Three NFL Draft media veterans totalling 34 years of NFL Draft experience talked about the 2006 NFL Draft with me at Radio City Music Hall. Bill Chachkes (pictured) of www.nextlevelscoutinginc.com and Fieldposition.com and now nflbusinessblog.com which you're reading, Eric Strauss of Raiderfans.net , and Matt Shapiro of cstv.com provide this really interesting take on the draft and which teams did well and why. I really enjoyed filming this. We even picked an interesting place, all the better to escape the loudspeakers.
As to their takes, it's varied and well worth listening to. It's also contains some opinions on where the draft was held, and other views you're not going to get anywhere else.
The NFL Draft finished with Paul Salada's read of the Oakland Raiders selection of Maine's Kevin McMahan as "Mr. Irrelevant" at as the 255th pick and all the while as fans were cheering for Marcus Vick to be that pick.
Best draft? Well, John Murphy of www.nextlevelscoutinginc.com and a 10 year draft veteran says that "I really like New England for how they filled those long-term offensive needs with Laurence Maroney and Chad Jackson... Cardinals have continued to add value across the board... Leinart, Lutui, Pope and then Gabe Watson who falls into the second day... Eagles have traded around and gotten excellent value, especially Winston Justice in round two... also like how the Broncos added a future starting QB in Jay Cutler and improved for this season by trading for wide receiver Javon Walker."
I've got a lot of video "in the can" as they say, and came away with some new friends and solidified some existing relationships. Longtime NFL Draftnik Bill Chackhes is joining my blog, and I welcome his knoweldge, wisdom, and charm. Now, if I can just get him to acitivate his Blogger account!
(Speaking of Blogger, I thought this little experiment of video / blogging went very well. With some tweaking, it will be huge next year.)
The NFL staff, as usual, were great to work with and feel like family to me. Radio City Music Hall was a great venue to hold the Draft and as I understand it better than the ballroom at Javitz because of the ceiling design there. I liked the space at Javitz but at Radio City everything and everyone was around me, as the videos will show.
Neat.
Stay tuned for a lot -- a large number -- of video clips and pictures. You'll love it.
"Hello, my name is Bill and I'm a football Addict." I have often thought that If there were an organization named Football-a-holicis annon., that I would be it's north american chairman. I have been involved in Football for just over 40 of my nearly 46 years on Earth. I've been a fan, Youth Player, Highschool Player, High School asst. coach, Semi-professional asst. coach, and writer. I'm also about to become a College asst. coach. The one constant through all of that has been the title "Draft Geek" or "Draftnik." I have been to 32 NFL drafts dating back to 1974, and to every draft since 1985, and have held a press credential from one outlet or another since 1987. In the future I will use this space at the behest of Zennie to post various experiences i have had, as well as draft related football info.
Marcus Vick has taken a dramatic freefall in this year's draft, and for reasons concerning his character and not his talent. Right now, we're at the 252nd selection in the draft and the fans are standing and cheering for them -- or someone -- to take Marcus Vick.
Green Bay selected Dave Tollifson, a DE from N.W. Missouri. Two picks to go. Vick's still around.
San Francisco selected, which leaves the Oakland Raiders ....the fan are cheering LOUDLY now...for Marcus Vick.
Last year, I explained the process of how an NFL draftee's name gets called. This year, I thought I'd show it. Here's the text from my report from 2005 and a video of a couple of NFL "runners" taking the name of a pick of the San Francisco 49ers to the NFL's main table.
First, the report on "How a Draftee's Name Gets Called" from my 2005 NFL Draft Report:
While I was next to the stage, I took time to record the process by which a name gets called to be the "whatever round" pick of a team. It works like this: First, the team -- let's say the San Francisco 49ers -- has 15 minutes (or a quarter in football lingo) to decide who they're going to select. Two giant football-style clocks count down the seconds. If a team fails to make a pick during that time span, they must pass and the next organization in draft order has 15 minutes to make a selection. This is called being "On the clock." Redskins' Team Table: One of 32
It's Starts With The Team Table
Second, the team's representatives, including (depending on the team) the owner, general manager, head coach, and player personnel staff, are not in New York at the Draft, they're at the team's headquarters. It's from here that they call in their selection to their representative at the team table. Washington Redskins team representatives are in the foreground in the first picture shown on this page. NFL Head Table
...Then The Name Is...
Third, the team's representative -- which range from a friend of the organization to a young employee -- write the name of the choice on a card. NFL and CSC events employees pick up that card and carry it to the NFL's main operations table. (NFL SVP Frank Supovitz is the leftmost person above.)
Fourth, from that table and to its left, the card is passed over to a bank of NFL staffers that enter it into a computer system to be recorded.
Earlier today, you saw the post of Texans owner Bob McNair explaining the rationale behind his organizations selection of Mario Williams as that team's first pick and number one pic of the First Round of the NRL Draft. Now, here's the entire video of that press conference.
This is a video I took of the Titans first pick in the First Round of the NFL Draft, Vince Young, as he and hid family come out from the green room and onto the state of the 2006 NFL Draft.
Note how enthusiatic the crowd reception is. It wasn't the same for his counterpart, USC (and now Arizona Cardinals) quarterback Matt Leinart, who was greeted with some boos from the gallery of Radio City Music Hall.
Why? I really don't know. I think -- at that point -- the reason was to send a message that Matt wasn't wanted by the New York Jets fans, which are in abundance at the NFL Draft.
