SimonOnSports

Today we do a quick recap of the 1st round of the NFL draft if only to create this image of a crying Mel Kiper. Tales of Jimmy Clausen Anguish and Mel Kiper Tears Over the past few months nobody in this universe has pumped up and defended Jimmy Clausen more than Mel Kiper (probably even more than Jimmy's mother), so when Clausen slipped out of the first round I think Mel Kiper might have had a post 1st round cry. The unfortunate thing about this whole scenario is certainly not Clausen dropping into the second round, because who cares he'll still be a multi millionaire, but the fact that we likely will have to listen to Kiper and McShay yell at each other a few more segments before and during the 2nd round. The Jets Drafted Kyle Wilson After picking up Holmes and old man Jason Taylor (at topic for another day) the Jets really didn't have a blatant need. Picking a cornerback means no more Dwight Lowery getting toasted every play, so I'm cool with that. Really at ...

This post is brought to you by SPORTSBETTING.com. Get best online sports betting bonuses at this sportsbook . The NFL draft allows gamblers to gamble on sports news rather than actual sports. In addition it truly provides people with inside information a free ticket to money. For instance today's line of the day is Jimmy Clausen Over/Under Position 9.5 or the "Are the Bills going to draft Jimmy Clausen" bet. If you are a Bills executive you should pretty much know at this point in the game whether or not your team is going to draft Jimmy Clausen with its first pick in the draft. If it is then you being the great friend that you are can whisper to your buddies that it might be a wise decision to throw a G on this line. And then just tell them to mix in a few more picks so as not to look conspicuous. As for me, I have no insider information and I can't really stand Jimmy Clausen so I hope the Bills do draft him. Unless they trade for Big Ben, the Bills QBs...

I can't say I get overly excited for the NFL draft unless the Jets have a top 5 pick, but alas here's the annual mock draft which is sure to epically wrong. Here's hoping that Clausen enjoys Aaron Rodgers / Brady Quinn levels of draft happiness.

If you plan on being a team that is going to compete for the Super Bowl than you're going to need to build up the team by taking advantage of the best assets you are giving yearly, your 1st round draft picks. Thus let us take a look at the Saints and Colts draft picks over the past decade plus. Indianapolis Colts First and foremost, the Colts more so than any team in the league have been built through the draft. Can you name a single big name free agent that the Colts have ever signed? Didn't think so. Instead the Colts make solid picks and this obviously started in 1998 with Peyton Manning but it has continued for nearly a decade. Every 1st round pick the Colts have made since 2001 have been major contributors on this roster when healthy (Marlin Jackson and Anthony Gonzalez were both lost due to injury). The Colts dynamic pass attack was built in the first round with Peyton, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark all first round picks. Donald Brown and Joseph Addai have formed...

Today's Super Bowl's seem like they are always headlined by top quarterbacks. This year we have Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. Last year Roethlisberger and Warner, in 06 Manning and Brady, etc. etc. Each of these featured at least one 1st round draft pick. In fact a 1st round drafted Quarterback has been featured in each of the last 6 Super Bowls. With that being said I figured now was a good time to look at a decades worth of first round picks. ~There were 26 quarterbacks drafted in the first round from 2000-2009. Of these 26, 7 were drafted with the #1 pick overall. ~Of the QBs drafted in the first round, Michael Vick of all people leads the way in Pro Bowl births with three. ~Not surprisingly every QB drafted in the first round has gotten the opportunity to start this decade. Of these 1st rounders the least successful were Patrick Ramsey, Matt Leinart, Joey Harrington, David Carr, JaMarcus Russell, Brady Quinn and the Sex Cannon.

