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Best Draft: Houston Texans (Tim at Battle Red Blog)
You got the sense that when everyone agreed to trades in this mock draft, Tim's eyes lit up; because oh brother did this guy wheel and deal. When all was said and done, he took a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick and turned them into a 1st, 2nd, and two 3rd round picks. He managed to address the #1 issue for the Texans (o-line) by snagging OT Joe Staley with the #21 pick and he caught WR Jason Hill in the third round. Very impressive. Tim knew what his team needed and wanted, and he went out and got the players. Bravo!
Worst Draft: Seattle Seahawks (Shrug at Field Gulls)
That's right, cats and kittens! Our host for the draft had the worst mock draft of all of us. Man, does he suck! I mean, he sucks harder than a Thai hooker during Fleet week. He is so bad he... oh, who am I kidding. Literally everyone that voted had a different selection for worst. Some even voted THEMSELVES as the worst. The only reason Shrug falls here is he really, really wanted a first round pick, but couldn't swing a trade to do it despite interest in WR Darrell Jackson. Teams like the Colts and 49ers were involved in such trade talks, but as usual everything BigBlueShoe touches turns to ashes and dust. When Shrug's picks did comes up, he drafted a questionable RB (Michael Bush) and a DT (Paul Soliai) that some think was a reach. Again, in fairness, the draft is especially tough this year for Seattle, and Shrug was in a no win situation. However, since we are all brutal, savage sports bloggers who spit on weakness and mock futility, we will place Shrug in the Worst Mock Draft of 2007 category because we are evil I tell you... EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!
Steal of the Draft: Jon Beason (LB) drafted by Kirkendall at Cincy Jungle
Jon Beason is listed in just about every mock draft as a mid-late first round pick. Beason fell in our mock draft all the way to pick #49. With so many loses at the LBer position for the Bengals, finding Beason there at pick #49 was a coup. Kirkendall entertained offers to trade Beason for additional picks later in the draft, but instead decided wisely to keep him. Beason might be the second best linebacker in the draft, and to get him in the mid-second round was the steal of this mock draft.
Biggest Reach: Eric Weddle (S) drafted by Tommasse at Pats Pulpit
This was near unanimous. Weddle is projected by many as a third round pick. Tommasse drafted him with New England's #24 pick, bypassing better safeties like Michael Griffin or a corner like Chris Houston. To be fair, Tommasse was not the only mock drafter to think Weddle would get picked early, and the whole point of this mock draft was to act the way your team's GM would act on draft day. It seems, with that in mind, Tommasse did his job, but that was not enough for the voters. Tommasse's reasoning for taking Weddle was he's a Belichick guy, and that with no second round pick, it was likely Weddle would be gone by the time New England drafted again. The problem with this is New England picked again just four picks later, at #28. At #28, Tommasse selected OG Ben Grubbs. It would have made more sense to take Grubbs at #24 and then Weddle at #28. Because Weddle is drafted at #24, he must be paid first round money... more money than Grubbs, Houston, and others drafted after him (which to many makes no sense). The bottom line here is if safety was the "need," Michael Griffin was a better option. If Weddle was New England's target, a trade was necessary. Many teams would have traded second and third round picks for the #24th overall (maybe even Tim at Battle Red Blog). Again, in fairness, Tommasse isn't the only one saying Weddle will go early. And even though the "experts" say Griffin is a better safety, the "experts" also said Ryan Leaf was going to be a great QB in 1998. You can read Tommasse's reasoning for picking Weddle here.
There you have it, the Best and Worst of the 2007 SB Nation Mock Draft. We SB Nation football bloggers hope you enjoyed this little experiment on our part. Very few community sports blogs can manage to get their writers to do a one round mock draft. We squeezed three rounds out of our writers, and painted a very unique picture of what the draft could be. This draft was organized by the taskmaster himself, SkinsPatrol at Hogs Haven, and hosted by Shrug at Field Gulls. SeanYuille at POD provided excellent charts for tracking the mock draft, especially in the later rounds. TheSportsGuru, JasonB, BrianG, and Grizz helped a great deal in organizing things when SkinsPatrol was busy yelling at people to get their damn picks in. BigBlueShoe wrote the Best and Worst thread. Special thanks to the LSU college bloggers at And The Valley Shook for drafting the New Orleans Saints for us and to our guest Arizona Cardinals blogger for drafting the for desert red birds. Thanks to all that helped and everyone that participated. If you weren't named, it is BigBlueShoe's fault, and you can go on hating him per usual.
Has the season started yet? Because it sure feels like it!