After delivering players at slots 2, 5, 9 and 25, including the first complete backfield ever selected in the first round, Auburn is fuming again about finishing second to Southern Cal in voting for the mythical national championship.
After nabbing a receiver with their first-round pick for the third straight draft, the Detroit Lions offer new meaning to plugging a leak.
How can a team with the No. 3 pick – Cleveland – make the statement that came from general manager Phil Savage: “We just got the top player in the draft.”
He was talking about Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards. And he was right. Top selectors San Francisco and Miami passed on Edwards. Both will regret it.
The 70th NFL draft had its suspense and surprises, its crafty moves and bungled ones in initial action Saturday. I was struck by the fallout of teams’ intense encircling of players’ evaluations, which can lead to falling in and out of love with them in startling fashion.
And how one player survived the grind and another was shredded.
We know the draft lasts two days. NFL teams will tell you they spend the other 363 working on their drafts. That is a ton of time to size players up, down and in every way imaginable. Sometimes teams talk themselves out of a good thing. Sometimes they take a pebble and turn it into a boulder.
And top prospects reel.
Cedric Benson survived the scrutiny but Aaron Rodgers crashed.
Benson is the Texas running back who used to talk about his admiration for Ricky Williams and even used to wear dreadlocks like Williams. That was fine until Williams walked out on Miami last season. The association with Williams made NFL teams think Benson might be too much like him.
There was already mischief in Benson’s past – a 2002 misdemeanor drug and alcohol charge that was dropped and a 2003 misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge for kicking in the apartment door of a man Benson thought had stolen a television from him.
Benson tossed the dreads before the draft.
He distanced himself from Williams, insisting he was not a Williams clone.
NFL teams grilled Benson before the draft. He said some degraded him, tried to manipulate him. He called the process “a big slap in the face.”
It was enough to make a grown man cry.
And Benson did when the Bears took him with the No. 4 pick. Their coach, Lovie Smith, correctly squashed the nonsense.
“He has not been a perfect young man, but what player in the draft has been?” Smith said. “I did not see a monster coming in here like he was being portrayed. I had the chance to sit down with him a few times. We looked at all of the running backs in the draft and this is the one we wanted.”
Smith and the Bears handled this nicely. Smith was not going to run away from a fine person and player who can help run his Bears back to respectability and beyond. Smith is old school – the run opens up the pass, he believes, and a stout running game keeps defenses honest. He wants to return the Bears to their roots: “Chicago Bears football has to start with a running game,” he said.
Benson has been productive, durable, dependable and a big-game player. He joins three others in Bears history who were No. 4 picks: Gale Sayers (1965), Walter Payton (1975) and Dan Hampton (1979), a trio in the Hall of Fame.
Rodgers, the Cal quarterback, entering the draft was considered a candidate for the No. 1 pick. He was considered a solid top-5 pick. A rock-solid top-10 pick.
But by the time the draft clock started ticking, Rodger’s mechanics were being questioned and so was much more. His accuracy on deep balls. His footwork. His ball positioning. His history with college coaches who had worked with Akili Smith, Kyle Boller, Joey Harrington and David Carr, previous high draft picks at quarterback who have struggled as pros.
Rodgers fell all the way to Green Bay, at No. 24, and will be groomed as Brett Favre’s replacement. Not a bad place to fall; nonetheless, a graceless fall.
“I’m just glad to be with a team that wants me,” he said.
It is peculiar business, these drafts, where a player can be pricked and plucked so mercilessly that what is left is often a carcass, a player with bruised ego and confidence who tries to compensate by playing his entire career with resentment and redemption in mind.
Benson and Rodgers fit that mold.
I say both will get the heartiest and last laugh.
Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
