When it was all said and done the Carolina Panthers got their man in quarterback Cam Newton. After months of speculation as to who would go number one, the start of the 2011 NFL Draft was anticlimactic. Newton has been the consensus #1 overall pick for some time -- except by this stubborn mule -- and ESPN leaked the official news an hour before the draft.
In fact, it was said that Carolina did not receive a single trade offer for the pick. That is not hard to believe considering the depth of this draft. Many teams were content to hang around and pick up the defensive studs that slid as Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota and even Jacksonville reached for quarterbacks.
Opinions on Newton are in no short supply and I haven't been shy about mine. But you can't fault a team for getting the guy they covet. And in the first round you better be drafting potential Pro Bowlers. Yes there is risk, you could look like a fool two years from now, but the reward could be great. For that, I give the Panthers credit.
Other First Round Notables
- The first five picks basically went as scripted. Newton #1, Von Miller to the Broncos was the hot buzz heading into the draft, A.J. Green to the Bengals and so on. It wasn't until Cleveland was on the clock that things got interesting. Julio Jones was still on the board, as was Robert Quinn. Things were looking good for Browns fans. Then Jacksonville decided that they just had to have Julio. And Cleveland was no dummy, they knew the had leverage and leverage they did. The Jags gave up five picks to get Julio (1st, 2nd & 4th this year and 1st & 4th next year). How many touchdowns does Julio have or catch to make this trade worth it?
- Jake Locker's stock was on the rise heading into the draft, so I'm not surprised to see him be the second quarterback taken. Despite my feelings about Locker, Tennessee got the quarterback they wanted and, much like Newton, the kid has upside.
- The surprise entrant in the quarterback sweepstakes was Jacksonville. I don't know of anyone that had the Jags taking a quarterback in the first round. And they traded up to do so.
- The Jags trading up to take Blaine Gabbert at #10 must have been a shock to the Minnesota Vikings' system. How else do you explain the reach on quarterback Christian Ponder? Solid quarterback, but not in the same realm of upside as the others already mentioned.
- There has been much debate over who the Detroit Lions would pick. Offensive tackle was the top choice, but cornerback was becoming more and more sexy as of late. They did neither, Nick Fairley was too much to resist. With Ndamukong Suh and Fairley together, the over/under on Lions roughing the quarterback penalties has been set at 14.
- When Philadelphia passed on cornerback Jimmy Smith, it was starting to look like he might slide into the second round due to his off the field issues. Kudos to Baltimore for snapping him up before that happened.
- The big winner so far in this year's draft looks like the New Orleans Saints. First, they were the beneficiary of the mad scramble for quarterbacks, which led to defensive end Cameron Jordan sliding in the draft -- though I'm still surprised that he was the fifth defensive end taken. Then they hop back into the first round to take running back Mark Ingram, a bruising runner that will help immediately. As someone who has watched Ingram's career very closely (since high school), people have been questioning Ingram since he stepped foot in Tuscaloosa, and he's proven them wrong every step of the way. I have no doubts he will also be a stud in the NFL.
- Danny Watkins and James Carpenter before Gabe Carimi? Are Wisconsin football games not televised in Philadelphia and Seattle?
- Good thing there are two networks covering the draft, listening to just one for over three hours is simply intolerable. If the NFL is serious about making this a prime time event, they need to shorten up the time between picks. It was fine back in the day when you could waste a whole Saturday watching the draft, maybe even take a break and get some yard work done while listening to the draft on the radio. But by 10 o'clock I found myself bored to tears and nauseated by the repetitive commentary. And apparently so were Jets fans as Radio City Music Hall looked half empty by the time Green Bay picked.