Is the NFL Draft Over Yet?

The NFL Draft has become on of the most dragged out events in sports, and I personally think it takes up way too much time to get something done as simple as drafting players.

While drafting the future players for your football team is important it shouldn't be something that takes three days to actually complete. When you compare them to the other three major sports, it just doesn't make sense why seven rounds take three days to compete.

In the MLB they also take three days to complete their draft, but the main difference between those two is the MLB has an additional 20 rounds, totaling 27. The NHL has the same amount of rounds as the NFL in their draft and they finish it in one night as does the NBA who only has two rounds.

The NFL Draft has to get away from their current three day draft and try to get this done in one day. For teams to only make about seven picks during one day isn't really asking much. In order for them to do this I think they should cut down on the minutes it takes for each team to make their picks.

Realistic Changes in Draft Times:
1st Round - 5 minutes (currently 10)
2nd-3rd Round - 4 minutes (currently 7)
3rd-7th Round - 3 minutes (currently 5)

By changing those times to the ones I've come up with you are basically cutting the entire draft time almost in half. If you were to do this on a Sunday and promote it just like any other NFL game that happens on a Sunday, I think it would be just as successful. The NFL would be giving their fans another Sunday of the NFL season to really enjoy it like they do all season long.

The 2013 NFL Draft

When I look at this year's NFL Draft there are three names that I keep hearing everyday when I turn on SportsCenter or any other sports program. These three names are players that to be honest, I don't even think are deserving of being a first round pick.

Manti Te'o
Wow! He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy last season and was considered to be the best defensive player in all of collegiate sports. Then the BCS Championship happened. Then Lennay Kukua happened. Then the NFL Combine happened.

Te'o went from being one of the best players in college to becoming the laughing stock. He was atrocious during the BCS Championship game against Alabama and for most of it you couldn't even find him on the field. Alabama's offense ate up Notre Dame's defense and turned Te'o invisible.

The Kekua debacle is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. How does a guy of his magnitude manage to have a fake girlfriend. He's the best player on the most notorious college football team in the country and he had a girlfriend that he had never met. How any person could fall for a hoax like this just shows that they aren't that smart of a person and are very naive.

On top of everything that had happened for Te'o he then followed it with his poor combine showing. When I heard how slow his time was I began to wonder even more if he would be able to keep up with players in the NFL. I've heard the comparisons to Tedy Bruschi and how neither of them were the greatest athletes on the field, but I just don't think Te'o will be worth it. At best I think he's a late second rounder and that's if you really need an inside linebacker. Hoping to God that the New York Giants do not draft him.

Matt Barkley
Well he went from being the frontrunner for the Heisman to not even being in the consideration by the end of the year. As quarterback of USC they went from being number one at the beginning of the year to not even being ranked at the end of season. His stock plummeted more and more after each start and now isn't even in the consideration for most ESPN analysts' top three quarterbacks. 

Barkley's late season injury didn't help him either as a couple of possible wins late in the year and a good performance at the Senior Bowl could have helped him improve his stock. Coming into this draft he could be taken early in the first to even late in the second and to be honest I don't see him as a starting quarterback in the NFL.

If you look at each of the former USC quarterbacks to come to the NFL in recent years you have Carson Palmers, Matt Leinart and Mark Sanchez who all came in as early first round picks and none of them have turned out to be really great quarterbacks in the league. Palmer has done alright, but he's never become the QB he was supposed to be. In all honesty I would stay away from Barkley at all costs.

Geno Smith
Big Geno is apparently the best quarterback in this year's NFL Draft. That's like say Nick's Pizza is the best pizza in New Britain. It's just not something worth getting excited over. After hearing so much about him as of late, I've also heard a lot of things that make me skeptical about him. 

Most of the passes he was completing at West Virginia were screens and dump passes. While he does have a good arm he was playing with some very good weapons including Tavon Austin who is ranked even higher according to ESPN's big board (Austin is 12 while Smith is 29).

In my opinion he's probably the best quarterback to choose in this NFL draft. I don't think he's worth a first round choice as I don't see any of the quarterbacks in this draft as possible  starting QB's 10 years from now. None of these guys are franchise guys, but some of them could be quality back-ups whenever a team needs to go to someone.

