Filling the NFL Draft Information Thirst/Vacuum

Is it so bad that the ridiculous actually shows up:

Zach Wilson Might Not Be Trevor Lawrence, But He Isn't Far Off

Zach Wilson close to Lawrence? Sorry, I'm just an armchair fan but I saw BYU go down to play Coastal Florida when Coastal was undefeated and so was BYU. Wilson is a fine player but he couldn't make the plays needed to win, and he had the chance. His throws late were off and BYU lost. He's a fine athlete but he didn't seem to have the skills and athleticism of Lawrence.

I'm no McShay/Kiper or any guy/girl breaking down the All-22 but Lawrence v. Wilson seems like a mismatch; certainly a $50M decision that seems easy enough.

 

McShay liked Jordan Love over Herbert a year ago.

 

The less the general public knows about a guy, the better he his.

 

To be fair, we still have no idea if Jordan Love is any good or not, and might never find out if he stays in Green Bay.

 

Weird thing about McShay's affection for Love. McShay said that at the start of the 2019 season, Love wasn't really that high on his list. Then Love goes out and has a crappy (statistically speaking, at least) season - 20 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. What in all of that caused him to skyrocket up McShay's list?

 

With Kiper there used to be a connection to some of his positive evaluations, most notably Jimmy Clausen, and the fact that they shared agents.

 

Kiper might be the biggest fraud in the football world.

 

These guys are about as good as the weekly NFL gambling guys.

 

Going to have to strongly and respectfully disagree with you there, sir. Ernie Accorsi, for one, didn't think he was a fraud when he offered Kiper Jr. a job in personnel.

I think for every big whiff of Kiper Jr.'s ("See you in Canton" when Mike Williams is inducted, Andre Ware, Jimmy Clausen and so on - I think I have the most egregious misses down pat), I bet I could cite an instance in which his projection was accurate and/or his justification for his opinion made 100 percent sense. (Verifying this balance sheet would require, of course, watching every moment of Kiper Jr. for the last 30-plus years ... and, yes, that's what heaven is to me.)

My belief is that compared with 30 years ago, Kiper Jr. has been urged to ratchet down some of the stridency of his opinions, so we get fewer opportunities to measure his evaluation skills. (And, of course, there's always the "fit" of a player to a team ... maybe Joey Harrington really could have succeeded in the NFL - had a team devoted seven or eight players to blocking every time he dropped back, a la Oregon.)

A couple of other thoughts:
-Kiper Jr. paid/pays the price ... he knew/knows which prospects (second- and third-day picks) should be ready for video treatment upon their selection.
-A stupidly overused word in the business world is "disrupter." And those who are disrupters (or, perhaps more precisely, those who view themselves as "disrupters"), tend to be over-fellated solely because of their association with this magic word. I'd put forth that Kiper Jr. was a disrupter, one who essentially created his own industry. (No, I don't want to over-fellate him. Or fellate him - period.)

Story from a player in our coverage area. He was at one of the postseason all-star bowls (Senior Bowl, maybe?), rooming with a teammate who ended up being a first-round draft pick. "Our" player told me that when Kiper Jr. came into their room to talk, he broke down things with the future first-rounder, finished, and without missing a beat, turned to the evaluation of "our" player - who couldn't have been much more different in terms of position or draft prospects. No consulting of notes, no regrouping or reorienting ... Kiper Jr. was ready to pivot from analyzing a future first-round draft pick at one position to a low-round (at best) draft pick at a seismically different position. He knows what he's talking about.

 

That is a terrific story.

 

I'm curious of how the QBs in this draft is going to shake down.

The only thing we know is that Trevor Lawrence will be Jaguar. Beyond that the Jets and Falcons look likely to draft a QB. Philly and Denver seem to be QB needy. Dallas might be put in a position where they have to draft a QB if the stalemate with Prescott continues. Washington and Chicago and maybe New Orleans might be in the QB market too.

There are five QBs that seem like 1st round locks -- Lawrence, Wilson, Fields, Lance and Jones. Kyle Trask might be a 6th if a team really likes him or gets a little panicky and I'm sure there's someone else out there.

 

ESPN has gone all-in on the draft this year, even more than normal. It elevated Kiper and McShay to senior roles. It hired Matt Miller and seems to be pushing Jim Nagy more than past years.

For as repetitive as draft coverage tends to be, it’s interesting to hear how all over the place “experts” are on Mac Jones more than anyone else. Like, everyone thinks Lawrence will be a stud. We’ve kinda become resigned to the fact that Wilson is QB2 but Fields isn’t far behind. Trey Lance has huge upside; no interceptions in 2019, never faced an FBS team, blah, blah, blah, everyone says the same things. Then, there’s Mac Jones. Some people love him, others think he doesn’t even belong in the first round. Mina Kimes and a guest on her podcast agreed a few weeks ago that Jones would be the No. 1 overall pick — if it were 20 years ago. That was an interesting note.

All of this is to say: NFL Draft coverage is mostly stupid, but damn it if it isn’t fun. I enjoy it. If you’re going to go with wall-to-wall, nonstop coverage, I’d much prefer NFL Draft over Watson and Wentz.