|
 The first round of the 2010 NFL Draft will start on Thursday April 22nd at 7:30 pm ET with the second and third round being held Friday and rounds four through seven on Saturday. This will be the first year for this new format. The NFL Draft has gained popularity over the last several years. The Draft in 2009 had more viewers than any hockey, basketball or baseball game that weekend drawing a record 6.3 million viewers. Moving the first round to Thursday, the most popular night of the week for TV viewers, the NFL expects to have more than 10 million viewers for the first time in Draft history. The Draft will be covered by ESPN and NFL Network and held at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
The NFL typically invites 9 players to the Draft. This year, with the extra viewers expected, the NFL has doubled the number of players invited to 18. On Tim Tebow's Pro Day last Wednesday in Jacksonville Florida, he announced that he will accept the invite from the NFL and attend the 2010 Draft in New York. Everyone is shocked that the NFL would even invite Tebow. Usually they only invite the players that they feel will be selected in the first half of the first round. Tebow is expected to be drafted in the 2nd or 3rd round by most draft experts. No one really has Tebow going in the first round unless Jacksonville decides to just sell tickets instead of winning games.
 The format for this years draft will be much different for the players. Normally they sit in the Green Room with their family or friends and the cameras are on them constantly (especially when their name isn't called). Brady Quinn was the main topic between picks in the 2007 draft. Sitting beside his girlfriend, Lindy Slinger, the cameras would not leave him alone. He was hyped as the 2nd best QB in the draft and all the experts had him going in the top ten. With 15 minutes between picks it gave the press a lot of time to show the heart broken Quinn on camera.
Reporter Suzy Kolber continually asked Quinn about the pressure he was under after each team selected someone else and he had to endure so much camera time that the NFL finally took him out of the Green Room and placed him in a private room where he could cuss and hit the walls with no cameras watching. I am sure he fired his agent at this time.
The NFL doesn't want the Quinn incident to happen again, especially on Prime Time television. They will not have 18 players sitting in a Green Room waiting to be picked. This year will be a much more player friendly event. The NFL is hoping not to embarrass anyone and to promote the players in the draft to try and capture more fans for the upcoming season. They are doing everything possible to make sure they get as many viewers as they can. Inviting Tim Tebow shows that the NFL is really going to make this a player and viewer friendly event. I don't think that the NFL believes Tebow will be picked in the first round and don't expect the NFL to try and exploit one of the most popular players ever to come out of college football. If you think you will see Tebow shedding tears because he didn't get drafted in the first round, think again. Even though he will not be one of the top 3 QB's taken in the 2010 Draft, he will be one of the biggest stories covered.
 Tim Tebow made history one more time on his NFL PRO DAY. He not only invited every NFL team to come and watch his new and improved throwing style, he also invited all his fans. This is a first in NFL history. Tebow knew he had to make some major changes to be successful as an NFL QB. He had a horrible showing at the Senior Bowl and hired several coaches to help him improve his throwing motion and footwork. Over the 6 week period between the Senior Bowl and his Pro Day outing, Tebow worked as hard as anyone could on this improvement and it showed. All 32 NFL teams sent a scout, 7 teams had their Head Coach or General Manager there and over 3,000 Tebow fans showed up to see the results of his training. He impressed everyone, not only with his improvements but also proved that he is coachable. They even opened the concession stand and made one more attempt to cash in on the Tebow money train while they could. Most of the Pro Days for the QBs entering the draft are well planned out and very much scripted so the player has as many advantages as possible. Tebow wanted to show the scouts and coaches that he didn't need a script and simply asked them what they wanted to see. What else would you expect at this point but for Tebow to do something different than all the other QBs entering this year's draft? He knew he had one more shot at impressing the NFL decision makers and made the most of it. NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock told the Sporting New's "From the Senior Bowl to now, the improvement is ridiculous, I was blown away."
