Keyshawn to be a draft analyst

[Angus]

Keyshawn to be a draft analyst
by Steve Reed
Gazette Sports Reporter

CHARLOTTE -- Carolina wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson will spend the NFL draft weekend working as an analyst alongside Chris Berman, Mel Kiper Jr., Chris Mortensen and the rest of the gang at ESPN on their set at New York's Radio City Music Hall on April 28-29.

This won't be Johnson's first venture -- nor likely his last -- into the television world.

After being relagated to the inactive list by Tampa Bay coach Jon Grudena few years back, Johnson finished out the 2003 season working for FOX television on the weekends and did a fairly nice job. He has a vibrant personality, an infectious smile and people tend to gravitate toward listening to his opinions. He can certainly hold a crowd during open locker room and one former Panthers beat reporter dubbed him "The Vortex" because once you start talking to him you get sucked into a long conversation (albeit an interesting one) and you can't get away.

Johnson has plenty of football wisdom after spending nearly a decade in the league.

It should make the draft, which can become a little mundane at times, a bit more interesting with Johnson offering his nuggets of wisdom.

http://www.gastongazette.com/sections/sports/panthers/?id=1487

 

[Hostile]

Once again he is asked to replace Irvin. Ironic.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

He just cannot stick with Irvin

 

[SupermanXx]

whatever Keyshawn does on TV is going to be money. The man is just made for holding a microphone

 

[carphalen5150]

whatever Keyshawn does on TV is going to be money. The man is just made for holding a microphone

Agreed...he is going to be definitely be someone who the networks will pursue when he retires.

I'm still baffled with the Tiki Barber "bidding war". I find him to be vanilla.

 

[theebs]

Once again he is asked to replace Irvin. Ironic.

I dont think irvin ever worked on draft weekend. Last year it was torry holt and he was awful. He sounded like he didnt know any of the players.

I have never seen irvin work during the draft though.

Last year they also had the players roundtable with witten, chavous and jon jansen, another player also, but I cant remember who.

keyshawn used to come on with the hardline on fridays, He will talk about usc players till the cows come home. He really dislikes the big 12. Gives them no credit at all!!!

It was funny when he was on with them a couple years ago and the whole hardline thought HE was crazy for saying it wasnt close, USC was twice as talented as oklahoma.....They ragged on him for that and started a big argument.

They didnt have much to say the day after the championship game!

 

[Pabst]

Irvin worked the Julius Jones draft. I distinctly remember him comparing Jones to Emmitt.

Regardless, I look forward to seeing Key on draft day. He is entertaining while also knowledgable.

 

[Hostile]

I dont think irvin ever worked on draft weekend. Last year it was torry holt and he was awful. He sounded like he didnt know any of the players.

I have never seen irvin work during the draft though.

Last year they also had the players roundtable with witten, chavous and jon jansen, another player also, but I cant remember who.

keyshawn used to come on with the hardline on fridays, He will talk about usc players till the cows come home. He really dislikes the big 12. Gives them no credit at all!!!

It was funny when he was on with them a couple years ago and the whole hardline thought HE was crazy for saying it wasnt close, USC was twice as talented as oklahoma.....They ragged on him for that and started a big argument.

They didnt have much to say the day after the championship game!

I was at the Draft last year with Juke. Irvin was right in front of all day. Juke even took pics of his clip on kiddie tie and posted them.

 

[theebs]

I was at the Draft last year with Juke. Irvin was right in front of all day. Juke even took pics of his clip on kiddie tie and posted them.

Must be I Just dont remember him on the set. I remember torry holt and the rest of the usuals. I also remember witten and the players round table.

Key is taking holts place from last year though, he was the worst ever.

I cant remember if it was espn or nfl network that has chavous on. I know he comes on with norm a couple times throughout the weekend.

I watch the draft with the ticket on and the sound off, so it doesnt really matter, particularly last year with holt, he was a train wreck.

 

[Pabst]

I watched ESPN and missed the NFLN's coverage last year. Were they any good? This year I'll be in a unique position to watch both coverages... and on a huge HDTV Tryin to determine which network deserves the big screen and which gets regulated to an old 25" dinosaur. It's a good decision to have to make

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Yeah, I remember Irvin too. He was the first guy I heard say that Hester was worth a 1st round pick. Said he would be money. The best game changer since Deion.