Everyone will remember the Jets 2009 draft as the time they moved up to get Mark Sanchez but what people may forget is that this is not the first time the Jets have gone this route. 2007 Move Up to Get Darrelle Revis aka Hero The Jets desperately need a corner and the Panthers were looking to move down so the Jets flew from 25 to 14 to pick Revis. In the process the Jets gave the Panthers their first round pick, a second round pick (#59) and a 5th round pick (164) while also receiving the Panthers 6th round pick. The Panthers used their selections to draft Jon Beason whom has started all 48 games in his three years as a Panther and made the Pro Bowl last year. They also selected Ryan Kalil whom became their permanent starting Center towards the tail end of his rookie year. 2007 Move Up to Get David Harris The Jets didn't take long in 2007 to move up again. They traded their 2nd round pick (63), their 3rd round pick (89) and the 6th round pick they received from the Pant...

It's the end of the decade. So it's time for some lists. Today's list is the Worst NFL Draft Picks of the past decade. 11. Darrius Heyward-Bey, #7, 2009: It's probably way too early to declare Heyward-Bey a bust but given the Raiders track record, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Through 11 games Heyward-Bey has just 9 receptions. Meanwhile, Michael Crabtree the receiver they chose Darrius over has 26 catches in just 6 games. 10. Adam Jones, #6 2005, Titans: This draft pick isn't so bad on a bust level as it was on a headache level. The Titans took the talented Pacman with the 6th pick in the draft despite his very very shady history at West Virginia. Two years later Pacman was getting suspended from the league never to see a down again in a Titans uniform. 9. Vernon Gholston, #6 2008, Jets: Gholston was a work out warrior with a body of steal. Through two seasons he's played more like a body builder than a football player....

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

Darren Rovell of CNBC recently had an interview with Rick Smith , the agent of Cincinnati Bengals 1st round draft pick Andre Smith. It's time to translate what he is really saying. Darren: I know you have only been with Andre for days, but how did he manage to salvage what could have been a monumental loss of money for him? Smith: It started with team officials understanding the fact that he responds well to the type of discipline that Nick Saban gave him at Alabama. And he doesn’t do as well when he’s off on his own. They knew that when he was in a structured, disciplined environment, he would be a star. Translation: The kid is lazy and fat. Finished the football season and lived at a Krispy Kream. What do you want kids always hungry? I just had to convince people he could be less fat, and obviously the Bengals were the easiest team to convince. Darren: What did it for Cincinnati? Because we didn’t see anything that would have made it obvious. Smith: It was really the surpr...

~Quality over Quantity was the Jets motto. And well they better be quality cause they only made three draft picks. An insignificant 6th rounder for O-line depth, Mark Sanchez, and Shonn Greene. Shonn Greene might be really good but where the hell does he get snaps next year? TJ had his best year and Leon already doesn't get enough touches. Where the hell is Greene getting carries? The Jets still lack offensive deep threats, so the offense may still be suspect. ~I obviously don't know much about token 6th round offensive guards, so I'm not going to be able to say this Abilene Christian player is going to be really really good. So when I look at a draft I look at top picks and think they improved or they didn't and to me I absolutely positively love the Eagles first two picks. The entire offseason the Eagles looked like they accomplished nothing to further McNabb's available weapons and within the first two rounds they are looking good. I've already proclaimed my ...

Kellen was lucky enough to be Mr. March in the 2009 Jets Calendar. For some reason I don't think he's Mr. April and beyond.

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

The Jets showed balls, the wanted one man and they went out and got him. They believe he's going to be the franchise quarterback. They believe he's the quarterback to lead them in the future. So they went out gave up two picks and three players to get one guy. Mark Sanchez is now Gang Green. As a franchise they are extremely excited, the future is now. As a fan my expectations are tempered. Do any of us know what Mark Sanchez is going to be? He's only played one season in college and first round quarterbacks aren't necessarily automatic. The potential is there, the franchise loves him, but in reality he's still a wildcard. We still have no idea what the future holds. Are the Jets any better today than they were 3 days ago? None of us really have any idea. Additionally, the've now as a franchise fully admitted that Kellen Clemens is a sunk cost. In 2006 they utilized their 2nd round pick on the quarterback from Oregon and through 3 seasons he's never ...

