With April comes the annual NFL draft. It is one of the most
anticipated sporting events in America and there is no physical activity. How
does a show about football have higher ratings than the World Series while
competing against the NBA and NHL playoffs? I won’t answer that so I don’t
offend baseball fans.
To me, the draft is like Christmas day. I feel the same way
as a child does waiting for Christmas day to get new presents. The anticipation
begins in November or December when the Jaguars get officially eliminated from
the playoffs. Then all of the Jaguars fans start to think about what players the
team needs to get better. After the Superbowl, each team is in work mode
evaluating college prospects and impending free agent professional players.
I tried writing a basic overview of why the draft is so
important to football but there was just too much to explain. Bottom line: the proven formula to win championships is to
pick players through the draft. Unlike baseball, hockey, soccer, and
basketball, there is no international talent pool, so the NFL has to look to
the U.S. for football players. All upcoming football players play in college
governed by NCAA rules. NFL teams pick which college players they want for their
team based on who they think is best for their team. Again, the draft is
important because it is the only place to get players not already playing in
the NFL.
So how does it work? The basic concept is that each team
selects one player per round. The worst team picks first and the best team
(Superbowl champions) pick last. They do this for seven rounds. Many trades
occur. A 2nd round pick may be worth a 4th, 5th,
and 7th to another team. So one team can trade a valuable pick for
three less valuable picks. Draft picks are the currency of the NFL. Unlike
baseball, players are often traded, not for other players, but future players
in the form of draft picks because teams always want to get younger. Many teams
covet the same players. The drama is waiting for your team’s the best option to
get passed on by other teams so your favorite team can claim that player. Perennial
winners are very, very good at picking which players will succeed.
Like the past few years, Jacksonville has picked in the top
5 because they performed so bad the year prior. The current staff tore down the
entire organization in 2012. Over the next year, they got a new owner, new
General Manager (he picks the players) and new Coaching staff. They cut 95% of
the existing players and rebuilt the team and office staff from the ground up.
It has been the most work since the Houston Texans football team was created in
2002. They created a new franchise out of the existing Jacksonville Jaguars football
organization. That is a four to five year project. Those types of decisions are
made after years and years of losing and regression. The Jaguars have not made
the playoffs since 2007 and got worse over the next five years before getting
rebuilt. That is a long, long time to be a rudderless failure of a sports team.
At long last the rebuild is paying off. The team is on the
rise. The offense got praise last year, most importantly the quarterback. The
defense was lagging behind and was the reason the Jaguars were losing close
games. Much money was spent on key defensive players this off season. Now it is
time to get the defensive players of the future. What Christmas presents were
in store for the Jaguars over this three day draft?
This year's first pick for the Jacksonville Jaguars was Cornerback Jalen Ramsey from the Florida State Seminoles. He was the fifth player selected in the draft. It was the perfect fit of need, value, and player. He was considered the best defensive player in the draft and many considered him the best athlete in the draft, having forgone training for the Olympics to play football (Proof to my argument that Florida football is better than Texas football, Florida has the better athletes and the speed versus Texas which just pumps out football players in volume).
What made this draft special was the second pick, Linebacker Myles Jack from UCLA. He is considered an elite player and many thought he was a top 5 player, but medical concerns about a knee injury meant that he wasn't picked until the second round. Jacksonville picked him as the 36th player taken and they traded their 2nd and 5th picks to pick him at a more premium 2nd round position. He and Ramsey were considered 2 of the 3 best defensive players in the draft.
Here is the complete list of players taken by the Jaguars (note the extra 6th pick was from trading a kicker to the Steelers last season):
- 1 (5) CB Jalen Ramsey, Florida State
- 2 (36) LB Myles Jack, UCLA
- 3 (69) DE/OLB Yannick Ngakoue, Maryland
- 4 (103) DT Sheldon Day, Notre Dame
- 6 (181) DE Tyrone Holmes, Montana
- 6 (201) QB Brandon Allen, Arkansas
- 7 (226) DE Jonathan Woodard, Central Arkansas
No one will know the true success of this year’s draft class
for about three years when all of the players have had a chance to establish
themselves and play football. That is when the real determination of whether or
not the scouts and personnel staff made the correct decisions. In the meantime,
it is universally accepted that the Jaguars were one of the best teams in terms
of the players they chose for their football team.
Here is the analysis by CBS’ Dane Brugler:
With seven picks, the Jaguars addressed the defensive side with six of them. And of those six selections, five are in the front-seven. Ramsey was the prize of the draft class in the top-five and if Jack is able to play three or four seasons of non-injured football then he was an absolute steal at pick No. 36. Ngakoue is a hybrid rusher who can be effective if schemed correctly as a subpackage player. Day is a penetrating three-technique who will be a great addition to the Jaguars' rotation. Holmes is a fourth-round value who was available in the sixth, and Allen can be a valuable member of the quarterback depth chart.
So where was I while the drama was playing out over three days? The first night, I was returning from a work trip out of town and was driving home at 8:45 or so when the Jaguars made their pick of Ramsey. During the rest of the picks, I was toiling in the sun on a massive driveway renovation. So after waiting five months for the draft, reading article after article about what might happen and who was the best for each team, and marking the date on the calendar, I missed nearly all of it for work and fixing up the house.
