NFL Draft

2020 Draft: Well Done Despite ESPN

April 26, 2020 by Micheal Savoie

The world needed a distraction. Sickness/fear/isolation was the anvil dangling over all of our collective heads, hanging by a worn thread. Sports were all suspended indefinitely – no hockey, no basketball, no baseball. After streaming the Star Wars trilogy of trilogies for the fifth time, the world needed something to watch. Enter the NFL Draft, the ultimate reality show.

Think about it. Kids who started with nothing but a dream of something better went out on a football field in school and found that they were good at it. They rose through the ranks of high school sports and were recruited by colleges and universities – given the opportunity to get an education that many could never dream of being able to afford. Many of those kids kept playing at a high level and earned an opportunity to show off their skills at the NFL Scouting Combine – although a few skipped the combine because of health issues or because they wanted to invite scouts to their schools’ Pro Day. Unfortunately, Pro Days were canceled because of the illness spreading across the nation. Teams’ scouts and general managers were told to stay home, which dashed the hopes of many of the players who didn’t participate or had a bad showing at the Combine.

The Draft put cameras in the homes of team representatives and the top rated players considered for this draft. This allowed the people starved for something to watch the ability to see how the NFL sausage was made – at least for the NFL Draft. We got to see a piece of the home life of GM’s, Head Coaches. Owners, and the families of many of the top players. Some of these peeks revealed the family life of people we don’t associate with families. Seeing a Head Coach or a GM interacting with their children (or grandchildren) while working revealed a cool part of their lives that is often ignored.

The Commissioner, Roger Goodell, allowed the world into his man cave, where we got to see a more human look at the big guy. He encouraged fans to boo him, which has taken on a life of its own over the years. But Goodell used it to help feed the people who are unable to afford to buy food during this period when jobs are paused to help avoid spreading a disease that could eliminate a large portion of our elderly or at-risk people. After 3 days, the NFL had raised over $100 Million through their NFL.com/relief link that they promoted throughout the entire event.

My only gripe about the coverage of the draft was giving control of it to ESPN. The ESPN announcers know each other and they do have a fan base, but the rest of the world – the ones who can’t afford ESPN on their cable service – has no clue who these yahoos are. Or, they may remember them from 20 years ago, and did not grow up with them. 20 years has not been kind to a lot of these guys. After a while on Saturday, it was getting difficult to follow what was happening with the top 2/3 of the screen talking about one player while the bottom of the screen was trying to keep up with the actual timeline of the picks. Sometimes, the guys talking were skipping over some of the picks to catch up, and they spent some time reintroducing people to the old timers. Mort almost lost it when they played his 30 year highlights tape and Mel Kyper was unrecognizable in the tape of his history…

Maybe I am just getting old, or I am just used to the NFL Network team’s draft coverage in the past, but it just did not sit well with me. It seemed like the personalities didn’t fit well together. Maybe next year, the people will mesh better, and they will still allow us into the homes of the GM’s and Head Coaches again, because that was my favorite part of the draft. Well, that isn’t quite true. My favorite part of the draft was seeing the joy in the faces of the players who went from nothing to a career that will set their families up for the rest of their lives if they don’t do anything stupid.

Will La’el Collins Help Cowboys’ Running Game?

May 19, 2015 by Micheal Savoie

The Cowboys recently signed undrafted offensive lineman La’el Collins. As you may have heard, Collins was the 1st round talent who was not drafted due to a poorly timed murder investigation. His name has since been cleared and after visiting with several teams, he decided to sign with the Cowboys. Collins is expected to become the starter at guard, strengthening the best offensive line even further.

The Cowboys are poised to have one of the top running games in the league once again. All they need now is a running back. Or do they?

Many people expected the Cowboys to make a push for Adrian Peterson. That didn’t happen. After that, most assumed they would take an RB in the draft. The only question seemed to be if they would take one in the 1st round or wait until the later rounds. Well, they opted not to trade up for Todd Gurley or Melvin Gordon and then surprised many people by drafting offensive tackle Chaz Green in the 3rd round over many of the talented running backs that went in the same round.

After that, they passed on all of the running backs in the 4th-7th rounds to end the draft with nothing more at the position then when they started. This has many people wondering what their plan really is. They have arguably the best offensive line in the league and no one to take advantage of it.

So what do they currently have? They have Darren McFadden and a stable of unproven talent which they hope to use as a committee but insiders are starting to talk about one player that could potentially be a huge sleeper.
That running back is Ryan Williams. The former 2nd round stud running back who nearly lost his career due to injuries. People are saying Ryan Williams has put on weight and looks like he did back in his rookie year. If this is true and his body can hold up, he will be placed behind the best run blocking offensive line in the league and will have no choice but to succeed tremendously.

This is really going out on a limb but if you are bold enough, a fully recovered and healthy Ryan Williams should be able to rival ex-Cowboys running back Demarco Murray’s rushing title from last season.

Although Williams has a chance to shine, the Cowboys could also go back to the free agent pool and find a guy like Knowshon Moreno or Chris Johnson – a couple of previously productive free agent running backs that could end up without a team by the preseason.

In Defense of Winston, as if he needs it.

May 4, 2015 by Micheal Savoie

Donald Trump spins his story by saying that he started with only $10,000 and built himself into one of the largest real estate moguls to ever exist. However, he leaves out that his father was a construction magnate. If he were not able to capitalize from his father’s success, $10,000 would have meant nothing. Yet, his success is lauded as one of the great American success stories. The truth is that in America, there are very few people that actually start from nothing and achieve mega stardom. This pool of people would be even more limited if these people had to navigate any of the obstacle to reach success before they were 21 years of age.

This is exactly what Jameis Winston has done. He is one of the rarest athletes to ever exist, and through withering schemes to thwart his success, he has succeeded in making something of nothing. There is not a single group of elite athletes that has not had to fend off questions of improprieties with women and other grand offenses. Contrast this with Winston. There was never any proof of his guilt, and the other things he did would have been done by a majority of teenagers. Yes, teenagers. Winston is not a grown man, but he is learning at lightning speed.

Recent Heisman winner and media favorite Marcus Mariota had the press, but Jameis Winston got the call first. The vast machinery that the NFL has to vet the athletes that will be gracing its ranks considers him solid also. This is especially true after the spate of bad news that the NFL has endured over the past year in this area. You can bet good money that they have upped their vetting game. In any case, Winston is in familiar territory. Although this may seem counterintuitive, it is not.

Winston was only a freshman when he carried one of the most storied programs in college football history and restored them to their proper dominance. His value in recruiting alone will be worth millions to the university, as if the Heisman and National Championships were not enough. There are plenty of valid reasons to hate athletes. Cheering for the good and loathing the bad is one of the releases that sports provides. So hate him because he is the opponent, and not because of people’s glaring biases.