2011 NFL Draft Losers
By Scott Allen
Here, in my opinion, are the losers of the 2011 NFL Draft.....IN MY OPINION. Let's not forget that part. I think sometimes people think what I say I believe to be fact. While I will have those that agree with me I'm sure, there will be an equal amount of those that disagree and I welcome that. Here are my top five losers of the draft.
1. Carolina Panthers - Maybe it was peer pressure? Maybe it was just plain stupidity? Maybe the Panthers really just didn't know what they were doing? I realize QB Cam Newton was the hot pick at number one. I realize it was a trendy pick. However I thought the idea of the draft was to get better? Cam Newton does not make the Panthers better. Newton may be the biggest project ever at number one. He could be years away from contributing positively on the field consistently. The rest of the picks definitely all were areas of need, but they could have done much better with what they got.
2. Seattle Seahawks - At times during the draft I was trying to figure out what the strategy of the Hawks draft was. Was it to just pick a name out of a hat? Did they want to purposely anger their fan base and hope they could come back later to say we told you so? Whatever it was, a day after the draft, it doesn't look like a very strong strategy. They let QB Ryan Mallett get away. In fact, they didn't even draft a QB. Now, the Cardinals found the same result, but they have a couple of other players to make up for that.
3. New York Jets - The Jets may have used the force in this draft and the force let them down. They ignored a few of their needs, namely LB and OL. They probably got the best they could with the QB draft pick in the fifth round, Greg McElroy from Alabama. Not much to get excited about in New York.
4. San Diego Chargers - The Chargers made a decent pick with DT Corey Liuget from Illinois in the first round. After that, the picks were questionable. They got WR Vincent Brown from San Diego State and RB Jordan Todman from UConn in the later rounds, but I'm not sure that there weren't better players at those positions available. As for Todman, I thought they already had someone like that on their roster by the name of Darren Sproles?
5. Jacksonville Jaguars - Well, I can't knock the Jags too much, but they didn't do too much with what little they had to work with, only drafting five players. QB Blaine Gabbert is a nice pick up, but is a year or two away from seeing legitimate time on the field. This was a reason I believe the Cardinals felt they could pass on him. The Cards strategy is to win now. The Jags spent one of their five picks on a guy who didn't even get an NFL Combine invite, DB Chris Prosinski from Wyoming. You can consider many picks as gambles, but it is a real gamble taking someone you haven't been able to see much of outside of game tape.