Crooked Necks

The NFL Draft has just taken place for 2010 and as ever it has thrown up some interesting results. The ‘Draft’ is the annual event where the 32 NFL teams get the chance to select newly eligible college football players. Some of the basics of the rules require that all players have been out of high school for two and half years or more and that they must have at least 3 years of college experience.

As for how the actual draft works, the order in which NFL teams get to choose is essentially the reverse of how they finished the previous season. Therefore the teams that performed worst have the first chance to select players from the draft and those that performed the best choose last. There are a few exceptions, for example the Super Bowl contenders end up right at the bottom of the list and get last pick. New teams to the NFL get first pick. The rules aren’t quite this simple, but it gives the basic idea.

The event itself is pretty big and this year it was bigger than ever. For the first time the event went prime-time and was spread out over 3 days making it a almost a mini-series. It used to be held during the daytime over a weekend, but with interest in the sport continually growing and the drama of the Draft it was decided to make the most out of it by giving it a prime-time evening slot and extending it over 3 days.

So, who are the reputed winners and losers of the 2010 NFL Draft? Well, of course, only time will tell which of the new boys perform and which don’t. There will no doubt be some who fail to live up to expectations and others that massively surpass that expected of them. However, some highlights seem to be wide-out Dez Bryant of Oklahoma State being snapped up by the Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame pivot Jimmy Clausen going to the Carolina Panthers in only the second round of the draft and the New York Giants picking up Jason Pierre-Paul, the defensive end from South Florida.

The Oakland Raiders also did pretty well with their First-round pick Rolando McClain and also Lamarr Houston who looks to be a promising defensive tackle. The Seattle Seahawks also had a good draft, managing to secure power-back LenDale White from Tennessee and pretty quick back Leon Washington from the Jets. Let’s see how these undoubted talents perform over the coming season and beyond.

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