dame with 7 each and Tennessee with 6. LSU, though, dominated the first round when four former Tigers were selected including QB Jamarcus Russell the #1 player selected, however, only one other LSU players was taken the rest of the way. And while Florida led all schools in players picked, it wasn’t all peaches and cream for the Gators. QB Chris Leak and OLB Earl Everett weren’t selected at all, and several other former Gators including LB Brandon Siler, WR Dallas Baker and RB DeShawn Wynn, each of whom wasn’t taken until the 7th round,went considerably later than originally projected.

Lucky or unlucky 13… When New England selected Miami FS Brandon Meriweather with the 24th pick on Saturday it signaled the 13th straight year that the Hurricanes have had at least one player chosen in the draft’s opening round. Meanwhile, the slide of Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn to the latter part of the opening round meant that that Notre Dame has not had a top 10 pick since 1994. Quinn, though, was the first former Irish to be selected in the opening round since 2003.

Big is better… The 2007 draft offered further proof that the draft is still very much the preserve of Division 1A schools. This year, just over 90% of all players taken at this weekend’s draft were from Division 1-A schools with almost 70% coming from the BCS schools alone. Even the 7th round, which once was where teams went hunting for sleepers, was dominated by D1A schools with only 6 of 45 picks in that round coming from lower levels.

Still, players from other levels had their moments with 25 being selected this year. Just three of those, though, were selected on the opening day. Hampton LB Justin Durant was the first non-D1A player to be selected, going 48th overall to Jacksonville in the second round, while WRs Jacoby Jones of Lane and Illinois State’s Laurent Robinson were third round picks by Houston and Atlanta respectively.

Shoulda stood in school… There were decidedly mixed results for the 45 or so underclassmen who left school early to enter this year’s draft. On the one hand, juniors Jamarcus Russell of LSU and Georgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson were the first two players selected this year, while 5 of the 10 top picks were also underclassmen. In fact, 14 underclassmen were taken in this weekend’s opening round. A number of juniors who had expected to go in the opening round, though, dropped into the second round including USC WR Dwayne Jarrett, Michigan DT Alan Branch, South Carolina WR Sidney Rice, Arizona State TE Zach Miller, and Arkansas CB Chris Houston. And several other juniors did not go anywhere near as highly as expected. They may have been the lucky ones, however, as 13 underclassmen weren’t drafted at all including Notre Dame RB Darius Walker, Wake Forest LB Jon Abbate, San Diego State DE Allen Applewhite, Ole Miss LB Rory Johnson and Charleston Southern WR Marcus Price. The message for underclassmen leaving school is obviously buyer beware!

Treading lightly where others dare to tread… In previous years we graded each team’s draft however on reflection trying to put a numerical grade on a draft class that will in fact take 2-3 years to develop wqas right up there with herding cats. That said, it was not hard not to like some teams drafts this weekend and scratch one’s head a tad with others.

In fact, we really liked the drafts of a half dozen teams including San Francisco, Atlanta, Minnesota, Cleveland, Carolina and St. Louis. The 49ers, for example, got a couple of legitimate first rounders in MLB Patrick Willis and OT Joe Staley, both of whom have big upside. Meanwhile, Atlanta entered the draft looking to make a big splash by trying to trade up to get hometown hero Calvin Johnson early in the first round. That never panned out, but the Falcons made up for some lost ground in the second round when they got DE Jamaal Anderson in the first and Texas OG Justin Blalock and Arkansas CB Chris Houston in the second round; all three had carried first-round grades into the draft. Minnesota also has a potentially the best overall draft class with the addition of RB Adrian Peterson, WR Sidney Rice and CB Marcus McCauley, however, the Vikings elation will be tempered by the fact that team doctors will evaluate Peterson in the next few days to see if he needs possible season-ending surgery to repair that injured collarbone. For its part, Cleveland also got three first-round quality prospects in OT Joe Thomas, QB Brady Quinn and CB Eric Wright, although the Browns did pay a heavy price to make the move up to get Quinn by sending Dallas their 2008 first rounder, while Wright was a character issue gamble.

Meanwhile, other teams which appear to have solid drafts include both New York teams, Jacksonville, Arizona, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Oakland, and Detroit. Dallas also added several players who should contribute, plus get a ton of bonus points for picking up a likely top 5-10 pick at the 2008 draft for dropping down all of four spots late in the opening round. New England also had an interesting draft highlighted by the acquisition of Randy Moss for a measly 4th rounder from Oakland. The Patriots also picked up two extra picks at the 2008 draft, including a likely mid first rounder from the 49ers. However, for all their wheeling and dealing the Patriots don’t appear to have gotten much from their actual 2007 picks than Miami FS Brandon Meriweather who comes with his own set of issues.

On the other hand, it was harder to get excited by the drafts of Denver, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Philadelphia, while we’ll wait and see on Green Bay and Tennessee. At least Denver did corner the market on players with character issues taking Florida defensive linemen Jarvis Moss and Marcus Thomas in the 1st and 4th rounds respectively. What was most perplexing was that the Broncos traded up to get both Moss and Thomas neither of whom appeared to be going anywhere else any time soon. Time will tell though.

If you have comments or suggestions, e-mail the Editor, Great Blue North Draft Report. The GBN can also be reached by phone at (613) 727-3388; by fax at (613) 951-0387; or regular mail at PO Box 5282 Merivale Depot, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2C 3H5.

Great Blue North Draft Report Privacy Policy.

The GREAT BLUE NORTH DRAFT REPORT is a division of SQUITERLAND ENTERPRISES, Ottawa, Ontario,Canada