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Hearing the Whigs
Is Leinart the New Rodgers?
Pro Football Talk's Rumor Mill says ESPN man of the moment Matt Leinart may be bracing himself for an Aaron Rodgers-like slide in this weekend's NFL Draft ...
"A source close to the Leinart camp tells us that Matt's handlers have accepted the reality that the Titans won't be drafting their guy at No. 3, barring a dramatic reversal of the current intention to acquire Texas quarterback Vince Young. Per the source, new Leinart agent Tom Condon has attempted to get some kind of an assurance from each of the teams drafting in the top five -- but has gotten nothing."
And it doesn't just stop there. PFT goes on to write that Leinart could fall as low as Minnesota at No. 17. Now, I don't think Leinart will fall nearly that far. In fact, I don't see Tennessee passing on him at No. 3 -- not with them needing a QB, not with former USC guy Norm Chow running their offense and not with his former signal-caller as the consensus top-rated QB. This is interesting, however, because I haven't seen many dropping Leinart out of the top four, let alone the top 10.
Sadly, no mention of any of this on Leinart's Madden blog, although he does address the mock drafting phenomenon ...
"Some of these guys are experts, but a lot of them don't know what they're talking about. They look for the criticisms and look for the negatives in every player, because they already know about what that player can do."
Leinart has a point there. Mel Kiper Jr., the godfather of NFL Draft prognostication, did not do so well in predicting last year's draft. His final 2005 projections for the first round only yielded a 25% success rate. Meaning, he only predicted eight of the top 32 picks, including just one of picks 12-32 correctly. Here were his most off-the-mark projections ...
· Aaron Rodgers -- No. 5 to Tampa Bay, fell to No. 24, Green Bay
· Pacman Jones -- No. 16 to New Orleans, rose to No. 6, Tennessee
· Dan Cody -- No. 23 to Seattle, fell to No. 53, Baltimore
· Khalif Barnes -- No. 28 to San Diego, fell to No. 52, Jacksonville
· Travis Johnson -- No. 29 to Indy, rose to No. 16, Houston
· Odell Thurman -- No. 31 to Philly, fell to No. 48, Cincy
That's six of Kiper's first-rounders from last year who fell down or rose up the board anywhere from 10 to 30 selections away from where Mr. Great Hair had them going. So maybe Leinart's right. Maybe he won't be going No. 3 to Tennessee as Kiper and others are predicting. But I still think he will.
Now, back to your previously scheduled consumption of mock drafts.
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he is such a good a good quarterback i think he should go first in the draft
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The Jets already said they would never pass on Leinart if he drops to them at the 4th spot, there would be something wrong if they did. Sure there are some "speculations," about his arm strength as people have compared him to Pennington but face it this team needs some one fresh and new as a marketable player, maybe D'Brickshaw would be the better pick but offensive lineman just don't sell like hollywood esque quarterbacks.
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Never believe any "sources" when it comes to what the Raiders will do in the draft. Only Al Davis and his must trusted cohorts know, and they never show their hand before making their move. Never.
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Frankly, I have no idea what Oakland or any other team's intention is with regard to drafting Leinart, but Pro Football Talk has sources saying the Raiders aren't interested.
And someone, please, take Lush up on the mustache bet. I can't afford to lose another one of those.
4/27/06 5:45 PM
http://journals.aol.com/monpo