FOV Cavalier of the Year, #3/#4

The official From Old Virginia Birthday is June 10, at which time this blog marks its first year of publication. For the birthday celebration, we - that is, me, and you the readers - will name the FOV Cavalier of the Year. My job is to pick the twelve finalists and write a few words about each that tell you all about their accomplishments. Your job is easier: to vote in the poll that will run once all twelve are finished.

Two of the finalists will be highlighted each day this week, today through Saturday. They're in random order with no rhyme or reason implied or intended. Today: Eugene Monroe and Dominic Inglot/Michael Shabaz.

Eugene Monroe - Football - Left tackle













Team accomplishments:

- Beat two ranked ACC teams, and Maryland by 31.
- Um.....that's about it.

Personal accomplishments:

- Selected 8th overall in the NFL draft.
- Winner of ACC's Jacobs Blocking Trophy as league's best blocker.
- First-team all-ACC selection with third-most votes overall.
- ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week following win over ECU.

It's pretty clear by the inclusion of team accomplishments in these lists that I sort of intend them to be taken into account in the voting, and the football team is one of the few UVA teams that had a lousy year. That said, it's not as if there weren't bright spots, and Eugene Monroe was the brightest. He established himself as the ACC's premier offensive lineman and one of the clear best in the country, rewarded for a fine season with an invite to sit in the green room at the NFL Draft and come out on stage to pose with the commish when his name was called with the 8th overall pick. He was the third ACC player taken, but the second one taken that nobody said "WTF???" after. He came to UVA as a top-ten prospect nationally and left the same way - the only one in that group that can claim that.

Dominic Inglot/Michael Shabaz - Men's tennis - Doubles














Team accomplishments:

- Third consecutive ACC championship
- Won NCAA regional
- Made NCAA quarterfinals
- Undefeated regular season
- Extended streak of consecutive matches won against ACC to 45

Personal accomplishments:

- Won national doubles championship
- That's "National. Championship."
- Defeated #1 pairing in the nation in the first round of NCAA doubles tournament
- Won 10 of 13 sets in NCAA doubles tournament
- 41-8 record as a doubles pairing

Unlike yesterday's women's basketball pairing, Inglot and Shabaz are here specifically as a pair. When you bring home a national championship, I don't care if it is in an under-the-radar sport like tennis, finalist status for CotY is guaranteed. Even had they lost every single other point they played all year. But they didn't, mind you - they won an incredible 84% of their matches, finished the year as the #1 doubles pairing after starting off as #2, and roared through an NCAA field (playing three higher-seeded pairings on the way) to bring home the only national championship that UVA has seen this season. (So far. Keeping my fingers crossed for the baseball team.)

omg our recruiting o noez

Some time back, a reader pointed out in a comment the alternating nature of our recruiting classes, in which odd years are awesome and even years suck. This as you're likely to know is a trend going back to about 2004 or 2005, depending on how you think the 2004 class as a whole panned out. I answered the question - that is, will 2010 be any better? - optimistically. I wonder if I was right.

Since the 2004 class yielded Chris Long, Cedric Peerman, Chris Gould, Clint Sintim, and sort-of* Branden Albert, as well as sort-of Olu Hall who had a very studly star rating, let's arbitrarily say this trend began in 2005, when we plucked Eugene Monroe out of New Jersey. 2005 was a very good class. Now, what's got UVA fans really uneasy is the number of commitments at this point in the year: One. Duke has five. In past years, here's how we stood with commitments as of May 15:

2005: 11
2006: 0
2007: 6
2008: 3
2009: 7
2010: 1

There's a very clear up-and-down pattern to that, although I probably ought to caveat the 2009 number by pointing out one of those 7 is eventual decommit Alex Owah; what I didn't count was Caleb Porzel, who'd already committed and disappeared by this time. No matter how you slice it, the best even-year performance as of May 15 is half as good as the worst odd-year performance.

There's also no denying that the even years have been a disappointment in the star ratings. Rivals had all our odd-year classes 6th in the conference and our even year ones as high as 8th and as low as 11th. The best player we got out of the '06 class is Nate Collins, who was also the lowest-rated.

