PFT TEN-PACK

2007 DRAFT

PART TWO

 

6.  Whatever Happened to the Pacman Effect?

In the days prior to the draft, we heard plenty of talk about how players with character questions would suffer.  In the first annual selection meeting of the post-Pacman era, players with questionable backgrounds were going to feel the consequences.

Then something funny happened.  The draft occurred, and plenty of guys who would have otherwise been affected by the Pacman effect weren't.

The three guys who admitted to smoking pot were seemingly rewarded, with each of them taken in the first ten picks.

Running back Marshawn Lynch landed in Buffalo with the No. 12 selection, despite concerns regarding allegations (which were dropped not long after they were made) and his decision last year to take a golf cart for an impromptu spin after an overtime win.

Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss, suspended for a game in 2006 by the Florida Gators, became the Broncos' first-round pick.  Coach Kevlar, whose uncanny job security would allow him to take a flier on Hannibal Lecter with a round-seven compensatory pick, bristled at the suggestion by one of the ESPN sock puppers that there were issues of any kind regarding Moss.

Miami safety Brandon Meriweather, who has a little stomp-stomp and bang-bang  in his background, was selected by the character-obsessed Patriots in round one.  In defending the move, one of ESPN's resident Norman Einstein's, Sean Salisbury, said that Meriweather's misadventures were "both one-time incidents."

Miami tight end Greg Olsen, who was part of a raunchy rap song that would make Bernard McGuirk blush like a librarian who overheard someone say the word "poo," landed with the Bears at pick No. 31.  The issue is a big deal in Chicago, but has thus far been largely overlooked by the national media.  And we're not quite sure why.

Cornerback Eric Wright fell to round three due to dropped charges relating to rape and one-hundred-and-thirtysomething Ecstasy pills.

The Broncos took another chance in round four, on former Florida defensive tackle Marcus Thomas.  The guy isn't "former" just because he was eligible for the draft; he's "former" because he got kicked off of the team following a suspension for two failed marijuana tests. 

Cornerback Tarell Brown, despite a pending weapons charge, came off of the board in round five for the 49ers.

And 370-pound defensive tackle Walter Thomas signed as a street free agent with the Saints, even though he has been arrested for felony conspiracy to commit robbery.

So what in the hell is going on here?  Does character count in the NFL?  Or does it only count for the teams who recently have already been embarrassed by bad characters? 

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7.  Brady's Bad Day.

When the Browns told Brady Quinn on Friday that they would not be selecting him with the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, Quinn and his agent, Tom Condon, sealed the quarterback's fate by not getting on the horn with the Raiders and getting a deal done at No. 1.

What's that, you say?  "Experts" like Chris Mortensen say with confidence that no offer was ever made to Quinn?  While it's true that a formal proposal was never faxed to CAA, there WERE discussions regarding parameters such as signing bonus, escalators, and other key ingredients in a top-ten contact.  If Condon or Quinn had genuinely wanted to get a deal done on the Raiders' terms, a contract could have been struck.

But the last thing Condon would have done is a "bad deal" at No. 1, no matter how good it would have been for Quinn in comparison to being drafted at No. 22.  Agents who do "bad deals" get badmouthed by other agents as part of the player recruiting process. 

In this case, the gamble blew up in Quinn's face, as he plummeted down the draft board, and lost millions in the process.

Condon already has been doing damage control.  On Sunday, the aforementioned Mort declared that Condon is a good agent, and that Condon's skills will make up much of the money that Quinn lost.

Some league insiders called Mort's statement a prepared speech.  As one source opined:  "I don't know what kind of crack Mort is smoking but I know he is smoking it out of Tom's pants.  That absolutely blatant falsification of the truth can only be compared to Andy Reid's claim that drafting Kevin Kolb has nothing to do with Donovan McNabb."

