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When newly drafted players join their NFL teams this season, the coaches, system and competition each encounters will have a huge influence on how quickly they can make an impact. Here’s a look at the best and worst fits for players drafted in 2012. Note: this isn’t an assessment of good or bad picks, but rather an analysis of the best and worst marriages between player and team with regards to maximizing each player’s potential.
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He came out of nowhere to win the Ted Hendricks Award as the best Defensive End in all of college football. He rose from obscurity to become an All-American at Illinois. Now Whitney Mercilus is a member of the Houston Texans, joining fellow Big Ten alum J.J. Watt of the Wisconsin Badgers as the men who will fill the pass-rushing void left by the departed 2006 #1 overall draft selection Mario Williams.
Mercilus story is an uplifting one. Watch this moving GIF of the celebration at his house when he got the call.
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Doesn’t it seem like the New England Patriots go out of their way EVERY season to trade down and acquire more picks? Every year, they’re a fun team to watch on draft day, because they always seem to end up with more picks than anyone else. In 2012, even more so, because they have four picks in the first two rounds.
And even though they were just one Wes Welker drop, or perhaps one inexplicable Tom Brady interception, away from winning the whole thing, they still have a ton of needs (as losing to the worst world champion in sports history taught us). First and foremost are DB, pass rushing in the front seven, depth at OT and OG, and maybe another running back.
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A lot of people have Michael Floyd of Notre Dame mocked to the Chicago Bears in their mock drafts. SO before delving into who I have the Bears taking, I should explain why I don’t have them grabbing Floyd; using excerpts from my mock draft to break it all down.
Follow paulmbanks1. Andrew Luck, Stanford (6-4, 234): There’s not much to say about Luck that hasn’t been said. He’s the best quarterback prospect since the man he will be replacing in Indianapolis. [Read more…]
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1. Melvin Ingram, South Carolina (6-2, 264): One of the most versatile defensive lineman in the draft, Ingram could play in both the 3-4 as an OLB or speed DE, as well as play the traditional 4-3 defensive end. Ingram has pro-ready hand technique and frequently gets his man off balance. Prediction: Top-15
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It is extremely boring, there’s no doubt. It’s nothing more than watching guys in tights run sprints and do some measured jumps on a football field. It’s colloquially being referred to as the “Spandex Super Bowl.” Yet for the second consecutive year more than 6.5 million viewers tuned in to NFL Network’s exclusive coverage of the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine Presented by Under Armour (6.51 million in 2012, 6.55 million in 2011).
Those totals represent large jumps over 2010 (5.2 million viewers) and 2007 (3.7 million viewers), according to The Nielsen Company.
America must really crave football is they’re willing to watch this.
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Yes, I know the Rams are going to trade this pick! I get that. And it’s likely going to be to the Browns. Or the Redskins, or to whoever wants Robert Griffin 3 the most, but I don’t do trades in my mock. So let’s look at where they might go, if they don’t deal the pick.
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