Draft Thoughts & Where to Next?

Andrew Luck predicts how many
games the Colts will win in 2012

The 2012 NFL Draft is now over and it's being hailed as one of the most dramatic and unpredictable Drafts of all time.  For me, it was my first experience of following the months of hype and speculation.  In previous years, I hadn't really noticed the Draft.  Between the SuperBowl and August I didn't really pay any attention to the NFL, but that all changed this year.  My NFL fandom has moved onto the next level and this year I was all over the Draft build up.  Being an Eagles fan certainly added to that and I even completed my first ever Mock (more of that later).
There are hundreds of Draft blogs, reports and verdicts you can read, so I'm not going to spend too long talking about it. But here are my seven (one for each round) random thoughts from the 2012 NFL Draft:

1.  Mock Drafts are pointless but fun!  14 trades in the first round meant that it was pretty much impossible to accurately guess the outcome.  nfl.com reported that of over 1.6 million entrants in their "Predict the Pick" contest, not one single person guessed the Seahawks 1st round pick!
Incidentally, it'd be remiss of me not to mention that I finished 801st out of the 1.6 million. Oh and I also won the nfluk Draft prediction contest.  Just thought I'd thrown that in.

2.  The Eagles did well.  I wasn't expecting them to Trade up for a player, but the small jump to number 12 meant they could land Fletcher Cox.  Cox was widely expected to have gone in the top ten so it was something of a coup for the Eagles.  In addition, they picked up a highly rated 2nd Round linebacker in Mychal Kendricks and a certified Eagles fan in Vinny Curry in the 3rd Round.
I can't really comment on the rest of the selections, but 6th Round WR Melvin McNutt has a brilliant name!

3.  American names are hilarious.  In addition to Mr McNutt, the Draft also saw the likes of Tim Fugger and Long Ding gain a degree of fame.  And a word of advice to Mr and Mrs Bullock; your son was going to have a tough time at school whatever, but you shouldn't have made things worse by calling him Randy!

4.  Where's the Coverage?  I didn't stay up for the Draft, but even I had have done, I would have had to follow it without live pictures.  I can fully understand that Sky are still negotiating their contract for next season so couldn't show the event, but ESPN pulled it form their schedule at a late stage.  Given the growth of the sport in the UK, that seemed like a very odd decision. To make matters worse, nfl.com didn't show the Draft live in the UK.  This seems like a terrible piece of marketing.

5.  The NFC East just got even harder.  Traditionally one of the toughest Divisions to get out of, the NFC East looks particularly brutal this season.  By trading up for Morris Clariborne and picking up Brandon Carr in Free Agency, the Cowboys created one of the strongest CB tandems in the league.  As previously mentioned, the Eagles have stocked up on defence, whilst the Redskins have invested their future in the talents of QB Robert Griffin III.  I may just have ended up supporting a team in the toughest Division of the NFL.

6. There are some truly outstanding NFL analysts out there.  Rich Elsen, Mike Mayock and Peter King are always worth a read/watch. But during the Draft they (and a few others) excelled themselves.  As a Draft novice, I didn't know much about the prospects, but thanks to the aforementioned experts, I felt pretty knowledgeable when it came to draft time (Did I mention the success of my Mock Draft effort?).
Being from a (round ball) football background, the difference in the quality of punditry is immense. Instead of the inane, pally "banter" of Hansen, Redknapp etc, the NFL gives us intelligent, insightful comments from experts who help people understand the game.

7. It's going to be a long long wait until Week 1. Franchises have declared their intentions for 2012, they've got the players they want (or not!) and now it's just a case of Training Camp battles and getting everybody game ready.  But for fans, it's going to be an achingly slow 4 months. Yes, there are Fantasy Drafts, predictions and preseason to look forward to, but the sooner the Cowboys-Giants clash comes around the better!

Well, that was the Draft and I'm more than pleased that I followed it closely for the first time.  However, it has proved to be a bit of a distraction from my "30 Things to Do", so I want to pick up the baton this week. My "Eagles Baby Gift Set" is on its way and I want to move on to my next task...Recruit a new Eagles fan!

Hmm, maybe this should have been in the Medium category!  I'm going to make my next blog article an open invitation for anyone to become an Eagles fan, a sales pitch I guess. I'll come up with some reasons why you should support the Eagles.  I'm not looking to convert fans of other teams, but if you're yet to discover the right team for you or are fed up with the team you support then the Eagles might just be for you!