Thanks to Comcast, Jason Brewer of BleedingGreenNation.com recently sat down with NFL Network draft analyst Charles Davis to provide SBNation.com readers with an in-depth analysis of the most intriguing moves of the 2011 NFL Draft. Davis is a notable football analyst who was recently featured throughout NFL Network's exclusive coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine and the Under Armour Senior Bowl and served alongside Mike Mayock on the network's hit show, Path to the Draft.
Comcast Presents... Charles Davis: An Exclusive Look at the Best Picks, Surprises, and Scenarios of the 2011 NFL Draft
Thanks to our friends at Comcast, SB Nation recently interviewed NFL Network’s Charles Davis for his thoughts on the 2011 NFL draft.
With NFL Network on Comcast, fans can watch 24/7 extensive coverage of the NFL, including the NFL Draft and NFL Scouting Combine, Thursday Night Football live in HD, recaps of every NFL game On Demand, expert analysis, the new Top 100: Players of 2011 series and 2,000 hours of live football programming. With the 2011 NFL Draft in the books, Charles Davis was willing to share his inside take on which players and teams came away as winners from the three-day NFL Draft. Check out what he had to say:
Q: Which NFL organizations had the most interesting draft selections that caught your attention in the 2011 NFL Draft?
I thought the Atlanta Falcons' move to go up and get Julio Jones was very bold on their part because it's very easy to second-guess when the team had a 13-3 record in 2010 and was moving the football particularly well. The Falcons though have been the masters of the 10-14 play drive, and while on paper that looks like a terrific thing as it wears down the opposing team, helps you control the football, and keeps your defense off the field, it is a hard way to win because you place a premium on yourself at the end of drives that you need to capitalize and score. If you come up empty at the end of a 10-14 play drive it can actually become a deflator. Julio Jones will allow the Falcons to get some easy scores and the move sets the team up for the future. It appears that Tony Gonzalez has just 1-2 years left based on what he is saying and Roddy White is a terrific player but he needs a partner in crime to take some pressure off of him.
The 2011 NFL Draft was terrific for Atlanta because not only did the team address the wide receiver position, but they also addressed their backfield, which featured a dinged up Jerious Norwood. Jaquizz Rodgers as a 5th round pick is going to be a steal and I love the fact that the Falcons went up and got him in the Draft.
The Baltimore Ravens had a very interesting draft, like they always do. They had a snafu in the first round with Chicago, which the NFL will have to sort out, but cornerback Jimmy Smith is not as big of a gamble with a team like Baltimore as other teams that don’t have the same structure, guidance, and leadership.
Smith will have to learn to be a worker, and if he doesn't they will drum him out of there, because when your stars are your hardest workers, like Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, then everyone else tends to fall in line. The Ravens needed a big corner like Jimmy Smith, who is truly as talented as Patrick Peterson and Prince Amukamara. If he had been clean off the field we would be talking about three terrific corners in the 2011 NFL Draft instead of just two.
I thought that Torrey Smith was a need pick for the Ravens because I don't think he is as polished as a receiver as you would want but his purpose will be to open things up for Anquan Bolden, Todd Heap, and Ray Rice underneath. The Ravens have not been able to find that speed guy or anyone that has performed well on a consistent basis, including Donte Stallworth and T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
Selecting Jah Reed at offensive tackle is a big deal because it's a huge deal for the Ravens if he can become a plug-and-play guy at that position. The one move that intrigued me was quarterback Tyrod Taylor because I equate him to when the Ravens had Troy Smith around and people have forgotten that he was scheduled to start for the team. If he had not gotten tonsillitis the week of the opener, I am not sure what would have happened with the Ravens.
The Denver Broncos really did a really nice addressing needs on the defensive side of the football with Von Miller, Rahim Moore, Quenton Carter, and Nate Irving.
Quenton Carter will fight it out with Rahim Moore because I essentially think they are the same guy in a lot of ways, although Carter is bigger and can drop into the strong safety role. As great of a player Brian Dawkins is, he's 37 years of age, and the Broncos had to make a move there.
With the team moving from a 3-man to a 4-man front, the Broncos did a nice job addressing the outside linebacker position with Von Miller, the safety position with Rahim Moore and Quenton Carter, and the linebacker spot with Nate Irving and Mike Mohammed. They still need plenty more help but they gave it a great shot and I like what they did to improve their team on the defensive side.
Detroit had a terrific 2011 NFL Draft, starting with Nick Fairley falling to them with the #13th pick. I am sure the Lions had other players in mind at that point, including cornerback Prince Amukamara, but I think they had Fairley very highly rated on their board and had to go there even though the defensive tackle position is not one of their prime needs with Corey Williams, a really good football player, in place.
People have questioned whether Nick Fairley is a worker whose motor runs on high all the time and plays every down but to me he hit the absolute ideal team. Kyle Vanden Bosch sets the tone for the Lions defense and is one of the most impressive workers in the league and Ndamukong Suh is a lot like him and doesn't mind the work either. Gunther Cunningham is going to work that defense hard and with Vanden Bosch around, everyone on that defense competes hard until the end of every play.
Wide receiver Titus Young will be huge in the passing game for the Lions because Calvin Johnson hasn't had much help from Bryant Johnson, and Nate Burleson. Brandon Pettigrew isn't a huge threat at tight end but he is a pretty good player and the team just needed some more pressure relieved on the offense. Running back Mikel LeShoure was a nice pick for the Lions as he can help out the team with Kevin Smith battling some injuries and Jahvid Best coming off a rookie season filled with injuries.
