Top of the Class

Senior ‘SI’ football writer Peter King, who by the way is one of my favorite scribes out there, was one of the few writers who gave the New England Patriots a positive grade after the 2000 draft. In his 2000 NFL Draft Report Card, King gives the Pats a B+. Why did he do this? King predicted that “J.R. Redmond will be the every-down back by Oct. 1. Not bad for the 76th overall pick.”
Was he correct about Redmond? Not even close.(676 career rushing yards in 50 games, only six of those being starts) So what should New England have gotten for their efforts on April 15 and 16 of 2000? I’d say an A+. Let’s take a look at their haul:

46-- Adrian Klemm G Hawaii
76-- J.R. Redmond FB Arizona State
127-- Greg Randall T Michigan State
141-- Dave Stachelski TE Boise State
161-- Jeff Marriott G Missouri
187-- Antwan Harris DB Virginia
199-- Tom Brady QB Michigan
201-- David Nugent DE Purdue
226-- Casey Tisdale DE New Mexico
239-- Patrick Pass FB Georgia

You see the name fourth from the bottom? He is the reason for the Pats get the top mark. At the time, his scouting report said, “Very tall with a thin build. Needs to upgrade his overall strength. Pocket passer with average quickness. Can slide from pressure, but is not very elusive. Doesn't look to run. Holds the ball a bit low, but has a fairly quick release. Lacks a strong arm. Doesn't rifle the long outs, but he's an accurate passer with a good feel for touch. Sails some throws and hangs some deep balls. Leader. Eyeballs his primary target at times, but shows the ability to come off and find alternates. Generally makes good decisions”
Now, whenever he is introduced somewhere, his name is preceded by the title of MVP of Super Bowl’s XXXVI and XXXVIII, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year for 2005, and three time NFL Champion. Pretty good for the seventh quarterback taken in the ’00 draft.

So what’s the point of all this? It’s that you can’t grade a draft until you’ve actually seen a player play. Will the Titans' still have an A if Vince Young becomes the next Ryan Leaf? Will the Bears' C- be upgraded if Devin Hester is a game-changing threat every time he touches the ball on kick and punt returns? I bet so. So instead of handing out grades for the class of ’06, I have realized that a group of players can’t be graded until they are in the league for at least thee seasons. So here are the best and the worst from the draft of 2003.

4 BEST DRAFTS
-Pittsburgh Steelers- They only had five picks, and from what I know, only one of them has ever done anything in the league. But that one player was the best defensive player picked in ’03. Troy Polamalu made play after play last season in leading the Black & Gold to the Super Bowl, and if the draft had a do-over button, he definitely wouldn’t last until the 16 pick.
-Kansas City Chiefs- Interesting stuff here. When Pittsburgh realized that Polamalu was the guy for them, they traded up to Kansas City’s spot to nab him. The Chiefs dropped back to pick 27 and took Larry Johnson, who in 2005 ran for 1750 yards while only starting nine games for KC.
-Cincinnati Bengals- I guess it’s not to difficult to have a good draft when you have the number one pick, but all-too-often we see the team picking first to over think and select the wrong guy. (See Houston Texans, 2006) So I guess we should give Cinci props for picking the draft’s best player, Carson Palmer, with the top pick. They also got a good O-Lineman in Eric Steinbach and a nice fullback in Jeromi Johnson.
-Chicago Bears- The Bears had the number four pick in ’03, but swapped with the Jets in exchange for New York’s two first-round picks (#14 and #22). While those two players, Michael Haynes and Rex Grossman haven’t really lived up to expectations, the players picked in later rounds have been greater then expected. Charles Tillman has made some big plays, Ian Scott is a very underrated D-Lineman, and Lance Briggs may just be the Bears best linebacker. Justin Gage also could do some good stuff if he ever got the ball thrown to him.

4 WORST DRAFTS
-Baltimore Ravens- The perfect example of why post-draft grades are pointless. Everyone said the Ravens made off like thieves by nabbing the drafts best pass rusher in Terrell Suggs and the QB with the best arm in Kyle Boller. Both of them have been disappointments, and no one else Baltimore picked up has done much either.
- Arizona Cardinals- Another team that had two first-round picks, neither of which have done much. Bryant Johnson and Calvin Pace were picked back-to-back, and both are currently buried on the Arizona depth chart. Putting the Cards on the ‘Worst Draft’ list is probably unfair, since they did pick up Anquan Boldin in round two.
-Oakland Raiders- I’m not going to waste your time by telling you who the Raiders picked and all that stuff. All I will say is that if they gave points for drafting players with tight names, Oakland would get an A for picking New Mexico State safety Siddeeq Shabazz.
-San Francisco 49ers- Another Bay Area team that didn’t do anything. Former Illini receiver Brandon Lloyd has made some amazing catches, but is very inconsistent. Other then him, the Niners draft was worth as much as Chicago Enforcers memorabilia.