The Rest of the Draft
When looking at the big board of the best possible players in the draft, you have to go outside the top 10 before you find any offensive weapons. For quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends the best guys available are #12 Tavon Austin at wide receiver and #13 Tyler Eifert at tight end.

This is definitely a year where teams will be trying to trade down as there isn't much that is worth drafting right away at the top of the board. The smart NFL teams will be able to move down a few spots and still get the player they want as others will make stupid moves to move up in a draft where there is plenty of decent talent, but nothing that really makes you say WOW.

If you enjoy watching your favorite team drafting offensive and defensive lineman in the top 10 than this is definitely the draft for you. I'm not really impressed with many offensive players in this draft and don't feel the need to watch three days of this so this will probably be the last time I even talk about it. 

New York Giants
Right now I'm just praying that the Giants don't select Te'o or any quarterback to possibly back up Eli. Their real needs are improving their defense as they could possibly use an inside and outside linebacker and some defensive back help. After looking at the big board the one guy I'm hoping falls to us at 19 is Alec Ogletree. The Giants need linebacking help and he is a guy that could step in and start next year. I'd also like to see them go after a receiver in the fourth or fifth round as they manage to always pick up someone good late.

The Game that’s More Than a Game

Every Sunday for five months of the year, millions of people sit in their living rooms and at sports bars across the country to watch the sport that has now consumed a day that was once known for going to church.

Sunday night was the final night of the 2012-2013 National Football League season as Super Bowl XLVII was won by the Baltimore Ravens when they defeated the San Francisco 49ers 34-31.

This game was supposed to be a defensive one with the 49ers having the second best scoring defense and the Ravens having the twelfth, but in the end both teams ended up scoring over 30.

Coming in to this game most of the talk about the game was centered around Ray Lewis. This game was Lewis’ last game of his career as he told his teammates and the media that this would be his “last ride.” Lewis had an alright game, finishing with seven total tackles, but how many tackles he had won’t be what he remembers, it will be walking out a Super Bowl Champion for the second time in his career.

When the game was over Joe Flacco was awarded the game’s MVP. Flacco finished the game completing 22 of 33 pass attempts for 287 yards and three touchdowns. The more impressive number was that Flacco didn’t throw an interception in this game or at all this entire postseason and finished with 11 touchdowns in the playoffs.

Two other players that you could argue for possibly taking the Super Bowl MVP are Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones. Boldin finished the game with six catches for 108 yards and a touchdown with most of his catches coming in crucial times where Boldin made a play over the defense. Jones had only one catch during the game but it was for 56 yards and for a touchdown to go along with his 108 yard kick return for a touchdown that started the second half.


During the third quarter of the biggest game of the year, the unexpected occurred as the lights in the Superdome went out. The stadium managed to lose power for 34 minutes during the Super Bowl. The most watched television event year after year manages to have 34 minutes of blackout with analysts and players not knowing what to do in the time off.

When the lights eventually came back the score at the time was 28-6, but it wasn't long before the 49ers started putting up points. By the time the third quarter had ended the 49ers had brought the score to within five and it finished with the Ravens up 28-23 heading in to the fourth.

The Ravens won the game, but this game will be remembered for a lot of refereeing controversy in the fourth quarter especially the last two minutes. When the 49ers brought the score to within two after Colin Kaepernick’s touchdown run early in the fourth, the following play had an offside’s call that was clearly missed that led to Kaepernick throwing the ball away once it was snapped.

As much as that play hurt the 49ers chance of tying the game up it was the two calls in the final two minutes that will be remembered more. The 49ers had the ball at the five yard line on fourth down when Michael Crabtree was interfered with by Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith, and no flag was thrown on the play. This appeared to be a good no call as Crabtree initiated the contact, to go along with the ball looking very uncatchable.

After turning the ball over on downs the Ravens took a safety in their own endzone on fourth down to waste time. While it appeared that some of the Ravens offensive line players were committing holding penalties on the 49ers, the infraction was never called. If a flag had been thrown for holding the safety still would have happened, but more time would have possibly been put back on the clock.

