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Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL Draft

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In two days the NFL Draft extravaganza begins in Nashville, TN.  However, there was a problem  The original indoor/outdoor event plans needed a few cherry blossom trees cut down moved.  When this became public knowledge, the locals weren’t happy.  The league altered its plans to work around the problem, in essence passing the political football.   All is well again.  The league that prints George Washington’s can politically correctly have their annual draft.  And, the Washington Redskins can have their annual bad draft as well.  What about that nickname though?

The draft is but sixty hours away.  Here are ten draft nuggets to tide you over.

  1.  Speaking of the Tide, Alabama leads the NFL in total players drafted since 2010 with 73.  That’s not a surprise.  The SEC has had the most players drafted in each and every year since 2010 as well.  That’s not really a big surprise either.  LSU is second and Florida is third.  THE Ohio State University breaks the SEC run with a close fourth place.
  2. In 1975, the draft consisted of seventeen rounds. In 1977 it was dropped to twelve rounds.  And, in 1994 it was skinned to seven rounds.  This may surprise some politically correct millennials.   A seventh round pick was once considered pretty good.  It’s really not a wonder why so many free agents stick is it?  Less rounds means cheaper labor for the NFL.
  3. Until 2014’s draft each team had 15 minutes to make their first round selection.  If they traded the pick, the clock started anew.  Yawn.  It’s now 10 minutes per.
  4. Who has the most picks in this draft?  A team that desperately needs them, the New York “Football” Giants have 12 selections.  Tied with them is a team that does not desperately need them.  The Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots have 12 as well.
  5. How does Bill Belicheck do it?  Several of his extra picks are compensatory.  That means the league awarded them an extra pick in a certain round based on other teams grabbing their players in free agency under certain “non match of offer” guidelines.  He coaches them up, others take them.  He drafts newbies.  He coaches them up.  He wins it all.  Having Tom Brady is a big head start.  But others have franchise QB’s too.
  6. If you have the number one pick overall you can pick anyone you want. Anyone.  College scouting, combines, film study, pro workout days, individual interviews, Wonderlic tests, and countless other interviews should make the pick a sure-fire bet shouldn’t it?  The “modern”‘ NFL draft has been taking place yearly since 1960.  Of all of those first pick first rounders, only 15 (including Peyton Manning being a soon to be shoo in) have made it to the Hall of Fame.
  7.  In modern NFL history, there have only been two drafts without a Hall of Famer selected.  The years were 1984 and 1992.  Obviously recent drafts could fall into this category.  Time will tell us.  The 1984 draft gets a pass though.  In June of that year, the NFL held a special supplemental draft for players who had already signed with either the USFL or the CFL.   From that unique draft, Steve Young, Gary Zimmerman and Reggie White were wisely taken.  The 1992 draft has no excuse at all.  The top five picks that year were Steve Emtman, Quentin Coryatt, Sean Gilbert, Desmond Howard and Terrell Buckley.  Phew.
  8. The lowest drafted quarterback to win a Super Bowl is Bart Starr, who was taken at no. 200 way back in 1956. That’s but one spot lower than Tom Brady.  He went No. 199 in the 2000 draft. Finally, there’s Kurt Warner.  He wasn’t taken at all in 1994, and won a memorable Super Bowl six years later.
  9. Has one team ever had four first round picks in one draft?  Yes they have, and only once.  The New York “Not Football” Jets had four picks in round one of the 2000 draft.  Shaun Ellis, John Abraham, Chad Pennington and Anthony Becht were all hand-picked by the Big Apple team.  That was a pretty good one day harvest.
  10.  Way back in 1944, the Philadelphia Eagles picked Syracuse fullback Norm Michael in the way later rounds.  They were unable to contact him because he had enlisted in the Army right after college.  Fifty five years later an elderly Michael saw a list of Syracuse players selected by the NFL and learned that he had once been drafted.   We guess he thought it was better to enlist with the Army who could draft you than to be listed as drafted by the Eagles back then.

Arizona, you’re on the clock.