NFL DRAFT PREVIEW
A.J. Hoffman: 3 players I like, 3 I don't in the NFL Draft
Apr 26, 2018, 6:00 am
The NFL Draft starts tonight, and by now you have probably seen 100 different mock drafts and maybe even more people telling you who is overrated and who is underrated. Obviously, where a player gets drafted can impact how good or bad he can be, but I thought I would profile a few players that I like blindly and a few players that I don’t. I tried to limit the “players I like” to players that I have heard others question. For instance, I didn’t pick Saquon Barkley or Bradley Chubb, because basically EVERYONE likes those guys. Without further ado…
Calvin Ridley-WR-Alabama
Calvin Ridley isn’t usually the type of wide receiver I rave about. He is barely 6’0” tall and is well under 200 lbs., but there is more to him than meets the eye. He is one of the sharpest route runners I have ever seen, and that combined with his deep speed and burst off the line gives him great separation, and size starts to matter less the more separation a receiver can get on the route. Alabama has put some pretty good receivers in the league (Amari Cooper and Julio Jones) but for some reason I keep hearing Ridley’s name falling late in the 1st round, and I think he is a top-10 caliber player.
Isaiah Oliver-CB-Colorado
I have not seen his name at the top of the cornerback rankings, but Isaiah Oliver has all the physical tools I am looking for in a cornerback. At 6’0”, 200 lbs. with a 33.5 arms, he is going to be hard to put a football over. He does a good job in early jams to force receivers to alter routes, and shows the kind of raw talent that could end up being way better than scouts currently project him. Oliver also has seen pretty good competition in college, going up against Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen and Luke Falk in the Pac-12. I think he would be a good fit in Seattle, Atlanta or a similar cover-3 type defense.
Jamarco Jones-OT-Ohio State
Jamarco Jones is almost assuredly not going on day 1, and I don’t have a problem with that, but I think he should go early day 2 considering he plays a position that is always in such high demand. Most of the questions about Jones seem to stem from him playing in Urban Meyer’s offense, but I don’t see much not to like about him. He is 6’5, 312 lbs and his game footage shows him being a solid pass blocker and a really outstanding run blocker down the field. He has excellent feet and doesn’t get cheated against speed rushers. He may be the only tackle prospect that won’t be taken in the first round that I see as a potential day 1 starter at the next level. Teams like Houston, Denver and Indianapolis should all be taking a look at this guy.
Lamar Jackson-QB-Louisville
Let me start off by saying I am not someone who thinks that Lamar Jackson should be moving positions or he can’t play quarterback in the NFL. I actually look at him as a high upside player who could be a special talent if he gets some fundamentals down. That said, I am not looking to use a first round draft pick on a guy who has serious footwork and accuracy issues. Those two things are much more important to me than athletic ability, which he has in droves. Another turn-off for me is his build, which reminds me a lot of Robert Griffin III’s. If Jackson had Cam Newton’s size, I would be less concerned about having a run-first quarterback. If a team can afford to use their first round pick on a long-term project with a seemingly high injury risk, so be it, but I don’t know many teams that are run that way.
Christian Kirk-WR-Texas A&M
This might not be fair, because if someone is looking for a slot receiver, Kirk could make some sense. I just don’t believe many teams look at slot receiver as a top priority where they are willing to use a first or second round pick on someone who seems limited to being just that. He also has some issues with his hands, and too often lets balls get into his chest. He doesn’t have ideal size for me at 5’10” and could conceivably struggle with press coverage at the NFL level. He isn’t without upside, as he has big-play ability, he is a solid return man and by all accounts is a very high-character guy. That just isn’t enough for me to consider him a top option at wide receiver.
Mark Andrews-TE-Oklahoma
This is mostly my way of saying that there isn’t really an every down tight end in this draft (save maybe 25 year old Hayden Hurst), and Andrews seems to be the most highly touted of the bunch. He has good size at 6’5” 255, and is actually a pretty decent route runner given that size. His hands are a major problem. He drops a lot of balls, and some of it is probably a concentration issue, but it is an issue regardless. He was a decent blocker in college, but can’t be counted on as a primary blocker in the NFL. He also seems to quit on plays that he isn’t involved in, which might be my biggest pet peeve in a tight end.
Looming over baseball is a likely lockout in December 2026, a possible management push for a salary cap and perhaps lost regular-season games for the first time since 1995.
“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they’re going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time,” New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game. “We’re definitely going to fight to not have a salary cap and the league’s obviously not going to like that.”
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners have cited payroll disparity as a problem, while at the same time MLB is working to address a revenue decline from regional sports networks. Unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball has never had a salary cap because its players staunchly oppose one.
Despite higher levels of luxury tax that started in 2022, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets have pushed payrolls to record levels. The last small-market MLB club to win a World Series was the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
After signing outfielder Juan Soto to a record $765 million contract, New York opened this season with an industry-high $326 million payroll, nearly five times Miami’s $69 million, according to Major League Baseball’s figures. Using luxury tax payrolls, based on average annual values that account for future commitments and include benefits, the Dodgers were first at $400 million and on track to owe a record luxury tax of about $151 million — shattering the previous tax record of $103 million set by Los Angeles last year.
“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026, and management lockouts have become the norm, which shifts the start of a stoppage to the offseason. During the last negotiations, the sides reached a five-year deal on March 10 after a 99-day lockout, salvaging a 162-game 2022 season.
“A cap is not about a partnership. A cap isn’t about growing the game,” union head Tony Clark said Tuesday. “A cap is about franchise values and profits. ... A salary cap historically has limited contract guarantees associated with it, literally pits one player against another and is often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence. It undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about a fair versus not. This is institutionalized collusion.”
The union’s opposition to a cap has paved the way for record-breaking salaries for star players. Soto’s deal is believed to be the richest in pro sports history, eclipsing Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million deal with the Dodgers signed a year earlier. By comparison, the biggest guaranteed contract in the NFL is $250 million for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Manfred cites that 10% of players earn 72% of salaries.
“I never use the word `salary’ within one of `cap,’” he said. “What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue that’s real we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a players’ perspective.”
A management salary cap proposal could contain a salary floor and a guaranteed percentage of revenue to players. Baseball players have endured nine work stoppages, including a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that fought off a cap proposal.
Agent Scott Boras likens a cap plan to attracting kids to a “gingerbread house.”
“We’ve heard it for 20 years. It’s almost like the childhood fable,” he said. “This very traditional, same approach is not something that would lead the younger players to the gingerbread house.”