So the draft is two days away and not the Jets trade winds are starting to swirl up up and away. And they all have to do with either a quarterback or a wideout. Apparently the Jets are in the Browns marketplace and are contemplating trading around for Hero of the Homosexuals Brady Quinn and/or Braylon Edwards. Those could happen, Mangini does hate quarterbacks, receivers and offense in general. Good ole Sal Palontonio thinks that the Jets may be in the Jason Campbell sweepstakes especially if the Redskins do their typical nonsensical insanity and trade up for Mark 'Dirty' Sanchez. Oh and the Jets are of course in the sweepstakes for 'Dirty' Sanchez themselves . Trades trades trades trades, YAY trade rumors. So what do we expect the Jets to do? Pick someone to add to this video of course. It already needs to be updated with Vernon Gholston why not just add another name to the list. And why trade up for a quarterback when Brett Favre is obviously just gonna come...

late_round_steals Check Out More SimonOnSports Trivia

To be completely honest, I don't care much about this years NFL draft. I doubt highly the Jets will trade up enough to get Sanchez and even more highly that Maclin could plummet all the way to 17. Other than those two guys I'm a little indefferent as to whom the Jets select. For this reason, all I'm doing is a simple mock draft. Basically the Lions throw their franchise in Stafford's hands, the next few teams go conservative with lineman and Curry. Than Crabtree falls further to he should to the depths of Oakland. The Jaguars dreams come true and they trade out of the pick to somebody who drafts Sanchez. Maybe the Broncos. I get my hopes up that Maclin is falling and then some random team trades up to the Redskins and snatches him up. Then the rest of the draft is snooze fest.

The universal reaction I got this weekend from everyone I talked to about the Matt Cassel trade was "huh, they only got a 2nd round pick and they gave up Mike Vrabel?" Looking more into the matter, and hearing some more rumors out there it becomes even more foggy. I keep on hearing that the Broncos and Lions were interested and willing to give up more than the 34th pick in the draft, but were too late to the trade party. Huh? What the hell does that even mean? We're still two months away from the draft, do the Pats plan on making any free agent splashes over the next few days? What was the big urgency? Did the Patriots even reach out to those teams, or did Bellicheat and Pioli just kind of agree to this when he parted ways a couple of weeks ago? It seems pretty obvious that the Patriots could have done better had they looked elsewhere. It also seems like a joke that they had to give up Vrabel in the process and couldn't even get an extra 5th round pick. They...

6 games is too early in ones career to define them as a bust. A player can breakout at any point in time and become the great player that many thought they were going to be. What you can do however is assess what kind of impact a draft pick has made on a team after their first 6 games. And with Vernon Gholston the #6 pick of last years NFL Draft, that impact has been non-existent. Through 6 games the Jets sit at 3-3. They are lacking massive playmakers on both sides of the ball. They contain no deep threat at wideout, inhibiting Brett from 'Gunslinging'. They do not contain a breakaway back (TJ ran for 150+ this weekend but had 3 opportunities for massive tds if only he beat the safety who was the lone player in his path. Each time he was easily tackled). On defense they lack a consistent pass rush and they lack a secondary cornerback after Revis. In these 6 games Vernon Gholston was supposed to be the dominant edge pass rusher the team needed. We were told that he has t...

~First off let me just echo what my buddy Joe thought of the draft, it was boring. The one player that you really will be looking forward to watch take the field this year is going to a perennial 4 win team who won't be on TV much and additionally have 3 running backs who will compete for touches with him. The rest of the 1st round consisted of lineman, who while will be very beneficial to teams won't be players to diligently follow this year. ~The Jets draft was also boring. I obviously wanted McFadden but figured they'd end up with Gholston. I'm surprised they traded up for Keller whom everyone seems to think would have been a round when they picked in the 2nd round. The worst thing about Keller is that, it makes me think they are highly contemplating going back to Pennington this year. A tight end roaming around in the middle is the perfect complement to Chad's weak arm. One of the many remaining Wide Out who could spread the field would help someone with ...

Nugent nailing this kick to help the Jets win in Overtime the final week of the season cost the Jets the best player in the draft. Woo...