Max Power's Sports Stash

For some reason that I could never quite grasp, the NFL Draft has become a gigantic event. Weeks (month, actually) of analysis and features on ESPN and Talk Radio leading up to an anti-climatic day of 10 second draft picks between 15 minutes of downtime. Personally, I might flip to the draft coverage a couple of times throughout the day, but I usually just wait to see the complete list of results later that night or the next morning.

I do understand the hype to an extent. This is a chance for every NFL organization to shape their future. Every team's front office goes about the draft in a different way. If I were an NFL owner I would immediately trade all my first round picks for established players or multiple 2nd round selections. I believe that the past has shown us that you have just as good of a chance to cash in on a long-time, All-Pro starter in the 2nd round as you do in the 1st.

To support his idea, I took a sampling of draft results from 2000 - 2003. I looked at the top 5 picks from rounds 1 and 2 in each of these drafts. Judge for yourself...

2000 DRAFT

Round 1
1  CLE DE Courtney Brown (Penn State)
2  WAS LB LaVar Arrington (Penn State)
3  WAS T  Chris Samuels (Alabama)
4  CIN WR Peter Warrick (Florida State)
5  BAL RB Jamal Lewis (Tennessee)

Round 2
1  CLE WR Dennis Northcutt (Arizona)
2  NO  DE Darren Howard (Kansas State)
3  CIN CB Mark Roman (Louisiana State)
4  SF  DE John Engelberger (Virginia Tech)
5  PHI WR Todd Pinkston (Southern Mississippi)


2001 DRAFT

Round 1
1  ATL QB Michael Vick (Virginia Tech)
2  ARZ T  Leonard Davis (Texas)
3  CLE DT Gerard Warren (Florida)
4  CIN DE Justin Smith (Missouri)
5  SD  RB LaDainian Tomlinson (Texas Christian)

Round 1
1  SD  QB Drew Brees (Purdue)
2  CLE WR Quincy Morgan (Kansas State)
3  ARZ DE Kyle Vanden Bosch (Nebraska)
4  ATL TE Alge Crumpler (North Carolina)
5  CIN WR Chad Johnson (Oregon State)


2002 DRAFT

Round 1
1  HOU QB David Carr (Fresno State)
2  CAR DE Julius Peppers (North Carolina)
3  DET QB Joey Carrington (Oregon)
4  BUF T  Mike Williams (Texas)
5  SD  CB Quentin Jammer (Texas)

Round 2
1  HOU WR Jabar Gaffney (Florida)
2  CAR RB DeShaun Foster (UCLA)
3  DET DE Kalimba Edwards (South Carolina)
4  BUF WR Josh Reed (Louisiana State)
5  DAL G  Andre Gurode (Colorado)


2003 DRAFT

Round 1
1  CIN QB Carson Palmer (Southern Cal)
2  DET WR Charles Rogers (Michigan State)
3  HOU WR Andre Johnson (Miami (Fl))
4  NYJ DT Dewayne Robertson (Kentucky)
5  DAL CB Terence Newman (Kansas State)

Round 2
1  CIN G  Eric Steinbach (Iowa)
2  DET LB Boss Bailey (Georgia)
3  CHI CB Charles Tillmman (Louisiana - Lafayette)
4  HOU CB Eugene Wilson (Illinois)
5  ARZ T  Jon Stinchcomb (Georgia)

Certainly there are more sure-fire stars coming from the first five picks of each draft than the 32-36 picks. But when you consider the difference in what you must pay these rookies coming out of the gate, you might come around to my strategy of dumping the early picks.