2010 NFL Draft Notes

Overall, not the best draft ever for Virginia Tech. Here are some of my thoughts from it:

• Jason Worilds was the only pick that surprised me at how high he was taken. The Pittsburgh Steelers took Worilds in the 2nd round with the 52nd overall pick. This should be good news for VT fans who like to watch their favorites in the NFL... the Steelers have a knack for eying talent at the linebacker position and seem to have a way of producing the most productive players at that position. Jason Worilds should be pumped up, he couldn't be in a better position than he is right now.
• The other Hokies selected were Kam Chancellor (Seattle Seahawks), Brent Bowden and Cody Grimm (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and Ed Wang (Buffalo Bills). Bowden should be able to step right in and compete for the starting punter job for the Bucs. Cody Grimm was selected purely as a special teams player, and that's where you're likely to see him on NFL opening day (is "opening day" a baseball expression only? My mind is like goo right now). Kam Chancellor has good tangibles, but his intangibles suck... not sure if he'll amount to anything more than a special teams player, but we'll see. Ed Wang is probably a career backup at best, depending on just how terrible (or injured) Buffalo's offensive line is.
• There were a ton of VT grads who didn't get selected. They were Sergio Render, Dorian Porch, Demetrius Taylor, Nekos Brown, Cordarrow Thompson, Stephan Virgil, Cam Martin, and Greg Boone. These players were pretty significant contributors for the Hokies, so that might hint at why VT's defense seemed to much more vincible than usual this past season. NFL teams didn't even think they were worth a 7th round pick. A few of them will be offered free agent contracts, but many of them will be working as insurance salesmen shortly hereafter. I heard Heath Shuler is hiring. Actually I just looked him up... he might be a congressman now. That is far less fun to make fun of.
• As for the draft itself... I hate the new format. If you want to split it up among 2 days rather than 3, that is fine with me. Rounds 1-3 are by far the most interesting. However, the draft needs to start on Saturday. It just does. There are too many things competing with the draft, including NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs, both of which are entertaining. I like the draft to be its own event that you can savor and not worry about what your NBA team is doing at the same time.
• My least favorite trend of this year's draft? The damn telephones. You knew what was going to happen a minute or two before each pick was selected because ESPN would show the players talking on the phone and looking emotional. I don't think there was a single player they showed talking on the phone who wasn't selected immediately afterward. It's so anti-climactic. I was sitting there thinking of all the wonderful possibilities the Browns had with the 7th pick of the draft and then I see Joe Haden crying into his phone, and it's like, "Oh... who is that on the phone? Is that the guy from Florida? Yeah, they just said his name. Okay I guess we're taking that guy." It takes all the joy out of a great pick and takes all the sting out of the "what the????" picks. The sting is what makes us feel alive! SCREW YOU ESPN!
• I thought Pete Carroll and the Seahawks had a really good draft. I thought Jacksonville had a crappaliscious draft. I thought the Redskins were insane to let Jason Campbell go for a 4th round draft pick that they will get to use 2 years from now. Productive NFL players are horrendously undervalued. I'm not saying Campbell is a great or even good quarterback. I'm saying he's about average. What percentage of rookies even turn into average NFL players? 10%? 20%? That's not worth more than a 4th round pick who will be lucky to make the team as a backup? I just don't get it.