April
27 (6:45 PM) That's a wrap... With
the
selection of Idaho LB David Vobora by St. Louis with the 252nd and last
pick, the 2008 draft is in the books. There won't be any rest for weary
NFL pro personnel staffs, however, as teams are already working the
phones trying to sign the top undrafted players. In fact, there is a
small army of pretty good prospects still out there; for reference,
here's the updated
GBN Big Board with the
top 90 or so undrafted players on our chart. We'll be back a little
later this evening with our final wrap of this weekend's draft. (10:00
AM): Day two underway... With day two of the 2008 draft
underway we are ensconsed back in the GBN War
Room where we'll be right through the 252nd pick sometime around 6
PM ET later this evening. We'll have round-by-round wraps through the
rest of the day, plus we'll be keeping the GBN
Big Board updated as players come off the board.
(9:00 AM): Day two morning shocker… Hard
to believe, but all 31 NFL teams that made at least one pick yesterday
were reporting this morning that they couldn’t believe that the guy
they got “was still on the board” when they got on the clock. To be
fair, some teams actually have a case starting with Kansas City which
never figured that LSU DT Glenn Dorsey, arguably the best player in
this year’s draft, would still be on the board when the Chiefs made the
5th pick. Indeed, said Bill Kuharich, the Chiefs’ vice president for
player personnel: ““I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would
have the opportunity to get both of these guys” after the Chiefs were
also able to acquire Virginia OT Branden Albert later in the opening
round. One can’t blame New Orleans, though, for not trying to move up
to get Dorsey, the local favorite who would also have filled a huge
need on the Saints’ roster. The Saints reportedly offered their first
pick next year, along with the 10th overall pick this year and a later
round pick this year to the Chiefs to move up to the #5 slot to get
Dorsey themselves, however, Kansas City turned them down. The Saints
though got some consolation when they were able to tarde up with New
England two picks later and get USC DT Sedrick Ellis, who is almost as
good a prospect as Dorsey. Meanwhile, there was no small irony when
Baltimore selected Delaware QB Joe Flacco with the 18th pick overall.
In the overall process, Flacco became the first non-D1A QB selected in
the first round since Tennessee took Steve McNair of Alcorn State in
1995. Of course, the Ravens took Flacco in large part because they
suddenly had a pressing need at QB when the same Steve McNair abruptly
retired just days before the draft.
Back at it on day two… After catching maybe a
couple of hours of sleep we are back at it on day two of the 2008 draft
which gets underway in about an hour at 10 AM ET with Detroit on the
clock with a pick from Miami. Baltimore, which had a busy first making
two big first round moves, though, looks to be in position to make the
biggest impact with today’s selections. After taking what they hope is
their QB of the future in Joe Flacco of Delaware in yesterday’s opening
round, the Ravens have 9 more picks today including three in each of
the 3rd anf 4th rounds. In addition to Baltimore, Kansas City,
Philadelphia, and Chicago also each have 9 picks today barring further
trades with the Chiefs having three in the third round, while the
Eagles have three in the 4th. Atlanta will also have a busy second day
with 8 picks overall including three in the 3rd. Meanwhile, Cleveland
will finally make an appearance at the 2008 draft when the Browns pick
in the 4th round. The Browns had traded away their top three picks this
year prior to the draft. And there are still plenty of quality
prospects left on the board including Penn State LB Dan Connor, WRs
Early Doucet of LSU and Michigan’s Mario Manningham, RBs Jamaal Charles
of Texas, record-setting Kevin Smith of Central Florida and West
Virginia scatback Steve Slaton, and QBs John David Booty, who figures
to be the 8th former USC Trojan picked this weekend, along with
Kentucky’s Andre’ Woodson and Erik Ainge of Tennessee. Here’s the list
of players still on the board on the GBN
Big Board. In fact, as much as possible we’ll be updating that list
through the day today along with round-by-round wraps of all today’s
action.
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