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As theater, this draft lacked something, like a first act.
How ironic. In a year when the NFL had styled the thing to make it crisp, to give it snap, to shape it as if it were a situation comedy, the league wound up with a production that had the most empty of openings.
Much of the drama associated with the draft customarily comes at the beginning. Who is going to go No. 1? Millions hang on the question. In drawing rooms, street corners and saloons, the matter is debated. Suspense builds. Only this time, days before Roger Goodell would announce, “The NFL draft is now in session,” the Miami Dolphins, holding the first selection, announced having attained a contractual accord with Jake Long, a giant offensive tackle from Michigan.
Whoosh! That was the drama being sucked out of the draft. One can imagine how the folks at ESPN and NFL Network must have reacted when they learned that the Dolphins basically had past-posted the procedure. The draft is the NFL’s mystery story. To have the ranking selection revealed in this manner was like picking up a murder mystery and having the culprit identified in the opening chapter.
Surely, Bill Parcells, handling the draft for the Dolphins, and Long’s interests could have kept their own counsels for a few days instead of disclosing the Michigan athlete’s capitulation when they did. An act most foul, it says here.
After this deed, the NFL stuffed a gag into the mouths of the St. Louis Rams, due to choose No. 2, forbidding them from engaging in dialogues with prospective draftees. The draft already had been eroded by the Long signing. The league clearly did not wish it to be diminished further.
As for the draft’s format as the NFL had reconfigured it, shortening the period in which teams must choose in the opening round from 15 minutes to 10, it was successful, I suppose, if one views the draft as an entertainment vehicle. I see it differently. The draft is the touchstone that has made professional football the game of our times. Teams should be given sufficient time to make the soundest, most reasoned of choices. Is 10 minutes in the opening round, seven minutes in the second and five after that enough time? We shall see.
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New Raiders RB Darren McFadden
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Perhaps I am quibbling too much. There was a degree of intrigue here. It had its source in the draft destiny of Darren McFadden, a running back enveloped in the shadows that his conduct represented. The Raiders, a team that lives in the shadows, kept the faith. They offered McFadden a harbor.
Raiders coach Lane Kiffin admitted that the team had no pressing need for another running back, not with Justin Fargas, 245-pound Michael Bush, Dominic Rhodes and LaMont Jordan at the position.
“But I knew months ago that this was the guy we had to have and we had to figure out a way to get him,” Kiffin said.
At one point, Kiffin said the Raiders, concerned that another team might move ahead of them in order to take McFadden, were discussing trading up themselves.
“Fortunately, the information we ended up with — that he would be there for us — was accurate and it worked out perfectly,” Kiffin said.
In choosing McFadden, the Oakland club passed up an opportunity to enlist DT Glenn Dorsey, regarded by some as the prize of the draft. To Kiffin, this did not make sense. In the middle of their defensive front, the Raiders have Tommy Kelly, a 300-pounder they have awarded a rich contract.
Kiffin dismissed McFadden’s character issues.
“I can’t find a person who will tell me that when he walks into the building until the time he leaves, they have ever had any type of issue,” the coach said. “This is a guy who really loves football and is passionate in the way he prepares for it.
“That was the first thing to look at. Then you look at the off-field issues, and there are some things there. They have been based on other people’s actions that brought him into them.”
Kiffin said the Raiders contacted McFadden before choosing him yesterday.
“I said, ‘Darren, if you’re there when we go, I need this, this and this. And you need to understand this is how you need to be.’ He’s right on the same page and understands it all.”
The Raiders’ intention, according to Kiffin, is to sometimes utilize McFadden as a receiver.
“He has a lot of similarities to Reggie Bush because he is a dynamic pass catcher, as well,” Kiffin said, comparing him to the Heisman Trophy winner he coached at USC. “There are a lot of options to explore.”
You had a favorite in the draft, right? I had one. I watch the college bowl games. The guy I was struck with during the holidays was Chris Johnson, a running back from East Carolina. In the Hawaii Bowl game against Boise State, Johnson looked as if he could score a touchdown every time he touched the ball. He ran for 223 yards. He has brilliant speed. Tennessee took him in Round One. Bully, I say.
Finally, I want to say a word about Mike Mayock, who was breaking down the draft for NFL Network. That guy had a hell of a draft. He was foreseeing just about everything before it happened. It was eerie.
Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1961 and for PFW since its inception in 1967.
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