Taking stock honestly, I see no reason why this trend won't continue. If you like to go by nothing but star ratings and recruiting service rankings, you're probably going to be one sorry Wahoo come Signing Day 2010. All the factors are there. By this point in the year most teams have a list of commits; our list is one. It's going to be a small class; any genius who's been keeping track of the scholarships could guess that. We're already overbooked and losing only 12 to eligibility at the end of the year. The recruiting services, when ranking classes against each other, bias the rankings toward big-ass classes. And those who are most likely to commit sometime soon (Conner Davis, E.J. Scott, Marcus Rush maybe, Kyrrel Latimer, etc.) have low-to-medium three-star rankings. Nothing like 2007 when four-stars Peter Lalich and J'Courtney Williams committed within three days of each other in April.

Now. Not a lot of our offered targets have actually committed elsewhere. So while we're not exactly raking them in, we're not losing out in great numbers, either. The biggest losses are probably Silas Redd, Philip Sims, Mark Shuman, Seth Betancourt, and Justin Hunter. Redd and Shuman were in love with their particular school and the only thing that would have stopped them going was a lack of an offer; Sims, we had a shot at, but he was always going to be a hard get, and the same is true with Hunter only minus the part where we had a legit shot.

So there's that for consolation, but it's also very indicative of the coaching staff slow-playing this thing. They're not going to go all-out to fill up the class, because that's the last thing they want to do, lest they lose out on someone they want badly.

Conclusion, then: Star-gazers are going to be sorely disappointed. If this class ranks 10th or lower by the recruiting services, it won't surprise me one bit. But! You might notice I chose two flame-outs from the '07 class as my earlier example; that's on purpose. The strength of the '07 class is not in the seven four-stars, most of whom will probably not have four-star careers. Likewise, the '08 class was badly panned by UVA fans as a huge recruiting disappointment. It was small and sucked ass in the star department. It's also yielded at least seven players who figure to play a major role on the depth chart this year, and that's while these guys are sophomores or redshirt freshmen.

So, actual conclusion: Star-gazers, you're still going to not like the class. I think from a rankings perspective, the top end of the class will look a little better than 2008, in which Ausar Walcott and Torrey Mack were the only headliners. It's still going to be a small class though and most of them will be in the unexciting range. But I think, like 2008, a few years after the class is in the books, we'll learn the lesson for the umpteenth time that star ratings don't mean everything. Kevin Parks, for example, I think will be brilliant. If Ken Wilkins signs up, I think he'll be brilliant. There will be at least one really excellent receiver in the class, and I think we'll be happy with the quarterback we sign, whoever that is.

After some of our big summer events, like Big Fancy Blue-Chip Shindig Day in June and the camp in July, we'll have a lot better notion of how this thing is going to shake out.

*Sort-of, because they prepped and ended up in the following year's class.

Many many many apologies for skipping yesterday's post, but it was Game 7 of Wings-Ducks, y'see. All ended well in that department, and to make it up to you, the Maryland lacrosse game highlights will be on YouTube by Sunday evening.

the future for our draftees

So tonight I'm here to tell you all about how the draft went, and if we're really lucky, I can get through this whole post without pissing and moaning about the Lions' performance this weekend. (A tight end? Seriously? You rank 33rd of 32 teams in rush defense and you pick up a tight end? Wait, no. Two tight ends?)

Agh.

Anyway, you know how the draft went, per se. What I'm going to do is take a stab at figuring out whether or not our guys ended up in a good situation and at how much playing time we can expect for them.

Eugene Monroe - 8th overall to the Jaguars

Jacksonville's made no secret at all that they think their line needs upgrading. They've signed like 2 or 3 offensive tackles in the offseason, including aging Pro Bowler LT Tra Thomas, and then went out and drafted two more - after taking Monroe, they took Arizona's Eben Britton in the second round. Clearly, they're not happy about giving up 42 sacks last year. Monroe should be the highest-paid tackle on the roster, but Thomas has a few seasons left in the tank. Left tackle is not a place you want a platoon, so Monroe will face fierce competition in camp from a wily old veteran who simply didn't miss games in Philly and no doubt has absolutely zero intention of missing any with Jacksonville. A shift to right tackle may be in order for Monroe if he plays well but can't beat out Thomas and if the Jags decide they don't want to pay Monroe eight figures to park his happy self on the bench all season.