We like Mort, but we have to agree.  There's only so much that Condon can do at the No. 22 slot.  At best, he can try to dump a bunch of incentives into the deal, a la the Willis McGahee rookie contract.  For the most part, however, Quinn is stuck in the salary slot in which Quinn was picked.

Sure, Condon might try to argue that the Browns eventually gave up what likely will be a high first-round pick in 2008 for Quinn, and thus Quinn should be paid accordingly.  But it doesn't change the fact that Quinn was picked at No. 22.

Maybe that's why there are rumblings that Quinn is considering making a change.  Multiple league sources tell us that Condon denies the talk of a looming termination, but with each passing day that Quinn contemplates what might have been, a parting of the ways could be inevitable.

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8.  Lies and the Lion Liars Who Tell Them.

The Detroit Lions were desperate to trade out of the No. 2 overall spot in the draft.  So desperate that they were trying desperately to get the word out through the media regarding trades possibilities, for the sole purpose of generating interest in a trade.

We can't get into too many details regarding how we know this without compromising any of our sources.  But know it we do, and we believe that our sources fell hook, line, and sinker for the attempts by the team to stir up a trade partner.

And we fell for it, too.

As Peter King of Sports Illustrated explains, it didn't work.  Once the Lions were on the clock, not a single call came.

We don't blame CEO Matt Millen for speaking with forked tongue to drum up interest.  The entire sport is premised on deceiving others, on the field and off of it. 

But, in this case, it didn't work.  As King points out, the price to trade up to the top of the draft is too high, both in terms of the picks to be sacrificed and the cost of the contract.  Between spots No. 2 and No. 4, for example, the average contract value in 2007 will be more than $3 million, based on last year's deals at the same slots. 

King's ultimate point?  "[T]he days of the top-of-the-draft trades may be over."

We agree; this time around, the Lions tried as hard as anyone ever has to create a market for a guy whom most regard as a can't-miss prospect.  If a team wasn't going to trade up for Calvin Johnson, who will ever entice a team to make such a move?

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9.  Geography Lesson.

They've said for years that too many American kids don't know Sh-tsville from Shinolaburg when it comes to geography.  And it now appears that most of those kids grew up work in the sports media, and were assigned at some point over the weekend to cover Brady Quinn.

Throughout the weekend and into this week, we've heard that Quinn wanted to be and/or will be playing for his "hometown" team, the Cleveland Browns. 

Folks, Quinn is from Dublin, Ohio.  It's not a suburb of Cleveland.  It's a suburb of Columbus.

So the Quinn's real "hometown" is a mere 140 miles from the "hometown" that the media has bestowed upon him.

Hey, why let reality get in the way of a good story?

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10.  So Much For Day Two.

One thing we learned this year, as we attempted for the first time to cobble together a Live Blog of the entire draft, is that the second day of the process is boooooooooring. 

The picks quickly become an afterthought, if that much.  Not all that much is said about most of the names that flash onto the screen with little pomp and/or circumstance.  Instead, the sock puppets re-hash the first day of the draft and, primarily, the first round.

Though we're not sure that there's anything that can be done to create interest in the rounds in which guys most of us have never heard of are picked, the truth is that the players who eventually make it in this league come from every round.

Case in point -- we've all heard (at least 189 times) that Pats quarterback Tom Brady was a sixth-round pick in the 2000 draft.

But of the 40 guys taken in the sixth round of the 2000 draft, at least 10 of them went on to develop genuine name recognition in the league.

In addition to Brady, round six in 2000 produced quarterback Marc Bulger, kicker Neil Rackers, kicker Paul Edinger, linebacker Dhani Jones, lineman Jeno James, linebacker Adalius Thomas, defensive tackle Robaire Smith, safety Matt Bowen, and offensive lineman Brad Bedell.

Though it's unlikely that 25 percent of this year's crop in round six will go on to have solid NFL careers, with Pro Bowl appearances and Super Bowl MVP awards, the lesson is that plenty of the guys that the media doesn't talk much about will end up being a big part of the future of our favorite sport.