NFL Draft: The Preview

I am not a draft lover. I like the draft, I like to see who my favorite team picks and how far "guaranteed" top 10 picks can fall (ala Aaron Rodgers) but no one actually likes the draft, besides Mel Kiper Jr.

Pick #1 belongs to the lowly Detroit Lions. If they select a quarterback, his career is basically fucked. You can't win with that team, no matter how good Calvin Johnson is. With a putrid defense, an offensive line that couldn't block me and Juice and an overall football attitude of "we suck", its doomed to fail. Now, I don't care how bad the Lions mess up someones career, they have an awesome new logo (PLEASE note the sarcasm)

But my issues with the draft extend FAR beyond the first overall pick, but mainly rest between each pick. Football is a slow game. No one in their right mind can deny that football games, especially pro, should be sped up. As much as I love watching a touchdown, PAT, commercial, kickoff, commercial sequence...it gets a little old. So the 15 minutes (it might be 10 minutes now?) between picks is a bit much. If it is 15 minutes between picks it takes just over an hour to get through pick #4. Unless of course Mike Tice is drafting an picks come rapid fire because of some goofy rule that says when your time is up, its everyone elses turn. Granted, only Mike Tice would ever allow that to happen.

The insane time allotments aside, is there any event more over-hyped than the NFL Draft? How many of these players will matter next year? And of the players who matter how many will you actually notice? ESPN's Todd McShay has four offensive tackles going in the top 10. Yea, 40% of the top ten is offensive lineman. I understand the importance of the O-line, and Detroits newest quarterback will wish he had a capable one, but how boring is it going to be to hear Mel Kiper go on and on about the ability of these very large men to block? Thats a great way to spend your Saturday!

Even after the annoyance of waiting hours to see picks, hearing analyst ramble on about good and bad picks (apparently each of them is unbelievably knowledgeable and could do a better job running a team, but just doesnt want to and turns down offers every year) the worst part of the draft and I mean the worst part is how every somewhat talented guy who gets drafted too late has character issues or is a steal. No one ever just falls because of the position they play or lack of competition they faced in college. I realize not all NFL players are great people (See: Jones, Adam "Pacman") but sometimes teams just dont want or like a guy because of how he plays.

So sorry to Mel Kiper Jr. and his fellow analyst but I will not be watching your coverage this year. The only interesting subplots to me are who my team drafts and how loud the New York Jets fans can boo when their team drafts.

-The Kicker