NFL Draft/Lockout Discussions

The 76th edition of the NFL Draft was yesterday, and will continue tonight as well as tomorrow. Most people that enjoy sports look at drafts as being dull and that they drag on. I was fortunate enough to go to both the NFL and NBA drafts last year, and I will tell you that they are a lot of fun to go to live. When you go to one of these drafts in person you interact with people that like all 32 teams (or in the NBA's case 30) and it's always funny to see the reaction of people when they show up representing a certain team or wearing a jersey. Anyway, this article isn't to have me babble on about my experiences as I will give a little bit of a rundown of team needs, and who I think should have went where. I will also have my thoughts on the Lockout and other miscellaneous stuff. Let's get going

The Patriots don't need to spend an early pick on a quarterback. Tom Brady was the unanimous MVP last year and is still the best QB in the league.  If the Pats were to get a quarterback, I think that they should get Andy Daulton from TCU because he seems to have a chip on his shoulder the way Brady did coming out of Michigan. Dalton has the ability to become a heck of a qb in a few years, and would benefit from watching Brady for a bit. If not Daulton, I think the Pats should take Washington QB Jake Locker to eventually replace Brady. With the first pick the Patriots have in the draft (17th overall) I think the Patriots should have traded it for later picks. If they were to pick a player, I'd go with defensive end J.J. Watt from Wisconsin. The Pats were unable to get pressure on the quarterback for the majority of the season last year, and Watt would instantly help. 

The next few things are a couple more teams and miscellaneous things

-The New York Giants need help all across the offensive line, and if he is still around I expect the Giants to draft Boston College tackle Anthony Castonzo.

-The New York Jets have no idea what their receiving core will look like with Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards to be free agents when the lockout is over. Look for the Jets to take Leonard Hankerson, who is a wide receiver from the University of Miami with the 30th overall pick.

-The Pittsburgh Steelers have a glaring hole at the cornerback position. In the Super Bowl, Aaron Rodgers burned the secondary the whole game. Look for the Steelers to take Brandon Harris from "DA U" with the 31st overall pick

- The Oakland Raiders will still manage to find the fastest person in the draft and pick them

-The Tampa Bay Bucs, Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts are three of the best teams at picking players in the late rounds that turn into gems in my opinion

-In contrast, the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars are notorious for not making smart picks in drafts

- Ryan Mallett will be out of the league the quickest out of the projected top eight quarterbacks to be off the board first

-Greg McElroy (Alabama) and Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech) intrigue me as to what teams they will go to. They could end up being quite a surprise

-Despite an overall weak running back class, DeMarco Murray from Oklahoma will be the 2nd best running back in this draft class

-There isn't one tight end or inside linebacker that I think will end up being phenomenal

- Best names of the potential draftees include Ras-I Dowling (corner from Virginia) Ugo Chinasa (Defensive end from Oklahoma State), Chimdi Chekwa (corner from Ohio State), Prince Amukamara (corner from Nebraska)(wouldn't that be something if the Broncos drafted him? Champ and Prince) and Cheta Ozougwu (Defensive End from Rice).

As far as the NFL goes, they have to get this deal done with the labor situation. The NHL suffered greatly from not having their season in 2004-2005, and the NFL appears to be going down the same track.  While I don't believe that the popularity of the NFL would take that big of a hit, I think that the NFL will suffer a lot more then they think. 

Many people seem unaware as to why the dispute is happening, but that is what I am here for. The biggest issue with the dispute is over the money that the owners and players are making in revenue. The last labor agreement allowed the players to get 57% of the leagues $9 billion in revenue while the owners took a billion dollars to allow the league to grow and develop. The current dispute now is how will that $9 billion going to get split up between the players and owners. The owners want more of that $9 billion to pay for investments that they have made towards new stadiums as well as other spending.  In order for the owners to get this money, they proposed that the season become 18 games (instead of 16), a rookie salary cap should be put into place (potentially up to 40% of what rookies make now) and test for HGH (or human growth hormone).  The players think that installing two more games into their schedule will put them at more risk of injury, and also think that the owners are being too greedy with what they want in the $9 billion dollars of revenue that gets split up.

In the eye of the public, the owners are looked at as being the "bad guys". The reason for this, in my opinion is because the owners are the one making hundreds of millions of dollars as oppose to the players, who are making significantly less than the owners (still 1.4 million dollars). The players do get paid a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but they can receive potentially career and life-threatening injuries out on the field. The owners are at no risk of injury, and wouldn't be in any type of financial comfort if it wasn't for the players. 

If this lockout ends up ultimately disallowing an NFL season, not only will the players and owners get hurt financially, but cities that have NFL teams could lose up to $160 million from lost business. This could be up to over $5 billion between all of the cities with NFL teams. Not having the season hurts the mom and pop restaurants and bars that can be five people deep during crucial late season games as well as hotels that bank on opposing teams and fans to show up. The lockout would also make 115,000 people lose their jobs, whether it is concession workers, parking lot attendants or scouts/coaches/etc.   

Not having an NFL season really does hurt a lot of people. People all around the U.S. (and the world for that matter) live for Sundays; in some cases it is the highest point of their entire week. A billion dollar dispute can cause up to over $5 billion dollars in losses to the people who really do need it the most in independently owned restaurants and hotels. Everyone in the U.S. has had to count their money a lot closer the past couple of years, and for 115,000 people they could end up being jobless if the lockout continues. This issue has to come to an end, and I hope it is the owners that come to reason with themselves and save the season. 

Have an opinion on this article? Email me at edbrill@plymouth.edu