4/20 bro!
(Don't mind the weird video in the background. I have an ongoing internal debate about whether that or Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song" is the most perfect song I've ever heard, and both are really appropriate for listening to on a day like today.)
But on to the good stuff. The draft is two days away, which is cray-cray, so here's what's good: Of our three potential draftees, you can be close to 100% certain that Mike Kafka and Corey Wootton will get drafted. (If you want to believe Northwestern's twitter, feed, this is when they'll get drafted.) Let's hit the details.
Corey Wootton
- It's not quite as cut and dry as that thing I linked to up above makes it seem by just saying "second round". Corey shows up anywhere from being the sixth best defensive lineman to being the sixth best defensive end to not being one of the top ten defensive linemen.
- The most likely place for Wootton is, in fact, the second round, generally in the mid- to late- second. I've essentially stopped finding reports of him being a potential first rounder.
- Apparently, every NFL team is looking at him, five intensely. I don't know enough to gander at those five, but the last time I did this, I saw four teams that had worked him out - the Pats, Chiefs, Bills, and J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS - and also mentioned Tampa Bay as a team that seemed to be showing interest from what I'd read. Well, that sure makes five - take it as you will.
- The Pats are a team that just keeps coming up. Maybe it's because Boston has way too much sports coverage, maybe it's because the Patriots are generally high on Woot, but it definitely seems like the 3-4 aspect of New England defense makes Wootton appealing.
- A little bit of love from the Chiefs as well.
- All in all, with Corey, no news is good news, as it seems it would be surprising for Wootton to drop past the third round. He's essentially cemented a spot in the traditional first day of the draft - we just have to see who will become the takers. Most of the hype is coming from that second round, but there are quite a few mocks with him in the third.
Mike Kafka
- Again, let's start with an NU_sports tweet. They report the Browns, Eagles, and Raiders are showing the most interest in Mike, which is pretty consistent with what we'd been hearing, except minus the Chiefs and Bengals - who worked out Crazy Legs - and plus the Eagles. It seems the Eagles are looking to get a new quarterback - it's almost like they traded away their franchise player and aren't confident with someone who recently spent multiple years in prison as their signal-caller, or something like that.
- As noted last time, the Raiders are in a similar situation - it's almost like their quarterback is Jamarcus Russell or something like that.
- As for the Browns, their quarterback situation is similarly crappy. (Why all these teams with the crappy quarterbacks would draft Kafka - a mid-to-late rounder - is unclear. Don't you want, like, the best quarterback available, or something?) They are similarly potentially interested in using Mike Kafka to switch up the crappiness of their situation.
- The Pats also worked out Kafka, and, like with Wootton, there's an endless stream of articles linking him to the Patriots, but here, as a backup, not a starter.
- It's more difficult to gauge where Kafka will get drafted, but I'd think he's lifted himself up out of the 7th round zone with all the play he's getting. Most stuff I see has him as a 5-6er, but that fourth round is definitely not out of the question - third is stretching it.
- Sherrick has essentially fallen off the draft radar screen. not many articles about him, Northwestern didn't even invite him to the forum yesterday where Fitz, Kafka, and Wootton discussed the draft and other football detritus. I suppose it's because it would a) be embarrassing if they had him at the draft meeting, and then he didn't get drafted b) the other guys would be talking all this stuff about teams interested in them, and he'd just be like "uhhh, yeah, sure, I mean, the Cowboys are in contact with my agent, of course!" (or maybe they only had room for three chairs on the stage? I don't know.) Either way, it's not completely out of the question that McManis gets a seventh-round nod - Mr. Irrelevant, anybody? - but expect him to be an undrafted free agent and be on a practice squad come Monday morning. I'd be surprised to see him drafted higher than the seventh round.
- That's not to say talk about him is entirely nonexistent. Apparently the Dolphins see him as a potential player in their system - as a safety, surprisingly - and this article also calls him a "CB/S tweener".
- Anyway, sad to see him fallen so far in the eyes of scouts - probably in part because of the injury issues he's been dealing with since the end of football season that have rendered him incapable of doing combine drills, pro day drills, or playing in the Senior Bowl. Remember - and you probably don't, because ESPN removed the video from Youtube - that in the runup to the Outback Bowl, Todd McShay did a draft-centric preview of the game, and singled out McManis as the player to watch. Remember that. So pour some out for a likely-to-be-undrafted brother.
So that's it for now. Here's to those of you partaking in today's holiday - and to the rest of you, will you drive us to the McDonalds down Dempster St. in Skokie later tonight? I'm going to want some of those baked apple pies, the ones you can get two of for a dollar. And I probably shouldn't drive. (Partly because I don't have a driver's license, but for other reasons too.)