Clint Sintim - 45th overall to the Giants

This could be interesting to watch because Sintim got drafted to a 4-3 team. The Giants' nominal starters at OLB are Danny Clark, who started for them last year, and Michael Boley, who they signed from the Falcons on a $5 million-a-year deal in the offseason. Chances are, if Sintim plays his way into the starting lineup right out of training camp, it'll be at the expense of Clark. Physically, he's got the tools - right away, he's the Giants' biggest linebacker, just a shade smaller than holy terrors (and DEs) Osi Umenyiora and Mathias Kiwanuka. That's a plus for Sintim because it means he's not stuck at linebacker - if he shows all the skills but can't crack the lineup ahead of the veterans, he could find himself a role on the line in the occasional pass-rush situation. But the main drawback here is the 4-3 - Sintim will have to re-learn a lot of the basics and this could slow his development.

Cedric Peerman - 185th overall to the Ravens

Frankly, Peerman should not have fallen this far. That said, he landed on his feet in Baltimore. Barring any future free agent signings, the Ravens have only five RBs on the roster, including Peerman, which gives him a much better shot than most sixth-round picks at making the roster out of training camp. Where he's going to find the carries is a different story, because the Ravens split the carries last year among Leron McClain, Ray Rice, and Willis McGahee, and all got a substantial amount. There's probably not room for four in the regular rotation. But simply making a roster is a win for a sixth-round pick, and once there, he's probably only one injury away from being called on.

John Phillips - 208th overall to the Cowboys

Another decent landing spot. The Cowboys happen to be a team that likes to use two-TE formations. When it's only one, Jason Witten is the obvious choice, and when it's two, they put Martellus Bennett out there. Bennett was reasonably productive last year with 20 catches; Witten led the team in receptions with 81. Dallas' third TE last year was named Tony Curtis who had eight catches himself; Curtis is off to the Chiefs this year, so Phillips' main competition for that third TE spot will likely be Rodney Hannah, who's been on the Cowboys' practice squad the past two years. Right now that shapes up to be a two-way battle for one backup TE spot on the Cowboys' roster, which again is a situation better than a lot of sixth-round picks find themselves in.

So - four draftees. Stacking up next to the rest of the ACC, that's pretty good. Only UNC and Maryland had more with five each, and Maryland's fifth player taken was Dan Gronkowski, by the Lions, second-to-last overall, and the Lions are retarded, so that doesn't count. Clemson, GT, and Wake each produced four as well. Did you ever think you'd see the day when we put more players into the NFL draft than Miami, FSU, and Virginia Tech combined? Or when Miami produced one measly sixth-round pick after having that streak of first-rounders?

Some other schools that also placed four in the draft: Texas, Alabama
Some other schools that placed less than four in the draft: Michigan, Auburn, Tennessee, Nebraska, Florida(!)

So all in all, if you're looking through the draft through the lens of "UVA is awesome" then you have to be pretty happy about it. We were represented on the podium, well-represented elsewhere, and our guys fell into some pretty good spots. The Giants, Ravens, and Cowboys drafted nobody else at those positions, and they put our guys in position to succeed. I like it.

Tomorrow, we'll see about the undrafted guys. They get their moment too. I was going to do that today, but, it's running late, you guys need a post, and frankly there's no sense in writing one big post when two will do just fine. Saves me from having to rack my brains for ideas. And I'm missing the Tigers game.

mock drafts, take 3

(A couple quick Tony Bennett links to get you started. Here's one, here's another. They're interviews, pretty good, I enjoyed 'em you will too, go read, etc. etc.)

It is NFL Draft Eve. Like Christmas, only for grown-ups who didn't really grow up all the way. (I was going to say "like an adult Christmas" only that sounds like the holiday in which you get "adult toys" and I try to be PG-13, so, no. Just a small, probably unwanted window into my head.)