This left the 49ers with only the kick return to score on after the safety. The 49ers were unable to score, but if more time had been put on the clock they would have likely had enough time to get an extra offensive play off after the kick return.

Is Joe Flacco an Elite Quarterback?

Before the 2012-2013 NFL season started Joe Flacco told us all that he thought he was the best quarterback in the NFL. Back when he said this I thought he was crazy and wouldn't even include him in my top 10. He just won a Super Bowl over the weekend and I still don't include him there.

Here is Flacco's actual quote, "I mean, I think I'm the best. I don't think I'm top five, I think I'm the best. I don't think I'd be very successful at my job if I didn't feel that way. I mean, c'mon? That's not really too tough of a question."

If a player is ever asked a question about what he thinks of his own play they are usually going to respond pretty favorably about themselves. If they don't actually think of themselves that highly then it doesn't look good for how others will portray them either and it questions their confidence.

So the reason I'm bringing this up today is because Flacco's agent is going around telling everyone that he thinks his client should be the highest paid quarterback in the NFL because he just won the Super Bowl and was named the game's Most Valuable Player. 

I would argue that he didn't even deserve the game's MVP. The MVP trophy in the Super Bowl goes to the quarterback of the winning team 75 percent of the time. It's basically a trophy that they just hand over to the winning QB unless that guy did nothing in the game at all. I think two of his offensive weapons were more deserving than he was because they were the ones making the big plays. Anquan Boldin was making some catches that you can't even give credit to Joe Flacco for throwing because it was all Boldin in some of them. He finished with six catches for 108 yards and one touchdown, and he completely tore the 49ers secondary apart. Jacoby Jones finished the game with two touchdowns, but it was his 108 yard kick return for a touchdown that was really the biggest play of the game. His other touchdown came on a 56 yard pass that Flacco really under-threw and he came back to. I actually voted for Boldin winning the game's MVP but it could have gone to either him or Jones in my opinion over Flacco in my opinion.

Now when you think this current Ravens team, who would you say was their best player on the team? Who would you say were the top five players on their team? If you had to ask me this question about who were most important and most valuable to them all season I don't even have Flacco in the top five. I'd put Ray Rice, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs & Haloti Ngata all ahead of him. Those five guys were more important to this team than he was. When Lewis retires, Reed ends up going to another team, and the Ravens probably lose either Boldin or Jones in the offseason I doubt this team makes the playoffs next year.

Merril Hoge made his case for the top five quarterbacks in the NFL right now and actually had Flacco ranked number 1. In my opinion Hoge's top five is awful and I'm starting to think the man has lost his mind and needs his much needed vacation now that the NFL season is finally over. Here's a clip of the video:



There are so many things wrong with Hoge's top five that I had to make my case for where these guys should all be ranked. The idea that he doesn't even have Drew Brees on the whole damn board drives me insane to go along with not including either of the Manning brothers in his top five.

Here's how I see the current state of quarterbacks in the NFL in order of who I think is the best right now at the position. These are the guys that right now I would want to be leading my team and Flacco isn't even in my top 10.

1. Aaron Rodgers
2. Peyton Manning
3. Tom Brady
4. Drew Brees
5. Eli Manning
6. Ben Roethlisberger
7. Matt Ryan
8. Andrew Luck
9. Robert Griffin III
10. Colin Kaepernick

I'm sorry to break this to Joe Flacco and his agent that is just trying to get rich, but the man isn't elite. Winning a Super Bowl doesn't just make you the best QB in the league. Trent Dilfer has one of those too for the same team Flacco plays on. Did it help Flacco's stock by winning it? It definitely helped him, but he just doesn't strike fear in any defense. 

Super Bowl XLVII Preview

Prediction: Ravens win 27-24

Today is the one day of the year where it is completely acceptable to just sit on the couch all day and eat and drink until you can't any longer. It's the only time of the year where people might actually get quieter during the commercials and pay attention even more. It's a day that has become a national holiday that is celebrated everywhere across the country. Today is the Super Bowl.

As someone that has grown up loving sports it's one of the only days of the year where you can convince people that hate sports to actually watch them with you. Between the commercials and halftime show today's game is more than a game, it's a spectacle.

