First Round Cheers and Jeers.

CHEERS:

Cleveland Browns - Nabbing the best offensive line player available in Joe Thomas and then having the balls to go for Brady Quinn after his Aaron Rodgers-like slide. Good first round on paper. Hope it pays off. Not sure if trading up for Quinn was worth your first-rounder next year, though.

Jacksonville Jaguars - Trading down to Denver's #21, getting two extra picks in the third and sixth rounds, and still getting Reggie Nelson at #21. Well played, sirs.

University of Miami - even in an off year, they get three 'Canes in the first round.

San Francisco - getting both Patrick Willis and Joe Staley in the first round is good trading to shore up your LB corps and your O-line.

JEERS:

Miami Dolphins - You have miserable failures at quarterback and want to trade for an aging, injury-prone one. Brady Quinn isn't exactly as good as hyped, but he's still probably a better shot down the road than what you have and what you're planning (John Beck from BYU in the 2nd, really?) Then, you take Ted Ginn, Jr., who's kind of frail and not exactly in a class with Dwaynes Bowe and Jarrett as far as WRs go. Even Matt Millen thinks that's bad draft strategy.

(Update: After I published, ESPN showed Fins coach Cam Cameron explaining the pick at a presser -- he apparently has known the Ginn family for years, promises Ted Ginn, Jr. will be a sensation. Uh huh. DS commenter Upshaw's Leash nailed it -- this is out of the White House school of press conference spinning.)

Philadelphia Eagles - trade your first round pick to Dallas when you could have nabbed Paul Posluszny there. Did Andy Reid find his kid's drug stash?

Brady Quinn - just 'cause I drink that Golden Domer Haterade (they bottle and sell it at areas around USC.) Karma's a bitch, baby. That uniform really should say #2, since the Browns decided to take Thomas before you, but if they gave you a #2 brown jersey, the nameplate might as well read "Steamer."

Every team needing a WR passing on Dwayne Jarrett - stop looking at combine 40 times and watch some goddamn game tape, people.

Welcome To Denver, Mr. Moss.

Say hi to our first-round pick, DE/OLB Jarvis Moss out of the national champion University of Florida Gators. Shanny probably didn't need to trade one of our two third round picks plus a sixth-round pick to the Jags in order to make sure to get him, but I'm happy to have him, nonetheless. We needed a pass rusher, we got one with the possibility of being Jevon Kearse-like, and hopefully with less injury trouble down the road.

251's a little skinny for a 6'6" DE, but if that doesn't pan out there, he would probably make a decent LB, and that's a place where you can always use some back-up there too. I like the pick, as you can clearly tell.

Draft Day.

Late to the party -- yay, hangover. If you're watching, Deadspin and Rumors and Rants are doing live draft coverage of each pick. Here are some cobbled thoughts right now. More to come after the first round is done, including the look at the Broncos picks.

JaMarcus Russell is already gone (good move, Raiders); Matt Millen drafts another WR, but Calvin Johnson's better than any of the guys before him. Cleveland passes up on the Domer QB for the tackle who'd rather go fishing from Wisconsin. Tampa takes Gaines Adams as consolation (and are probably on the phone with Millen.) The Skins take a good safety, and Adrian Peterson goes to the Vikings...Quinn's probably going to the Dolphins.

Broncos, listen to me: WE WANT SOME GATOR CHOMP. PICK JARVIS MOSS OR REGGIE NELSON IF AVAILABLE.

AMAZING FEATS OF STUPIDITY UPDATE: The Miami Dolphins have now just gone completely stupid, as in "Man, fuck yo' team" stupid. I've ragged on Brady Quinn a lot, but man, passing on him was, in Jimmy Johnson parlance, DUH-UMB. Taking Ted Ginn at #9 is fifteen picks too high. Miami, you just made Matt Millen look like he knows how to draft.

BRONCOS UPDATE: Shanny trades up to #17 with the Jags and drafts Jarvis Moss!

We Play GM, Day 2.

AA's still posting the rest of the first round picks in the Sports Bloggers Mock Draft, so go have a look. New picks every 15.

I took Texas safety Michael Griffin for the Broncos, as both desired Gator players (Reggie Nelson and Jarvis Moss) were off the board by the time I picked, and none of the D-linemen in the draft at that point were first-round pick worthy. Many mock drafts have Griffin as an early second-rounder, but I took him over Miami's Brandon Meriweather because he's less likely to get in off-the-field trouble (Meriweather, you'll recall, is one of the instigators in that Miami-FIU brawl from last year.)

I'm drafting for the Saints in the second round.

Where We Play General Manager.

Day One of Awful Announcing's Sports Bloggers Mock Draft is up, and the last few of the first 15 picks will be up soon (AA's updating them every 15 minutes). I think we cracked enough Brady Quinn jokes to last a lifetime.

Day Two will be up tomorrow.

Also worth noting on the Interblog scale: Marco has a nice feature called "The Terrible Jersey Hall of Fame", and I suggested my Mike Hampton Rockies jersey. I still think we broke him. Sorry, Atlanta.