 

[Future]

If only he could be replacing jon jansen...

 

[Hostile]

Must be I Just dont remember him on the set. I remember torry holt and the rest of the usuals. I also remember witten and the players round table.

Key is taking holts place from last year though, he was the worst ever.

I cant remember if it was espn or nfl network that has chavous on. I know he comes on with norm a couple times throughout the weekend.

I watch the draft with the ticket on and the sound off, so it doesnt really matter, particularly last year with holt, he was a train wreck.

I don't remember Holt there.

http://img49.*************/img49/9789/untitled9copy0hx.jpg

Left to right...Kiper, Irvin, Jackson, Berman. The empty phone spot on the left was where Mortenson sat.

Irvin with his clip on kiddie tie.

http://img101.*************/img101/9514/clipon4ia.jpg

 

[big dog cowboy]

One more reason to watch the draft on NFL Network.

 

[theebs]

Dude I get it he was there, Maybe holt was there two years ago? Someone will back me up on this. Jesus.

Unless holt was on the nfl network. I just remember he was awful. Like I said though I listen to the ticket and watch it on tv..during commercials on the radio i turn up the boob tube.

Again Holt must have been there in 05 then and that is what I am remembering.

 

[Hostile]

Dude I get it he was there, Maybe holt was there two years ago? Someone will back me up on this. Jesus.

Unless holt was on the nfl network. I just remember he was awful. Like I said though I listen to the ticket and watch it on tv..during commercials on the radio i turn up the boob tube.

Again Holt must have been there in 05 then and that is what I am remembering.

He might have been in 2005. I couldn't tell you otherwise on that.

 

[theebs]

yeah I knew I wasnt crazy. Although I think I was a little high today after the fumes from the bondo, I was fixing a small crack in my shower floor.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2005-04-24-hiestand-draft_x.htm?csp=36


Rams' Holt adds draft insight
Torry Holt has upside, there's no durability concern with Mel Kiper and ESPN's NFL draft coverage still fills a need. And yet, there are still ways ESPN could take its coverage to — you audibilized it! — the next level.
Holt, a St. Louis Rams wide receiver who became the first active NFL player to sit in on ESPN's main draft set, was considered a sleeper; many active players and coaches brought in for TV sports cameos are so timidly bland they can put you to sleep. But Holt was prescient, after the 14th pick in the first round, in emphatically saying California quarterback Aaron Rodgers "will go to Green Bay." (ESPN was smart to focus on Rodgers, who'd been seen as a possible top pick, but was bypassed until the 24th pick. As he waited, he told ESPN's Suzy Kolber: "There's character-building as we speak.")

Kiper was his usual energetic self. ESPN host Chris Berman rightly praised him early on for "coming out of the garage in fifth gear — but it is Christmas!" Kiper suggests there might be restorative powers in mulling over 40-yard dash times, down to hundredths of a second, on a year-round basis. Saturday, he actually looked younger than he did in some replayed TV snippets of drafts years ago.

Kiper's most interesting point came in arguing that University of Southern California receiver Mike Williams was the draft's best available player — an opinion continually flashed in ESPN's on-air graphics as Williams went unpicked. Salvation seemed near when Minnesota looked set to pick a wide receiver with the first round's seventh pick: Kiper said picking the "uncoverable" Williams would be a "no-brainer."

But Holt said South Carolina's Troy Williamson would be a "better fit for them" — just before the Vikings picked him. Reading between the lines, it seemed that Kiper then sort of tipped his cap to Holt, conceding that perhaps Williamson would give the Vikings "big-time vertical stretchability." (The Lions made Williams the 10th pick.)

But ESPN needs more interviews with all those overcome friends and relatives of high draft picks — at least put a few overwhelmed grandmas on air. It still would have plenty of time to dissect shutdown corners. (Actually, Kiper said shutdown corners "don't exist, it's a term nobody should use again!" Minutes later, Washington Commanders coach Joe Gibbs praised draft pick Carlos Rogers as "a shutdown corner.")

 

[big dog cowboy]

Unless holt was on the nfl network.

He was on ESPN. Sorry it took so long to catch this. What really got me about Holt was he wore glasses. I'm not sure, but I don't think he does when he plays. That always struck me as a little strange.