About the NFL Draft: Don't Make Yourself Crazy Over First-Round Picks
Rumor has it that the NFL is holding its draft today.
Sure, they’re having to use somebody’s basement, somebody else’s garage and somebody else’s living room as workarounds in the age of COVD-19 coronavirus pandemic, but football’s powers-that-be are going to start dividing up the spoils from the best of the best of collegiate football players.
Just a word of advice. Don’t take it too seriously. The NFL will take it seriously enough for all of us, and then some. But really, don’t let your blood pressure rise or fall based on the direction your favorite team chooses to take, especially in today’s first round.
Take it from Major League Baseball. In any sport, a draft is what it is. That’s where the bulk of MLB players get their starts. Many first-round picks make it. Some make it big. Some, not so much. Lower draft choices can have bigger impacts.
The fact is that luck has a lot to do with it. Across all sports, exhibit No. 1 is Tom Brady. A decent but not spectacular quarterback out of Michigan, he was such a can’t-miss prospect that he didn’t go until the sixth round of a seven-round NFL draft. He was such a sure thing that he wasn’t the Patriots’ first pick in the sixth round, but the second.
And yet the Patriots went on to become the dominant NFL team of the first two decades of the 21 century through sheer luck because this sixth-round choice somehow turned out to be one of the great quarterbacks of all time.
Earlier this year I wrote about sixth-round draft picks and how they played out for the Oakland A’s. Third baseman San Bando (1965) and right-handed starter Tim Hudson (1997) had long and productive careers. Others, including reliever Andrew Bailey (2006), first baseman Alvin Davis (1981) and catcher Jim Sundberg (1969) all went on to have impactful big-league careers, mostly elsewhere. Speaking of elsewhere, current A’s shortstop and driving force Marcus Semien was a sixth-round pick of the White Sox back in 2011.
So, don’t get too wound up in the first-round picks in the NFL draft tonight.
Take it from Nolan Ryan (12 round 1965), John Smoltz (22 round, 1985), Ryne Sandberg (20 round, 1978), Andre Dawson (11 round, 1975) and Mike Piazza (62 round, 1988), MLB Hall of Famers all.
Or from still active players like three-time MVP Albert Pujols (13 round, 1999) and three-time All-Star J.D. Martinez (20 round, 2009).
Or from current Oakland A’s key men Mike Fiers (22 round, 2009), Ramon Laureano (16 round, 2014) and Jake Diekman (30 round, 2007).
There is plenty of talent past the first round in any sport.
A team just has to be lucky enough to stumble into it.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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