NFL Draft Round 1 Primer

With the first round of the draft starting in just a few hours, I thought I’d put together a quick guide of things to expect, and not to expect

What To Expect

• Predictable picks at the beginning: Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin, Matt Kalil, Trent Richardson, Morris Claiborne and Justin Blackmon. 6 names, all pretty much guaranteed to go in the top 8 picks.

• Mock drafts to look stupid, even mine. All it takes is one trade or one team to selected an unexpected player and it throws everything off. After the few few picks, it is simply impossible to predict anything.

• Mel Kiper to act all indignant when teams disagree with him. I get that when teams prove him wrong it erodes his credibility, but the attitude problems aren’t useful and a frankly very annoying. Too bad it’ll happen multiple times each round all weekend.

• Trades: everyone from pick #3 all the way down to pick #16 has, at one time or another, expressed an interest in moving down in the draft. Expect there to be a lot of movement by teams looking to get more picks.

• The top 2 teams to wait near the end of their allotted 10 minutes before making their selection. There’s no reason for this to happen, but it will, and it will be annoying.

• To be annoyed by all the Luck and RG3 talk. They will be picked in the #1 and #2 spots, but the talking heads will still be talking about them long after the 7th round is over on Saturday.

What Not To Expect

• a FB, K, P to get drafted. Seriously, there’s never a good reason to waste a round 1 pick on these positions.

• more than a couple C, G, S, or ILB to be picked. The NFL doesn’t value these positions, so only the best of the best ever get first round consideration.

• Any team to make their pick quickly. Even if the perfect player drops to a team, expect them to work the phones and see what another team will offer them. You never know if someone will completely sell the farm for one player, so you might as well see what’s being offered.

• For the Seahawks, or their pick, to get more than about 3 minutes of discussion. ESPN and the NFL network both tend to ignore Seattle; choosing instead to cover the Cowboys and the New York teams beyond what is remotely reasonable.