Angus
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Great Blue North: Rumors
Sifting through the tea leaves!! With just 5 days to go until the start of the 2007 draft, the whole league is pretty much on hold waiting for Oakland to decide what it will do with the #1 pick this Saturday. And the Raiders aren’t saying.
Steve Corkran of the Contra Costa Times noted one possible clue. As Corkran noted, the story is only empirical, anecdotal evidence but during year-end season wrap-up back in January, Raiders’ owner Al Davis was reported to have ripped into former head coach Art Shell, in the process blaming Shell for the Raiders’ desperate QB situation.
In particular, Davis is reported to have knocked Shell for persuading Davis to bypass Southern California QB Matt Leinart with the 7th seventh pick at last year's draft. Instead, the Raiders selected DB Michael Huff with the pick. According to a witness, Davis is reported to have told Shell that he had set the franchise back ten years and that Davis would “now have to fix it." The implication, of course, is that the Raiders won’t mistake this year and pass on QBs Jamarcus Russell of LSU or Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn.
However, that that runs counter to the latest buzz around the league that Davis is looking for a reason to pass on the QBs to take Georgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson. In fact, Corkran notes in the piece that Davis has often spoken with great pride that the Raiders reached Super Bowls with castoffs such as Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon at quarterback.
Meanwhile, Mike Klis of the Denver Post is reporting that the Broncos made a strong pitch to Detroit to move all the way up to the #2 pick from #21 in order to get Georgia Tech’s Johnson for themselves. According to the report, the Broncos proposed adding veteran MLB Al Wilson and the 21st pick to the package that they sent to the Lions as part of the deal that sent Tatum Bell and George Foster to the Lions in exchange for Dré Bly.
Later, the Broncos reportedly offered picks in the first, second and third rounds, plus their first-round pick in 2008, for the #2 pick. That deal, though, would have been contingent on Oakland not taking Johnson with the #1 pick overall. There are also some rumblings that Washington might be willing to deal the 6th pick overall to Carolina in exchange for the 14th selection and DT Kris Jenkins. Other teams that are thought to be interested in Jenkins include St. Louis, Kansas City and the aforementioned Denver Broncos.
And while Oakland’s ruminations regarding the top pick are getting most of the ink these days, there appears to be plenty brewing in the area of the 5-6 picks held by Arizona and Washington, respectively. In fact, the Commanders have been connected with any number of trades in recent weeks. In addition to the possible trade with Carolina involving Jenkins, the Commanders were reportedly once close to sending the 6th pick to Chicago for franchised LB Lance Briggs and the 31st pick.
The Commanders have even been mentioned as a team looking to try and move up to get Johnson, although without a pick in the second, third and fourth rounds, the Commanders don’t have much ammunition to move up the draft board. Meanwhile, Arizona G.M. Rod Graves was quoted as saying that the Cardinals were about 50-50 to trade the 5th pick. There have been some rumblings that the Cardinals might try and move up 2-3 spots to try and get Wisconsin OT Joe Thomas, but a trade down appears more imminent.
As we noted in an earlier report, the Cardinals could be faced with a bit of a pickle if they stay at #5. Assuming that Thomas goes 3rd or 4th to either Cleveland or Tampa Bay, the top-rated player on the board when the Cardinals choose is going to either Notre Dame’s Quinn or Oklahoma RB Adrian Peterson. However, with Matt Leinart and Edge James already settled in those positions neither fits a major need with the Cardinals.
Several mock drafts have the Cardinals taking Clemson DE Gaines Adams instead, however, he may not be a great fit either as the Cardinals are likely switching to a 3-4 defense sooner rather than later and Adams is a prototype 4-3 DE. Meanwhile, there are several other teams that will be very tempted to move up to get either Quinn – for example, Miami – or Peterson – Buffalo and Green Bay – perhaps, whichever is still on the board at that time. Stay tuned!
http://www.gbnreport.com/
Sifting through the tea leaves!! With just 5 days to go until the start of the 2007 draft, the whole league is pretty much on hold waiting for Oakland to decide what it will do with the #1 pick this Saturday. And the Raiders aren’t saying.
Steve Corkran of the Contra Costa Times noted one possible clue. As Corkran noted, the story is only empirical, anecdotal evidence but during year-end season wrap-up back in January, Raiders’ owner Al Davis was reported to have ripped into former head coach Art Shell, in the process blaming Shell for the Raiders’ desperate QB situation.
In particular, Davis is reported to have knocked Shell for persuading Davis to bypass Southern California QB Matt Leinart with the 7th seventh pick at last year's draft. Instead, the Raiders selected DB Michael Huff with the pick. According to a witness, Davis is reported to have told Shell that he had set the franchise back ten years and that Davis would “now have to fix it." The implication, of course, is that the Raiders won’t mistake this year and pass on QBs Jamarcus Russell of LSU or Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn.
However, that that runs counter to the latest buzz around the league that Davis is looking for a reason to pass on the QBs to take Georgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson. In fact, Corkran notes in the piece that Davis has often spoken with great pride that the Raiders reached Super Bowls with castoffs such as Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon at quarterback.
Meanwhile, Mike Klis of the Denver Post is reporting that the Broncos made a strong pitch to Detroit to move all the way up to the #2 pick from #21 in order to get Georgia Tech’s Johnson for themselves. According to the report, the Broncos proposed adding veteran MLB Al Wilson and the 21st pick to the package that they sent to the Lions as part of the deal that sent Tatum Bell and George Foster to the Lions in exchange for Dré Bly.
Later, the Broncos reportedly offered picks in the first, second and third rounds, plus their first-round pick in 2008, for the #2 pick. That deal, though, would have been contingent on Oakland not taking Johnson with the #1 pick overall. There are also some rumblings that Washington might be willing to deal the 6th pick overall to Carolina in exchange for the 14th selection and DT Kris Jenkins. Other teams that are thought to be interested in Jenkins include St. Louis, Kansas City and the aforementioned Denver Broncos.
And while Oakland’s ruminations regarding the top pick are getting most of the ink these days, there appears to be plenty brewing in the area of the 5-6 picks held by Arizona and Washington, respectively. In fact, the Commanders have been connected with any number of trades in recent weeks. In addition to the possible trade with Carolina involving Jenkins, the Commanders were reportedly once close to sending the 6th pick to Chicago for franchised LB Lance Briggs and the 31st pick.
The Commanders have even been mentioned as a team looking to try and move up to get Johnson, although without a pick in the second, third and fourth rounds, the Commanders don’t have much ammunition to move up the draft board. Meanwhile, Arizona G.M. Rod Graves was quoted as saying that the Cardinals were about 50-50 to trade the 5th pick. There have been some rumblings that the Cardinals might try and move up 2-3 spots to try and get Wisconsin OT Joe Thomas, but a trade down appears more imminent.
As we noted in an earlier report, the Cardinals could be faced with a bit of a pickle if they stay at #5. Assuming that Thomas goes 3rd or 4th to either Cleveland or Tampa Bay, the top-rated player on the board when the Cardinals choose is going to either Notre Dame’s Quinn or Oklahoma RB Adrian Peterson. However, with Matt Leinart and Edge James already settled in those positions neither fits a major need with the Cardinals.
Several mock drafts have the Cardinals taking Clemson DE Gaines Adams instead, however, he may not be a great fit either as the Cardinals are likely switching to a 3-4 defense sooner rather than later and Adams is a prototype 4-3 DE. Meanwhile, there are several other teams that will be very tempted to move up to get either Quinn – for example, Miami – or Peterson – Buffalo and Green Bay – perhaps, whichever is still on the board at that time. Stay tuned!
http://www.gbnreport.com/