We've been debating this in Rook's superb mock draft, but I thought it would be interesting to toss up a poll and see who we'd take if a bad scenario plays out in the first 4 picks. At least bad for those of us who, like me, want Claiborne as the first pick.

So here's the scenario. The first four picks go Luck, Kalil, Claiborne, RG3. We can't find a trading partner. Who do you take?

I've tried to put in all the top possibilities, but if you want one I missed vote Other and tell me who you wanted in the comments. I also added a special vote for the Richardson fans to distinguish between those who would take him as a backup pick and those who just want us to take him no matter what!

Interesting post on yahoo by Jason Cole. The post is about Morris' job, but the Talib comments were the most interesting to me.

This offseason, Morris became too much of the first example when he spoke up for Talib. After getting arrested for the gun incident, Tampa Bay management was ready to cut ties with Talib once and for all, according to a team source. General manager Mark Dominik didn’t care about Talib’s supreme talent, the distractions were no longer worth the drama, the source said. Talib had been in at least four altercations with teammates and coaches before the gun incident and was arrested for assaulting a taxi driver in 2009.

Because of the lockout, the Bucs couldn’t follow through right away, giving Morris time to talk Dominik away from the proverbial ledge. In the process, Morris sent a message to his young team that talent trumps character.

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It is too early to say it with certainty, but it is time to start talking about it. The Buc's 2010 draft is starting to look bad. Here's where we're at now.

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On "The Raheem Morris show", Raheem was asked about the injury to Gerald McCoy. At about the 26 minute mark of the podcast , this is what he had to say:

"Goes back to pop warner. You know every pop warner coach will tell you not to arm tackle, and that's exactly why. You got to put your chest on people you got to have your eyes up. Sky your eyes and do the right thing all the time."

So McCoy goes out with his second season ending bicep injury in 2 seasons, and Morris says he makes a Pop Warner level tackling mistake to get the injury? And that's after there was a serious knock on McCoy going into the draft about his upper body strength. He had only benched 225# 23 times at the combine.

I don't know what to make of this, but when your coach calls you out for trying a bad tackle even for 'Pop Warner' there is a big problem.

I hate to waste a whole fanpost on this, but there are so few active posts going here because of the quickly dying season. Anyway, I had a question I was hoping someone more informed than me had an answer to. What happens with Dwight's final contract year if the whole season is cancelled? Is it just, done? Does it stretch out his last year to the next year the NBA plays? Does it depend on the new CBA, assuming there ever is one?

 

Anyone know?

It's almost time for the real draft, so it was now or never for me to make a mock. After criticizing everyone else, it's only fair that I give you a chance to smack me around a bit. I did not mock trades.

[UPDATE] I've been convinced by the posts below and a little more reading around that Houston will fall out of the first due to his bong hits, so the Ravens and Jets picks have changed.

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In his latest piece Lopez describes his "rule" for predicting quaterback success in the NFL. He calls it the Rule of 26-27-60.

If an NFL prospect scores at least a 26 on the Wonderlic test, starts at least 27 games in his college career and completes at least 60 percent of his passes, there's a good chance he will succeed at the NFL level.

Now, I obviously don't buy anything this simple and superficial as a prediction of NFL success. However, I thought it was interesting (in a fun, non-serious way). Lopez listed stats for a lot of quarterbacks in his column. Busts, Greats, Rookies. Unfortunately Freeman didn't appear in his piece. So I was curious and looked up the stats.
Freeman had 32 college starts. Check. Freeman's wonderlic was 27. Check. Unfortunately, his college completion percent was just 59.1%, falling just short of 60%.

Oh no! Failure! We're dooooooommmmmmmmeeeeeeeeddddd!

Poll

Should we listen to Lopez and give up on Josh Freeman?

87%

No, the article was just for fun

126 votes

12%

Yes, my wonderlic score would be a 3

18 votes

144 votes | Poll has closed

I've been of the opinion that we ought to go heavy on defense in the draft. Morris might be thinking a little differently though.

The coach identified his top offseason priorities on Monday as the continued development of rookie Josh Freeman and using the draft to surround the 21-year-old quarterback with promising young talent.

The Bucs will have five of the first 99 selections, including No. 3 overall.

"You've got to say No. 5's the biggest priority, making sure everything works around him, because when it worked around him, we were able to be successful," Morris said, referring to Freeman's jersey number.

Interesting. It seems his priority in the draft is to get Freeman some help. What do you think? We could definitely use some talent on o-line and receiving. I'm not sure it is a more glaring need than DT, but I can see his side of this. We might have something special in Freeman. If he's running for his life and throwing to receivers with bricks instead of hands, we might not ever find out.

Congrats to the Browns! They beat the Steelers last night 13-6. I don't usually cheer for the Browns, but I couldn't be happier than I was last night.

 

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