Anyway, my Christmas is already spoiled. I feel just like a kid who really really wants a ten-speed, overhears his parents saying "he'll love it, it's just what he wants", sneaks downstairs, and finds a two-speed girls' bike. I'm finally getting what I've always wanted, only it's a terrible version of it because Mom doesn't know the difference between bikes and the salesman said this was a really good one. That's what drafting Matt Stafford is like when your team has not had a good quarterback since the Eisenhower era.

Whatever, you don't want to hear about the Lions, you want to hear about UVA. So in this post (1) and this one (2) I dug up a bunch of mock drafts to see what the experts thought about Eugene Monroe's draft possibilities. Now that we pretty much know everything we're going to know about tomorrow, it's time for Take #3. Here are the mocks from around the GoogleTubes:

Chris Steuber (scout.com): 2nd - St. Louis Rams
James Alder (about.com): 4th - Seattle Seahawks
Pete Fiutak (cfn.com): 4th - Seattle Seahawks
Yahoo! Sports: 6th - Cincinnati Bengals
Don Banks (Sports Illustrated): 6th - Cincinnati Bengals
Evan Silva (NBC Sports): 6th - Cincinnati Bengals
Mel Kiper (ESPN.com): 7th - Oakland Raiders
Nolan Nawrocki (profootballweekly.com): 8th - Jacksonville Jaguars
Rob Rang (CBS Sports): 9th - Green Bay Packers

A few differences, notably, NBC's mock this time is done by someone who isn't Steve Silverman, who was dumb - Silverman's first mock omitted Monroe entirely. Which is why I've been dropping the top and bottom picks to find the averages. Having a sane writer do NBC's mock didn't help Monroe's average positioning, though. He's dropped a few slots in most of these, and has gone from the 5th pick to the 4th, and now, taking the averages and again dropping the top and bottom, the 6th pick.

A lot of the mocks now mention the occasional knee issues Monroe's had over the years, which was probably a factor. Andre Smith has also been creeping back up the boards. After the combine, a few writers openly wondered if Smith had worked himself right out of the first round, opening up more spots higher up for Monroe. Then they came to their senses and realized NFL teams, especially bad ones, generally don't let character issues get in the way of talent, and Smith is now solidly back in the top ten. So Monroe takes a little bit of a hit.

Me? Barring any trades, I think Monroe goes 6th, to the Bengals.

It won't be the Lions - Stafford is the pick, unless they don't get a deal done and take Aaron Curry instead. The Rams could use an OT, but Jason Smith seems to be generally considered the better pick by NFL types (witness the Yahoo draft, which ranks Monroe the #1 prospect in the whole draft but has the Rams taking J. Smith anyway.) The Chiefs are the most likely to deal their pick - if they don't, they'll take Curry, and if they do, that team didn't trade up for Monroe - probably Mark Sanchez. The Seahawks could take Monroe if both quarterbacks are gone, but I think they'll see this draft as a chance to get someone for grooming to succeed Matt Hasselbeck. Cleveland has a Pro Bowl LT already.

That brings us to Cincinnati. There's not the smallest doubt they need a left tackle - they gave up 51 sacks last year. (Hey, guess who gave up more? Ford Field turf - Matt Stafford. Matt Stafford, Ford Field turf. You guys will be seeing a lot of each other, up close and personal.) If my stab at mocking the draft is correct, the Bengals will have a choice between Monroe and Andre Smith. I'm guessing the Bengals are tired of being known as a rest stop on the road between college and the back of a squad car. Not to suggest Andre Smith is a likely candidate for prison himself, but character questions are character questions, and that tag is his, like it or not. Between the guy that's raised issues about himself and the guy who hasn't, the choice will be easy for the Bengals.

