The NFL Draft is still weeks away, but already the talking heads on the sports shows are talking about little else.<\/p>\n
I always follow the draft, but this year, for a change, I won’t have to wait for four hours for my teams to make a pick.<\/p>\n
The Giants were supposed to be Superbowl contenders last season.\u00a0 Instead they finished 3-13, so they have the second overall pick in the draft.<\/p>\n
The Jets were supposed to be really really really bad last season, go winless, and get the first overall pick.\u00a0 Well, no, turns out they were just bad, not really really bad, so they got the sixth overall pick.\u00a0 Last month, however, they made a trade with the Colts, gave up some picks, and move on up to #3… aiming for a quarterback, clearly.\u00a0 This is supposed to be an unusually good quarterback class.<\/p>\n
So my teams are picking second and third.\u00a0 The hapless Cleveland Browns are first, where they usually are.\u00a0 Also fourth.\u00a0 So Gang Green and the G-Men are in a sort of Browns sandwich.<\/p>\n
So… if I was\u00a0 a GM (I’m not) or an owner, who would I pick?<\/p>\n
Most of the mocks have Cleveland taking qb Sam Darnold with the first pick.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s the highest rated of the four big quarterbacks that year.\u00a0 Assuming Darnold is off the table, I am hoping the Giants take running back Saquon Barkley with the second pick.\u00a0 Yes, lots of folks want Big Blue to grab Eli’s successor, but I don’t.\u00a0 Eli still has some good years.\u00a0 He’s won us two Lombardi Trophies, I would rather see us build around him and make a run for a third than start rebuilding already.\u00a0 Barkley is supposed to be a surefire Hall of Famer, a generational talent, better than Todd Gurley or Ezekial Elliott or any other RB to come out in the last decade… and gods know, Eli could benefit from a running game.\u00a0\u00a0 He hasn’t had one since Ahmed Bradshaw moved on.<\/p>\n
There’s also a lot of talk that the Giants might trade down, and harvest a lot of extra picks from some team wanting to jump ahead of the Jets.\u00a0 That would be okay too, provided (1) they get enough for it, and (2) they don’t go any lower than #6.\u00a0 Given the likely run on QBs at the top of the draft, if the G-Men stay at #6 higher, they can land either Barkley, the monster DE pass rusher Chubb, or the road grader guard out of Notre Dame, Nelson.\u00a0 Any of those would be fine.\u00a0 If they go down below #6, though, they could miss out on all three, and no amount of second- and third-rounders would make that worthwhile.<\/p>\n
As for the Jets… they definitely need to take a quarterback at #3. \u00a0 Which one, though?\u00a0 Darnold will be gone, so the choice comes down to the two Joshs (Allen and Rosen), and Baker Mayfield out of Oklahoma.\u00a0 I like Rosen, but he makes me nervous.\u00a0 His injury history, especially the concussions, is worrisome.\u00a0 The last thing the Jets need is another terrific, smart, accurate signal caller whose career is cut short by injuries.\u00a0 Been there, done that.\u00a0 See Pennington, Chad.\u00a0 No, I’d take Baker Mayfield.\u00a0 Yeah, he’s “short” (six feet is short?), but he’s accurate, he’s fiery, he has “intangibles.”\u00a0 He reminds some people of Johnny Manziel, but that’s wrong.\u00a0 He’s closer to Brett Favre.\u00a0 I’ll take that.\u00a0 Broadway Baker… why the hell not?\u00a0 Bake us A SuperBowl!\u00a0 The Jets have been waiting since 1969.<\/p>\n
((And no, if I were the Giants, I would NOT trade Odell.\u00a0 I am already pissed that they traded JPP.\u00a0 Didn’t get enough for him either)).<\/p>\n
((Comments welcome… on topic.\u00a0 That means NFL football and the draft.\u00a0 Off topic comments will be nuked)).<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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