In today's game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, this will be the second matchup between head coaches John and Jim Harbaugh. The first meeting occurred during the 2011 season in which the Ravens came out victorious 16-6.

This game is the first time in the history of the NFL that the two head coaches in the Super Bowl are brothers. This game has been referred to as Super Bowl 47 but mainly it has just become known as the "Har Bowl."

The Ravens finished the season 10-6 and were the AFC North Champions. Their road to the Super Bowl has included wins at home against the Indianapolis Colts, and on the road against the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots.

The 49ers finished the season 11-4-1 and were the NFC West Champions. Their road to the Super Bowl has included wins at home against the Green Bay Packers and on the road against the Atlanta Falcons.

Neither team has ever lost in a Super Bowl game with the Ravens winning once in 2001 and the 49ers winning five times, last of which in 1995. Ray Lewis is the only lasting member of that Ravens team from 2001. If the Ravens are win today's game his gap between Super Bowl wins as a player would be the longest gap in NFL history.

Lewis' career has been stained with controversy for over a decade. In 2000 he was charged with murder, but eventually ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice and the murder charge was dismissed. In the last week Lewis was linked with possibly using deer-antler spray which is currently banned by the NFL. It was first reported by Sports Illustrated but Lewis has denied all of the allegations so far.

As for today's game I think it's just going to come down to destiny. When Ray Lewis announced that this would be his "last ride," I started to believe this would become the Ravens year and he would finish his career going out on top.

I'm predicting the Baltimore Ravens to win tonight's game 27-24. Stephen A. Smith of ESPN's First Take is also predicting the same exact score for the game. When Lewis said this would be it for him, I think it was that little extra that the team needed to help the franchise's signature player end his career with a win on the biggest stage. Lewis will more than likely end up winning the game's MVP. I'm predicting him to end the game with 12 tackles including 1 sack and likely a forced fumble. His play and on-field presence will be the key for tonight's game.

Is the Pro Bowl Fixable?

Today is the last Sunday before the Super Bowl which means it's the day of the dreaded Pro Bowl. While I believe all-star games are a necessity in all sports and something that each sport benefits from, the Pro Bowl is so painful to watch and it always lets people down. 

The idea behind the Pro Bowl is to have the best players in both conferences playing against each other. If you look at the original rosters for this Pro Bowl and compare them to the current rosters you would more than likely be confused as to what happened. Both rosters are completely different now because of injuries, fatigue (their team lost last weekend) and the Super Bowl. The idea that the two teams in the Super Bowl, who are usually the best two teams and send the most amount of players to the Pro Bowl, aren't sending the players they were supposed to because they play the following week hurts the game. We never get to see the best players all playing against each other in a game that matters because frankly this game happens at the end of the year and has no merit for the NFL season. 

The only sport that currently has an all-star game that matters is baseball. The MLB has it so that the league that wins the game ends up with home field advantage in the World Series. The NBA all-star game is basically a better version of the And 1 mixtape tour. The NHL all-star game is creative in that it's basically an old school pickup game where the captains pick the players that they want but the game doesn't actually matter and all that happens is scoring after scoring. The difference from those all-star games and the Pro Bowl is that all of those sports send their best players to the all-star game and very rarely (only due to injury) do they not play in the game.

While there may be no right solution for what the NFL might consider doing, there are a few options I could see the NFL doing. Everyone knows that these players aren't going to go out there and give it there all, so why even have them wearing uniforms and pads. I honestly think something that would be possibly be successful and worth watching is going the route of the NHL all-star game. I say you get two captains and allow them to pick their teams. 

Now here is the major twist... Instead of having them play a regular football game where everyone already knows it's a joke you bring back the old drills that they used to have the players compete in. You have passing drills, receiving drills, speed drills and an obstacle course to earn points. The last part of Pro Bowl weekend is the actual game that is played in a flag football style of play. This would make this all-star game more similar to that of the NBA and NHL and would make the weekend a whole event instead of just one boring game that no one cares about.

My 2013 Pro Bowl Prediction: This will be the last Pro Bowl ever played. I have no idea what they might do after this year, I just see this being the last game of it's type ever being played.