Since I'm in the business of making predictions, here are a couple more for the rest of our draftable types:

Clint Sintim - 2nd round
Cedric Peerman - 4th round
Kevin Ogletree - 5th round
John Phillips - 5th round
Antonio Appleby - 7th round

So there you go. Happy draft-watching. Me, I'll be spending most of the weekend desperately hoping the Lions remember they have a defense too (or actually, don't have a defense and need to draft one.)

the case for Eugene Monroe

So yeah - the NFL Draft. Here's the funny thing about this: I've been a Lions fan all my life, which means some pretty rotten seasons especially in the last decade. You'd think that at least once during all that time, the Lions would have been in line to pick atop the draft order given their stellar history. In fact you'd be wrong. I've always wondered what it would be like to follow the draft with the Lions at the top of it and at the same time never really wanted to find out.

Anyway, here we are, the party is less than a week away, and nobody really knows what the Lions will do. This is bad news for two reasons; one, there's no really dominant player that you'd be stupid not to take, and two, the Lions' needs are so many that there's no matching up a great player with glaring need. In fact there are only four positions of non-need on the Lions roster: receiver, running back, punter, and kicker. If there were a Chris Long or a Quentin Jammer this year, you can be they'd be in the conversation too, and the only thing keeping Michael Crabtree out is Calvin Johnson.

Anyway, pretty much all of the speculation centers on 5 players: QBs Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez, LB Aaron Curry, and OTs Jason Smith and, of course, Eugene Monroe. Alabama's Andre Smith was once in the conversation too, but he managed to take every play out of the Don't Draft Me playbook - agent trouble galore, crappy workouts, prima-donnatude at the combine - and execute them all to stunning perfection.

Now, of that list, Stafford seems the most likely, and also the most likely to piss me off. Monroe actually does not really appear to be much more than a fuzzy radar blip, which is really annoying because the Lions had a really good chance to draft another stud UVA lineman in Branden Albert and passed him up to trade down for a lesser player. You need a guard, the best one on the board falls in your lap....and you trade down for a worse guard. And you stupid bastards wonder why you went 0-16.

Anyway, I digress. The subject of Lions management tends to raise my hackles. Let's take a look at why all four of those not-Monroe players shouldn't be the pick:

Matt Stafford/Mark Sanchez: Forget Sanchez. His own friggin' coach thinks he shouldn't have left. Who would know him better? Not a good idea, end of story.

Now, here's what pisses me off about Mel Kiper, besides the fact that he's allowed to be wrong 100% of the time and never be held accountable for it. His assessment of the situation boils down to this: The Lions need a quarterback - Stafford has the best arm in the draft - Lions should take Stafford. Never mind how likely Stafford actually is to be a good quarterback - he's the best there, the Lions need one, take him. Stafford's best asset is supposedly his arm strength, which was also considered to be the really great thing about Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, and Kyle Boller. Unfortunately, Stafford's accuracy sucks and that puts him in really sucky company.

Kiper's misguided attempt at logic can be used against him. If the Lions don't take Stafford, they will continue to suck, it can be inferred from that line of thinking. So they will get a high pick in next year's draft, at which point they'll be able to choose from a group that's much, much better than the sorry-ass collection of misfit toys in this draft. There will be, at a minimum, Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow, and probably Sam Bradford, at least one of whom would almost certainly be available in the top-five slot the Lions will likely earn next year, and all of whom would be preferable to Stafford, a workout star and big-game choker. When you desperately need an upgrade at 20 of 22 starting positions, you don't take the one with the most development needed and biggest risk involved.

I haven't even gotten to the biggest thing yet. See, when you take a quarterback, you're not only trying to run the offense, you're trying to sell jerseys. You're trying to get someone the fans will rally behind and buy tickets to see. Ordinarily, any ol' #1 overall quarterback would do the trick. But we Lions fans have seen this movie already, and we're afraid it's going to be a trilogy. Volume 1 was Andre Ware; Volume 2, Joey Harrington. Lions fans are so anti-Stafford that they actually chanted Don't Draft Stafford at today's logo unveiling. The last thing this organization needs, besides another 16-loss season, is for their first #1 overall pick since 1980 to get booed as he smiles awkwardly and holds up his #1 jersey on stage, and again when he takes the field before he's even thrown a pass. This whole affair has bust written all over it.

