Earlier we took a look a the top five head scratchers from the 2010 NFL Draft. Now it is time to take a look at the best picks.
The Denver Broncos were active early, twice moving down and then moving up to take wideout Demaryius Thomas out of Georgia Tech. In passing on Dez Bryant they were able to collect picks and still address a big team need and grab arguably the best deep threat in this year's draft. What they did with their subsequent picks will be highly scrutinized, but at least for a moment anyway the Bronco front office looked like geniuses.
When Clausen didn't go in the first round as many expected, Panthers GM Marty Hurney was burning up the phones trying to move up to take him in the second. Luckily for the Panthers they simply didn't have enough ammo to make the move, and Clausen ended up falling to them with the 48th overall pick, roughly about 38 spots later than Clausen was expected to go. That is the definition of a value pick. Clausen won't have the pressure to step in and start right away and if he does, he'll have a pair of talented receivers to throw to.
At various moments during our mock draft sessions, we had the Patriots taking Spikes. But when we finally released our mocks, Spikes was seen going to someone else a tad earlier and we plugged in either
Sean Lee or Daryl Washington. So we are not at all surprised to see him land with the Pats. Pundits seem to be stuck on his forty time and forget the fact that he led one of the nation's best defenses the last two seasons.
Mike Holmgren and the Browns were pretty adamant that they weren't going to take a quarterback just to take a quarterback. They held true to their word by not taking McCoy with the sixth pick in the second round and then passing on him again with the 27th pick in the same round. But even they couldn't resist taking McCoy when he fell to them late in the third. The Browns were able to add a safety in T.J. Ward and running back Montario Hardesty and still get the man many thought they should take in the second round.
Despite the fall of Clausen, Taylor Mays and even Colt McCoy, no one took a bigger tumble on draft day than Jonathan Dwyer. At worst, Dwyer was considered a third round pick heading into the draft. Teams appeared to be scared off by the positive result during the NFL Scouting Combine drug test. Even though the result was due to medication Dwyer had been taking and it was known that he would show a positive result. Others might have been concerned about the added weight Dwyer had to add to man the B-back position in Paul Johnson's offense. Dwyer has been a model of durability, is a solid between-the-tackles runner, and has more wiggle than many give him credit for. Steal of the draft.