Miami Quarterback Follies.

Must be something in the water down in the Florida area that makes the front offices of their pro football teams insane regarding quarterbacks. We'll gloss over the whole mess of Tampa Bay, bringing in Jeff Garcia to compete with Chris Simms and Bruce Gradkowski (right, adding Bruce only to be a completist) and trading for Jake Plummer, who then retired -- Gruden must just think that if he has four going into camp, one of them just has to be starter-quality enough to hurl it to Calvin Johnson, whom the Bucs are clearly man-crushing over hard enough to consider trading up for (more on Mr. Johnson later.)

The situation in South Florida is getting messier -- after the Dolphins dealt for both Daunte Culpepper and Joey Harrington prior to the 2006 season, big things were expected, as numerous pubs had the Dolphins deep in the playoffs, and SI put them in the Super Bowl against Carolina (yeah, that prognostication turned out well.) Culpepper stayed hurt after rushing back from the first surgery, and Harrington was his usual inconsistent. The play of the two is probably another factor of what drove Nick Saban to Tuscaloosa. It ought to be stated that this continued morass at QB is his fault, but Cam Cameron and the front office haven't done a hell of a lot to solve the problem so far. Harrington is now backing up Michael Vick in the ATL, and it's assumed Culpepper will be on the way out, as the Dolphins try to grab Trent Green from the Chiefs, who feel they no longer require his services with Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle on the roster.

Most sane people who observe the NFL on a regular basis would want nothing to do with Green as far as a trade goes at this point in his career (if he were to be cut, someone would give him a contract offer); however, not a lot of GMs in sports are considered sane. GM Randy Mueller probably rubber-stamps the coach's decisions on personnel, and if that's the case, the Cam Cameron era will be a short one. Now, Trent Green is not a bad QB, but many of us happen to remember this little hit from last year against Cincy:



(Yeah, the video stinks, and I don't think it was a cheap shot. It's the only clip of the video I could find on YouTube.)

Green was out for the majority of the season due to that concussion, and I think it was a mistake for Herm Edwards to go back to him in the playoffs after missing that much time. Why the Dolphins want a 36-year old QB is another question entirely, especially after David Carr was on the market and available for less (Green's agent wants to re-negotiate his contract with the team that acquires him.) It is a slight mistake to consider Green "extremely durable," as he missed an entire season with the Rams due to a freak injury, and Kurt Warner then stepped in and took his job (quite well, if a Super Bowl is good by anyone's standard.) The Dolphins had enough problems with Culpepper, whose injury put a few more virtual years on his already-30 self. Acquiring Green would be a bonehead move when what the team needs is a new or slightly used younger QB for a semi-stable future (Brady Quinn at #9 in the draft would not be a bad way to go, if he falls that far.) The Culpepper experiment, if it is over, ought to be instructive in the sense that it is time to start fresh on the offense, especially when New England has re-stocked yet again and the Jets dealt for Thomas Jones from the Bears. The defense will still be tops in Miami; acquiring Joey Porter is actually a help, even though he's on the way down as an individual player, he's still useful to a team, and he, Zach Thomas, and Jason Taylor look like a hell of a combo on paper.

Now, to the CJ-related tangent: If the Dolphins release Culpepper, what's the temptation the Raiders have to sign him? It re-teams him with Randy Moss, and leaves the Cryptkeeper and Coach Lunch Money (TM The Hater Nation) with an opportunity to draft the aforementioned Calvin Johnson, and ship Jerry Porter out of town. You could say that JaMarcus Russell is a younger, healthier version of Culpepper, but Al Davis is probably sick of waiting around (he may not have many more years to be patient) for a QB to develop; he's been down that road before. Of course, Culpepper post-injury only has a few good years left, which would leave the Raiders in the same damn situation come three or four years later.

The Schedule Is Here.

It's the first tantalizing note of the NFL returning -- first the schedule, then the draft, mini-camps, camp, pre-season, and then....oh, how I've missed you, football.

1. Sun, Sept. 9 at Buffalo, 1 p.m. EDT, CBS
2. Sun, Sept. 16, OAKLAND, 2:15 p.m. MDT, CBS
3. Sun, Sept. 23, JACKSONVILLE, 2:05 p.m. MDT, CBS
4. Sun, Sept. 30, at Indianapolis, 4:15 p.m. EDT, CBS
5. Sun, Oct. 7, SAN DIEGO, 2:15 p.m. MDT, CBS
6. BYE
7. Sun, Oct. 21, PITTSBURGH, 6:15 p.m. MDT, NBC
8. Mon, Oct. 29, GREEN BAY, 6:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN
9. Sun, Nov. 4, at Detroit, 1 p.m. EST, CBS
10. Sun, Nov. 11, at Kansas City, 12 p.m. CST, CBS
11. Mon, Nov. 19, TENNESSEE, 6:30 p.m. MST, ESPN
12. Sun, Nov. 25, at Chicago, 12 p.m. CST, CBS
13. Sun, Dec. 2, at Oakland, 1:05 p.m. PST, CBS
14. Sun, Dec. 9, KANSAS CITY, 2:15 p.m. MST, CBS
15. Thu, Dec. 13, at Houston, 7:15 p.m. MST, NFLN
16. Mon, Dec. 24, at San Diego, 5 p.m. PST, ESPN
17. Sun, Dec. 30, MINNESOTA, 2:15 p.m. MST, FOX

Three Monday nighters, a Thursday, and one Sunday nighter (and depending on how both teams look come week 12, that Chicago game could be flexed in for NBC.) That's a lot of prime-time exposure.

