I tend to agree with the comments that this draft has good a little more according to plan/logic than will happen. Doesn't make any of the picks poor, just not huge surprises. Robert O. has a bit of sleeper here, choosing for the Bucs

Conventional wisdom, at least for "good" teams, is that a winning team is built in the trenches first. With that in mind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers actually performed well on both the offensive and defensive lines last year. While the Bucs could use an infusion of youth at Defensive End, Tim L. made an eloquent argument (and saved me a few words) that there is no DE of value available at this point in the draft.

Continue reading "Pancake Blocks Mock Draft: Pick No. 20" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

The longer this draft gets, the longer the writeups for the picks get. That's good because I'm struggling to keep it interesting here during magazine season. Andy G. has the honors for the Eagles. I heartily endorse the pick.

I've spent some serious time thinking about who to take in this situation and the more I thought about it the more i've become convinced that the Eagles will be moving up in this draft. The current list of available players is unacceptable for the Eagles. The most glaring needs that necessitate a 1st round pick are OT, WR and S. All of the top OT's are off the board and I don't want to reach for Gosder Cherilus.

Continue reading "Pancake Blocks Mock Draft: Pick No. 19" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Taped a mini Fantasy Fix update on Tuesday, giving some quick updates on injuries around the league. I think Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates' value is going to be more affected by their surgeries than people think.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Jimmy has the honors with the Texans

I was really hoping to have Williams or even Albert available here to improve the O-line. The Texans still may take a left-tackle here. I do not think the Texans will take a RB in the first round as there are more pressing needs on the defensive side of the ball. We need to improve our pass defense by either applying more pressure on the QB or possibly covering receivers (just a thought).

Continue reading "Pancake Blocks Mock Draft: Pick No. 18" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

If I had a little more time or was a little smarter, I'd do research project based on these preseason strength-of-schedule lists. I'd love to see how last offseason's list like this compared to reality. Whether the strength of schedule on paper really had much to do with how hard it was in reality. There are a couple possible methods, but the quickest would just be using winning percentage. I suspect how hard a schedule looks in April doesn't mean much.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This Liveblog goes for as long as it can stay interesting, which may not be long

2:00: No Rich Eisen?! I like Fran Charles, but NFL Network can't break out the big guns for this?

2:02: I seriously worry about the Patriots hangover, but they get the biggest Week 1 layup possible: At home against the Chiefs.

Continue reading "Schedule Release thoughts ... Live!" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Some schedules, like the Broncos, are already leaking out piece by piece. The Patriots are reportedly opening with the Chiefs.

I'll wait to the official reports come out to comment more, but I have to wonder who will be catching passes from Jay Cutler in their Week 1 opener in Oakland. The team signed Samie Parker this week and are close to inking Darrell Jackson. So is the Keary Colbert revival already dead?

Continue reading "Mike Shanahan: Mediocre WR savior" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

ESPN has included the announcement that the NFL will be releasing it's schedule today as a top story on their main page for the better part of the last day.

If I was a diehard NBA or even MLB fan over the NFL, this might annoy me. I would also be annoyed if I was an NFL Network executive. They had a nice niche with their show the last few years, but now has to go up against a two-hour Sportscenter special. If nothing else, NFL Network has forced ESPN to step up their game covering off-season NFL news.

Continue reading "Sign that the NFL is quite popular" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tim L. up with the Vikings with this pick. Once again proving Pancake Blocks readers have better reasoning and know more about their teams than a lot of the people who get paid to do this stuff.

When the Panthers took Derrick Harvey, all of Viking nation shed a tear. With this edge rusher off the table, the Vikings do not see a DE that makes sense in their Tampa 2 system. Groves is a 3-4 DE/OLB who's undersized as an every down lineman, while Phillip Merling is a "run stopping DE" who most scouts say is not a great pass rusher. With a Cover 2 scheme, speed off the edge is a must so Merling is not the choice. So, even though this is arguably the greatest need for the Vikes, the 17th pick will not be used on this position.

Continue reading "Pancake Blocks Mock: Pick No. 17" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Scott C. is the first participant to go over my rough word limit for this project and call out a Rotoworld writer in the process. Plus he sent the pick in before the Lions were up. I'm needling because I like the enthusiasm. Here is Scott's reasoning, uncut

The Cardinals can go a few ways here. The Defensive Line is old and aging and Bertrand Berry and Chike Okeafor are both in their 30s, and have injury concerns. No interior lineman is disruptive. LB is weak as well. CB… major concern. Pretty much the whole defense sucks.

Continue reading "Pancake Blocks Mock Draft: No. 16" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)