2009 Draft Recap

Dr. Donovan

The 2009 NFL draft is in the books and its time to recap which teams upgraded and which were embarrassments. When it comes to the draft, we can expect some of the same things every year. The hype before the draft always outweighs the excitement during the picks. A couple of disappointments were big name players such as Anquon Boldin and Plaxico Burress not being traded. We did have some trades in the first round though. The Jets were the big movers in the draft by jumping from #17 to grab future USC QB, Mark “The Dirty” Sanchez. They filled a huge need by doing this but only time will tell if this kid pans out. The reason I don’t think it was a horrible move is because they didn’t give up much to get him. They gave up their #17 and a 2nd round pick and 3 players who won’t be missed by Jets fans anyway. Small price to pay for a big name like Sanchez.

The Browns, on the other hand, steadily traded themselves out of the first round to package picks. The Pats and the Browns really owned the bulk of the picks in the 2nd round. A couple of teams to note who really improved their teams were the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals. We weren’t surprised that Detroit went with Stafford at #1. That was a must. Their 2nd first rounder was a little more surprising. They had a chance to take the #4 OT in Michael Oher, a stud middle LB in Rey Mauluaga but instead went for the unanimous #1 TE in Brandon Pettigrew. I think this was a fine pick for the fact that this ship is going to take more than a year to build so why not take the best player available. This guy will help as a receiver and also help the running game right away. They also got S Loius Delmas who should be a stud. The Lions defense is steadily adding big name guys but will still be suspect as they didn’t get anymore help in this draft. The line is also suspect so don’t expect the Lions to be the next Falcons. The offense will be fun to watch though.

The Bengals had a great draft this year surprisingly. The suspect move for them was their 1st pick choosing Andre Smith before Eugene Monroe. Other than that they got LB Rey Mauluaga in the 2nd round which is a major steal and also DE Michael Johnson and TE Chase Coffman. This is a draft that could fly or flop and we will know in the next 3 years. The Eagles also made a splash this year grabbing a great value WR in Jeremy Maclin and also RB LeSean McCoy. They also grabbed a possible sleeper TE in Cornelius Bennet from Florida . Now i'm not saying these guys will pan out but they filled their 3 biggest needs with the first 3 picks. This is clearly a team that “gets it” when building a football team.

The Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers really soaped up their defenses. The Pack grabbed DT BJ Raji and LB Clay Matthews who fell to the 2nd round. The Texans got USC LB Brian Cushing and also sleeper DE Connor Barwin. The Colts, Jets and Cardinals and Broncos grabbed the top 4 RBs in Moreno, D. Brown, Wells and Shonn Greene. Each of these guys should see quite a bit of playing time over the next few years.

Winners of the draft: Lions (4 immediate impact players) and Bengals (if Smith, Johnson and Coffman turn out)

Loser of draft: Raiders and Al Davis’s bonehead move at #7 taking Heyward-Bey before Crabtree.