The Green Bay Packers had another excellent Draft in 2011, drafting Derek Sherrod at offensive tackle as an eventual replacement for Chad Clifton, Randall Cobb as a slot receiver to help out with possibly losing James Jones at some point, and adding running back Alex Green to the team's running game which features a healthy Ryan Grant back again. I like tight end D.J. Williams at tight end and find Davon House to be very intriguing pick at the cornerback position. If House can learn how to work like Charles Woodson at cornerback, he might become one of those guys that you can plug in to different spots and cover from different angles.
Wide receiver Jon Baldwin is a nice pickup for the Chiefs because he is very athletic and can help take some pressure off of wideout Dwayne Bowe. Baldwin is said to be a bit of a diva but Todd Haley certainly got Dwayne Bowe to play and the Chiefs locker room, organization, and front office is a pretty good spot for Baldwin to land.
In addition, the Chiefs had one of the better picks in the 2011 NFL Draft with Rodney Hudson of Florida State at the #55 spot in the second round. I think Hudson can move in and play center, despite having played the guard position throughout college. On the defensive side of the football, the Chiefs have coach Romeo Crennel there to motivate Justin Houston who can be a great player. I think the Chiefs will continue to come on and play strong in 2011.
Q: Without a free agency period, how important was it for teams to draft based on their needs in the 2011 NFL Draft?
A: It’s an interesting question because each team is trying to answer it for themselves. The problem is that no one knows when free agency is going to take place. Traditionally, free agency period occurred before the Draft and teams knew their needs going in. But now without the free agency period, teams know their needs but there were certain needs that they would have addressed in free agency that you cannot address right now and the key thing is that they do not know when they will get a chance to address it. Teams need to address their needs with an eye towards free agency but for some teams that’s not the “be all end all”. Some teams drafted more for immediate need while others held out.
For example, a lot of people thought the Arizona Cardinals would have selected Blaine Gabbert with the #5 pick in the NFL Draft because they needed a quarterback desperately, but instead they went with cornerback Patrick Peterson. The Cardinals continued to pass on every other quarterback available in the Draft because they must feel pretty good about competing for a new quarterback in free agency - a guy like Mark Bulger or Kevin Kolb - to come in and run their offense. It will be interesting to see how that goes because the Cardinals have kind of announced that they feel like a free agent quarterback is out there.
The Vikings made a statement by selecting Christian Ponder at the #12 position in the first round that they were not going to try and go out and get a free agent. Ultimately, Ponder has the most pressure on him because a lot of people think that the Minnesota Vikings are a good football team but I am not so sure. I am a little skeptical about their chances because I thought that their defense got old in a hurry last season. I'm not so sure that the Vikings are the team that we saw take New Orleans to the limit two years ago as I think they are closer to the team that we saw compete last year.
I think out of all the quarterbacks that were drafted, Ryan Mallett probably fell into the most ideal situation with the New England Patriots. He certainly has the best structure possible around him, offering minimal worries about playing in the next few years and a chance to become the pro quarterback that the Patriots hope that he can be.
Q: If you had to pick one quarterback selected in the 2011 NFL Draft to make a couple Pro Bowls in his career, who would it be?
A: It is going to sound crazy but if Ryan Mallett hangs in there and seasons the way Aaron Rodgers did, I think he could be that guy. He had the best live arm in the Draft and was the most pro-ready quarterback from his experiences working under Bobby Petrino and reading coverages.
I love Jake Locker’s skill set and makeup as a person but I can’t think of a quarterback who ever came into the NFL with accuracy issues and became much more accurate with tigheter coverage and smaller windows to throw into.
Q: Outside of Nick Fairley and Ryan Mallett, were there any players drafted into particularly great situations?
A: I think A.J. Green can help make a paradigm shift in Cincinnati. I don't know if it's a pipe dream or not to think that Carson Palmer will want to come back to Cincinnati but I think A.J. Green could be a guy that can entice him to return. I frankly don't think it was an accident that two of Palmers best games last year came during games when Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco didn't play.
I just think that an opportunity to establish timing and rhythm with a new, young player who is probably willing to listen to him and work, might actually appeal enough to him to come back and do it. I still believe that Palmer wants out of Cincinnati but A.J. Green was a great pick because he is a mature, athletic kid. People have been on him about his Wonderlic score but I don’t think it’s a big deal because there are a lot of guys who have worn gold jackets and are in the Hall of Fame who had low Wonderlic scores.
The Andy Dalton pick is the intriguing one for me because when I like watching him on film but timing is extremely important for him and when it is screwed up at all, he doesn’t have enough arm to make up for the timing being off. I worry about how he will perform when things break down, which is what NFL defenses are really designed to do. We’ll see how it turns out but I love Dalton and the intangibles he offers as a player but I worry about things I like my quarterback to be able to play when things get a bit jangled and out of synch.
Q: Were there any surprises in the 2011 NFL Draft?
A: There weren’t a ton of surprises, and I don’t want that to come off the wrong way because it sounds like we had the whole Draft mapped out, but a lot of things played out closer to what we expected during the Draft.
The Mark Herzlich situation was one surprise that caused a lot of questions everywhere when he did not get drafted. I think a lot of people are looking at it very emotionally and the league is looking at it dispassionately - not without compassion but as a team would evaluate a player.
Unfortunately, Mark Herzlich isn’t the same first-round player that he was in 2008 because of the cancer and a steel rod in his leg. He is still a good football player but we haven’t seen the same speed and explosiveness getting to the football as we had seen in the past. We are hoping and rooting that he can get it back but teams are paying money for their players so dispassionately they had to evaluate him that way, which makes things hard because people sitting at home are saying that someone should have drafted him.
With only seven rounds in the Draft, we were all hoping that he would be selected but because he didn’t it made it tough, and what makes it worse is that because of the lockout, no one can sign him as a free agent. Normally he would have been given a chance with a team but unfortunately his career is now in limbo just like other great players like Noel Devine, Derek Locke, and Pat Devlin who are trying to figure out where to go.
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