I say 3-0 to start, possible loss to Indy even with a better secondary with Dre Bly (we can now cover both Harrison and Reggie Wayne), good shot at beating SD at home, now that they're run by the NORV!!! Pitt might be a toughie, but it's at Mile High. Green Bay = pushover. Detroit stinks. Possible loss to KC on the road, but they're aging and not improving. Travis Henry goes monster on his old team; could go either way in Chicago depending on the Sex Cannon and whether the Bears D is OK. Beat the Raiders twice, beat KC at home. Houston will still suck. Another possible loss to the Bolts; Vikings are not exactly a devastating team. Naturally, this all depends on Jay Cutler stepping up. Saw some good things, saw rookie mistakes, but he has a legitimate franchise back in Travis Henry now, and that will help.

I think this could pan out for a 12-4 season, especially if Shanny drafts someone to buck up that defensive line and get the sack numbers the Horseheads have been missing since Trevor Pryce left. Speaking of the draft, Awful Announcing has set up a Sports Bloggers Mock Draft, and I'm drafting for....surprise, the Broncos. Should be fun. If you have any suggestions for draft picks -- of course, I'm leaning towards a D-lineman or LB, leave 'em in the comments.

that boy's gone crazy.

Has Troy Smith lost his mind? Despite (or possibly due to) his falling draft stock, he's angling for the Cleveland Browns to pick him and make him the hometowner who gets picked to stay in state for a pro career. After the BCS championship, Smith will be lucky enough to be drafted high enough to save face; he shouldn't be too picky or angling for his hometown team -- never mind that the Browns are a mess until they figure out how to cobble an offensive or defensive line together (it'll always be a source of wonder how Mike Shanahan could trade for the Browns' D-line and get them to play when Cleveland couldn't.)

Troy: be quiet, accept where you're picked in the draft bereft of first round QBs unless your name is Brady or JaMarcus, and hope you don't go to Cleveland or Detroit. Look, I still believe he could be a decent pro, and possibly better than either Charlie Frye or Derek Anderson, but home-state loyalty should only go so far.

(Ted Ginn is also pictured because he'd like to play for the Browns, and I think Brady Quinn is from Dublin. All these blue-chippers whom the Browns should go nowhere near early in the draft...)

le bon temps are over for the Irish.

You really cannot get rolled last night like Notre Dame did by LSU (with Son of Dreamboat* Brady Quinn getting shut down with 145 yards) , and still be considered anywhere near a national power, as ESPN's Mark Schlabach writes today and many others throughout the blog world have noted, either in comments or in their own entries.

They got rolled by Ohio State in last year's Fiesta Bowl, and despite their 2 losses, LSU is just as talented as this year's OSU squad; they just didn't put it together when it mattered. I talked to a friend of mine at work post-game and he'd just had a very good round of winning, having taken LSU at -8.5 and Boise State to upset on Oklahoma.

Co-worker: "My friend in Vegas called me and was actually hesitating on taking LSU. I told him, 'You can't take Notre Dame in a game like this if the spread is less than two touchdowns."
Me: "Hell, you could have taken LSU if the spread was 3 TDs."

Notre Dame travels well and they absolutely wreck the service academies every year. They had the most cupcake schedule of the BCS teams; Michigan and USC just bitch-slapped them, and it doesn't bode well if you have to come back against Michigan State and UCLA late in the game. The reason the Irish aren't in a conference is because they would wind up in the bottom half of it every year, without fail.

Back to Son of Dreamboat -- I predicted in comments on another site (can't remember which) that it would be nice to see how far Quinn's draft status fell after he got beat. I'm still irritated by the "Quinn as a #1 pick" talk -- it's the same talk by draftniks and colllege ball pundits that gave Vince Young a bad rap headed into the draft, and oops, he turned out to be the Offensive Rookie of the Year. "Waiter, please send a to-go order of the crow to Mr. Merrill Hoge's table." It looks like they're ready to do it again, this time to Troy Smith, all because they don't really watch the games enough or count them as enough of a factor.

Now, neither Troy Smith nor Brady Quinn are likely superstar QBs in the NFL to me, but if I had to put my team's financial future on risking one of them, I'd probably go with Smith -- he's done nothing but win A LOT. JaMarcus Russell, however, probably just made himself a high first round pick (if he leaves) with last night's game. Dude throws 50-60+ yards off his back foot.

(*Dreamboat term for Tom Brady stolen from With Leather.)