Aaron Curry: This is a harder case to make, because the Lions literally have no middle linebacker. The need here is even greater than at quarterback. Guess what though: Curry isn't a middle linebacker. Theoretically, he could make the switch. Theoretically. The thing about this draft though is that it's deep enough at linebacker that the Lions could pass on Curry and still get one with the 20th overall pick. In fact many mock drafts have them taking Rey Maualuga or James Laurinitis with that pick. This is a much shorter section because picking Curry would actually curry (HA HA HA) my favor and not piss me right off like picking Stafford would.

So, we've established that the Lions should pass on the quarterback and the linebacker. That leaves offensive tackle and a battle between Monroe and Jason Smith. Why Monroe?

- Multiple sources think Monroe is the better pass blocker. Smith is stronger and may be a better run blocker, but good run blocking starts in the middle. Good pass blocking starts at the edges. It's why you hear about pass-rushing DE's and run-stuffing DT's. You can get away with a little bit less of a run-blocker at tackle, but that left tackle damn well better protect the passer. There were none better at protecting the passer the last two years in college football than Eugene Monroe, and zero sacks given up in 2007 prove it.

- Is that a two-point stance? Yes, yes it is. Smith operated out of a spread offense at Baylor and very often started plays in a two-point, not three-point stance. Monroe has been in a more-or-less pro-style offense all this time. Slight preparation edge to Monroe for fewer transition pains (an edge we're admittedly giving up this season.) Slight, but at the #1 pick, an edge is an edge.

- UVA has an undeniable recent history of producing NFL-ready linemen. Albert. D'Brick. Big E. Even our "lesser" prospects at least get an NFL shot: Brad Butler. Brian Barthelmes. You get a UVA lineman, you know you're getting someone who's got all the right coaching.

- The last and only time the Lions took a Wahoo in the first round, they ended up with the greatest wide receiver in Lions history. It's been over 10 years since the Lions last drafted a UVA football player - it's time, dammit.

I don't actually think the Lions will take Monroe. I'm bracing myself for Matt "The Bust" Stafford. If not Stafford, the Lions have shown more overtures to Curry and Smith than to Monroe and it'd probably be one of those two. And honestly, the Lions fan in me is happy as long as we don't get a quarterback. But I think you know what the UVA fan wants.

cuuurrrrryyyy. cuuurrrrryyyy.

Being a sports fan is weird. It's like this, see. As you can see from the sidebar, I'm a Hoo by choice, not by birth. The main thing this means, besides having a diploma, is that a lot of UVA history is sort of alien to me. Take Jason Williford - it's very exciting for those who were fans back in the early '90s that he's once again with the program. I myself had only a vague memory of having heard his name a couple times over the past nine years or so. My mechanism for whenever this sort of thing happens is to translate it over to my Michigan fandom - in this case, to imagine what it would be like as a Michigan fan if, say, Jimmy King came back as an assistant coach. (Which he's not allowed to do because of Fab Five sanctions, but bear with me.) It's not the same, but it's close. That way I can write about it and give a story like that the treatment it deserves instead of "some guy just got hired."

I'm a quick study, though. In 1999 I took notice of UVA's crushing at the hands of Illinois in the bowl game, but didn't allow myself to get too disappointed because, well, what if I didn't get accepted? The letter was still three months away. The next football game Virginia played was a devastating overtime loss to BYU in the sparkling, newly-renovated stadium. I say "devastating" because I was there, in attendance, a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed first-year and newly minted Cavalier fan, helping set a then-record for largest crowd ever at a sporting event within the Virginia borders. And it sucked walking out of there because we had that game won, man. I was genuinely upset about this. A new fanatic was born.

