Teams begin planning for today the day after their season ends, going through team inventories and grading each area. General managers, coaches and scouts replace their 24/7 study of game film with game film of the next great college prospects. Sports stations across the country turn to covering today more than three months in advance, covering everything from the athlete's 40-yard dash time to their barber's name when they were a kid. If that's not enough, they dedicate their own show to the next two days, instead of incorporating it with the other highlights.
For fans, these two days are where hope can be found in your team, camping out in front of the television, awaiting who will become the next possible future face of the franchise. These next two days will determine how your team's season will begin and can you give you more or less reason to hate other teams.
I am, of course, talking about the NFL Draft, which began today to a less than climatic boom, as the No. 1 pick was already signed by the team two days before the draft began. Georgia QB Matthew Stafford was selected and signed by the Detroit Lions with the No. 1 selection in the 2009 NFL Draft. Last season the lowly Lions finished a dismal 0-16, the first team in NFL history to not win a game in a season (since the schedule was changed to 16 games in the mid 1980's).
But as for the rest of the Draft, it was a mystery. Each team has needs to be filled, but there is always one question that must cross the minds of every coach and general manager as the time becomes theirs to pick: do I pick a player that fills the needs of our organization or do I draft the best available player when it becomes our turn? Rarely do those two ever meet one another and if they do, it is only because the team is so terrible and has so many needs, that it is inevitable that the best available player will match-up with their needs.
My favorite team, the Green Bay Packers, faced this similar situation in today's first round of the Draft. The Packers were very raw on defense last year and need help, giving up game-winning drives in the last minutes to finish 6-10 on the year. So defense was a main concern going into the Draft and with the number 9 pick, they could address it. But no one saw it coming when perhaps the best player in the draft fell directly into their laps in Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree. The only problem was that their main target, Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji, was still on the board and would fill in a huge need.
So what is GM Ted Thompson going to do? Is he going to go with the sure fire need for a defensive tackle to help the league's 26th worst run defense, or does he draft the explosive Crabtree to improve a wide receiving corp that doesn't really need help?
Well I guess this is why they get paid the big bucks to make decisions like this, because I would have selected Crabtree in a heartbeat. Crabtree is a playmaker who can be a game changer, while Raji can be the same thing, but on a less consitent basis. While Raji will be the anchor of a defensive line that is switching from the normal 4-3 base defense to the new 3-4 defense that so many NFL teams are now going to.
The Packers ended up with two first round selections and went with defense both times, Raji at No. 9 and USC linebacker Clay Matthews at No. 26. Both of these picks will help the Packers transition into that 3-4 defense.
I still will always wonder what it would've been like to see Crabtree on the back of a Packers jersey as he makes the Lambeau Leap. *sighs*
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