Because of Tebow's phenomenal 30 minute performance at his Pro Day he has individual workouts scheduled with at least 5 NFL teams: Bills, Seahawks, Patriots, Browns and Redskins. When the top teams in the NFL are interested in someone entering the draft the other teams will follow. New England and Indianapolis are both showing a lot of interest in Tebow, which would be a great situation for him to fall into. Jacksonville picking Tebow would be the worst thing that could ever happen to him. He would be thrown into play his first season and would not have the extra two years or more he really needs to learn a system and get used to the speed of the NFL. Jacksonville needs to sell tickets and they know Tebow would make that happen, but playing behind Manning or Brady for a couple of years and learning from one of the best QBs to ever play the game would be the best scenario for all involved. Imagine how good Tebow would be after playing behind Manning for two or three years. Getting tutored by arguably the best quarterback in NFL history and getting thrown in for a couple of plays here and there to give him some game time experience would give him time to develop into a top NFL Quarterback. Tebow has shown he is coachable and has the work ethic to be the best, but needs time behind a veteran to get there.
The NFL has not revealed the other 17 players to be invited to New York for the 2010 draft yet. However, here is the list of probable invitees:
1. Sam Bradford
2. Jimmy Clausen
3. Ndamukong Suh
4. Gerald McCoy
5. Russell Okung
6. Eric Berry
7. C.J. Spiller
8. Rolando McClain
9. Dan Williams
10. Joe Haden
11. Dez Bryant
12. Colt McCoy
13. Golden Tate
14. Brain Price
15. Bruce Campbell
16. Taylor Mays
17. Anthony Davis
18. Tim Tebow
19. Usain Bolt: (Just to tease Al Davis with a speedy option) - Bob Bearden
Bob is a regular guest contributor on sports talk radio in the Southeastern United States. Bob's views and opinions on professional and college sporting events can now be found right here on the MC3 Sports Media's family of websites.
- For player profiles and complete coverage of this Year's NFL Draft, visit our NFL Draft Prospects Home Page with new profiles being added each week.
If you haven't voted in our polls on the site yet please do so. We are trying to get a feel for how our readers are looking at Football so we can write about things they want to hear. The poll questions are:
"Do you think the NCAA should have a Playoff to determine the National Champion rather than the BCS / Bowl System?"
and
"Should the NFL adopt the NCAA method of Overtime or continue to flip a coin for possession and have sudden death?"
Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.
 
 |
Tim's throwing motion has been over criticized. Why? Not only was Tim berated for failing to change his throwing mechanics while in college - his coaches' professionalism was called into question for failing to prepare the quarterback mechanically for the next level.
Why isn't the same criticism leveled at Sam Bradford and his coaches? Sam Bradford as a quarterback hoping to make it to the next level, failed to put on weight while in college and FAILED to learn how to fall to protect his throwing arm and his coaches failed to teach him how to fall to protect his throwing arm. Where are the hundreds of articles on how Sam Bradford killed his senior year by failing to learn to fall? Where are the dozens of articles questioning the coaching professionalism of his coaches? As it stands, NFL teams interested in Bradford must consult Dr. Andrews - Bradford's shoulder surgeon to see how well Bradford will hold up as an NFL quarterback.
Tim Tebow went up against Sam Bradford on a fair field of play in the National Championship - Quarterback versus Quarterback. Bradford was the quarterback throwing interceptions and failing in accuracy. When it came time for the Heisman, Tim Tebow received more 1st Place votes even though Sam won out overall since Tebow already had the Heisman in his sophomore year.
To be fair Mark Sanchez made it all the way to the NFL without knowing how to slide to protect his knee. Where are the hundreds of articles on how Sanchez can't be a quarterback? Without your throwing shoulder or a knee YOU CAN'T PLAY.
To be fair...Tebow's adjustments for the NFL weren't nearly as serious. Tebow dropped the ball low because he was THAT GOOD...because he was able to do a jumping jack in the pocket before he threw the ball most of the time. Was it best form? No. It's similar to the same criticism Usain Bolt received for seemingly slowing down at the end of his world record runs and looking at his time as he blew away his opponents. Tebow relaxed a bit as he read defenses before throwing from the correct high position. Undoubtedly if another racer had any chance of overtaking Usain Bolt, he would adjust his stride, NOT let up and not look to the side to win the race. Tebow made his appropriate adjustment for the next level for faster defenses.
Why all the negativity on Tebow when guys like Bradford and Sanchez actually jeopardized their chances of being a quarterback and performing well with THEIR bad mechanics?