I had a lot to learn, though. A couple months later, North Carolina came to town. I knew a few things about them. I knew who their quarterback was, for example - a junior named Ronald Curry. But it was blindingly obvious there was more than just the usual level of scorn for that particular opponent. "Seething hatred" would be apt. Burning, spleenful rancor. You and a thesaurus could spend all day coming up with great literature-y ways to describe it, but there was clearly a greater-than-normal interest in the crowd in seeing this guy fail. A patient upperclassman next to me in the stands answered my inquiries with the story of Curry's recruitment and why exactly his first name was Benedict as far as anyone on Charlottesville was concerned. "Oh," I said. "Fuck that guy." "Exactly," was the reply. And when the game started I took just as much delicious schadenfreudey delight as anyone else at each and every one of Curry's mistakes. Every time he fumbled, every incomplete pass, every sack, were better than when they happened to some other schmo in the wrong colors. The game went down as just one in a long string of Curry's, and Carolina's, futility in Charlottesville, and a new fanatic grew into his fanaticism just a little more.

Why do I tell you all this? This footnote in the Detroit papers is why - inconsequential to most, to me, a story:

Lions sign WR Ronald Curry, FB Terrelle Smith

Most Lions fans see the team going about its offseason business as usual. I see something different, obviously. In ten years, Ronald Curry has gone from the quarterback of a random ACC team 800 miles away, to a guy wearing the colors of my NFL team. Stops in between include "despised filthy traitor" and "a big reason I actually had a decent fantasy team a couple years ago for once." This is why sports fanhood is so much fun.

This should provide another quality round of schadenfreude for UVA fans that remember the whole debacle, by the way. I'm a Lions fan, but they are officially the worst team ever to disgrace an NFL field, and in order to sign with them you have to either be not good enough to play for 31 other teams, or an unabashed mercenary. At this stage in his career, Curry is probably both.

Ohbytheway. Speaking of the Lions, here the case is made as to why they should make Eugene Monroe the first pick in the draft. Mike Mayock beat me to the punch - I had that post all planned for next week. Tough - I'm gonna write it anyway. Probably on Tuesday.

And now, speaking of guys we hate, we're not the only ones in this case. NBA scouts gave their opinions on various early enrollees for the draft, including everyone's favorite Twerp, Greivis Vasquez. The verdict: He's a gigantic douchenozzle of such douchey proportions that I'd actually draft a worse player on my team just so I don't have to put up with his douchey shit. Gee, I wonder what attracted him to Maryland.

This weekend is the spring game. Next week sometime I'll make some attempt at a spring wrap-up - not because I'm actually going to get to see the spring "game" (glorified scrimmage) but because it just sort of seems silly to do it beforehand. Actually the main thing to get excited about is that it's one of the bigger recruiting weekends of the early recruiting season. There won't be this many prospects on Grounds until camp time in June. There's always the hope for a commitment or two, and my best guess is if we get any, they'll be from Conner Davis and/or E.J. Scott.

mock drafts, take 2

A few weeks ago I went through a list of mock drafts to see where Eugene Monroe was tabbed by the various pundits. Now it's after the combine, so let's do that again to see what effect the combine had on his draft stock.

(A quick tangent about "draft stock" and the combine: I really hate when my team (the Lions) take a player who wasn't particularly highly thought of before the combine but who "really rocketed up the draft boards" after the combine, or some such phrasing. Frankly I think if a player's four years of playing actual football games weren't enough of a resume to draft him high and pay him millions, one meat market weekend shouldn't suddenly change anyone's mind. This is the part of the NFL draft that drives me nuts. That said, however, Monroe was already thought of as a top-five pick by many before the combine, so the fact that his "stock" has risen slightly since doesn't really trigger this reaction for me.)

Here is the pre-combine list of mocks. Throwing out the highest and lowest (mainly because one mock, probably compiled after an all-night bender on Wild Turkey and cocaine, left him out of the first round, and I don't otherwise know how I should figure the average) his average draft spot was about 5th. Here are the updates:

James Alder (about.com): 1st - Detroit Lions
Nolan Nawrocki (profootballweekly.com): 2nd - St. Louis Rams*
Yahoo Sports/Nat'l Football Post: 2nd - St. Louis Rams#
Don Banks (Sports Illustrated): 3rd - Kansas City Chiefs
Tony Kornheiser (his own blog): 3rd - Kansas City Chiefs*
Rob Rang (CBS Sports): 4th - Seattle Seahawks
Chris Steuber (Scout.com): 6th - Cincinnati Bengals
Mel Kiper (ESPN): 6th - Cincinnati Bengals
Pete Fiutak (cfn.com): 6th - Cincinnati Bengals
Steve Silverman (NBC Sports): 14th - New Orleans Saints

*Nawrocki hasn't actually updated his since the original one, and Kornheiser has but not since the combine
#I wanted there to be a Yahoo mock draft when I wrote the first post, but there wasn't. Now there is.

So, again throwing out the highest and lowest picks, Monroe moved up a spot, from 5th to 4th. Still just one pundit who thinks he'll go first overall, and that I think is mainly because many of these guys are fixated on Matt Stafford.

(Tangent alert. I speak in this paragraph as a Lions fan. If you want to skip ahead that's cool. With the disclaimer out of the way, I absolutely hate this notion that a bad team must get a quarterback before it does anything else; and further I hate the notion that since Stafford (or in the minds of some, Mark Sanchez) is the best quarterback in the draft, he must naturally be a Franchise Quarterback. The Lions have sucky suck sucks at practically every position and they frankly need the best player available, except Crabtree. Whoever that is, they should take. I don't know for sure whether that's Monroe, or Jason/Andre Smith, or Aaron Curry, or what, but it is not Stafford. Stafford is often compared to Jay Cutler as a Franchise Quarterback. Oh really? A first-overall quality quarterback can't do any better than be compared to the 16th best quarterback in the league in passer rating and the one who threw the second-most picks all year? Fuck. That. Gimme a lineman or a linebacker or something.)

OK sorry about that. I'm done there. Anyway, the combine seems to have had the effect of boosting Monroe's "stock" somewhat. However, Monroe's getting out-benched rather badly by Baylor's Jason Smith was pretty publicized, and overall that bench press was not a great showing. Monroe makes a move upwards primarily, I think, because of the absolute self-nuke job Andre Smith managed to pull at the combine. A. Smith is too talented to drop out of the first round, but he effectively removed himself from competition with J. Smith and Monroe. I think most of the above picks are fair - they generally reflect whether the pundit thinks Monroe or J. Smith is a better choice - except Silverman's. That's not too puzzling though - Silverman simply underrates all the tackles. None of the three even sniff the top ten in his mock. It's a bit weird given the NFL's propensity of late to think very highly of left tackles (Jake Long, yo) and probably dismissable.

Check back tomorrow for my rant on the utter hypocrisy of the Mountain West playoff proposal.

mock drafts

Back.

A little something I was curious about, and that means you must be too. It's mock draft silly season, in which all sorts of pundits, despite knowing zilch, try and accurately predict the first round or more of the NFL draft. So I decided to compile this, a (hopefully) pretty comprehensive list of mock drafts from sites not named things like www.bestevernflmockdraftsliketotally.com, only without all those other players from other schools. Going to see where the experts think Eugene Monroe will land:

James Alder (about.com): 1st - Detroit (woot....?)
Rob Rang (CBS Sports): 2nd - St. Louis
Nolan Nawrocki (profootballweekly.com): 2nd - St. Louis
Don Banks (Sports Illustrated): 2nd - St. Louis
Tony Kornheiser (his own blog): 4th - Seattle
Chris Steuber (Scout.com): 7th - Oakland
Mel Kiper (ESPN): 8th - Jacksonville
Steve Silverman (NBC Sports): 11th - Buffalo
Pete Fiutak (cfn.com): Outside Round 1

I'm not sure what Fiutak is smoking. His draft does mention Monroe, specifically that he thinks the Jaguars would take Michael Oher of Ole Miss instead. Apparently everyone below that is set at left tackle.

I'm also not sure how I'd feel about the Lions taking Monroe. Part of me loves the idea of a Wahoo going first overall, loves to have the chance to keep watching Monroe play for my favorite team, and would be pretty happy besides that the Lions took a desperately needed lineman instead of going googoo-eyed over the quarterback. The other part of me would like to keep our UVA grads the hell away from the giant, steaming, career-ruining shithole that is the Lions. I have such a love-hate relationship with that football team.