Tonight is a big one for NFL fans, but brace yourself for an awful lot of this stuff if you do stay up late to watch the 2014 draft.
The NFL season is still months away but for fans all over the world, tonight marks the kick-off of the new season. Each team will pick a whole host of shiny new players and hope will spring in each team that they have selected the next Tom Brady rather than the next Ryan Leaf.
But watching the draft live (it kicks off at midnight tonight on Sky Sports 1) means sitting through an awful lot of guff. Here’s a few things you won’t miss if you watch the event from New York.
On the clock
Despite each team spending years watching and scouting players, they are still put under time pressure once the whole shebang kicks off. In Round One, each team gets 15 minutes to pick so once the Houston Texans make the first pick, the second team (St Louis Rams) will be ‘on the clock’. At a rough guess you’ll, hear this phrase about 5,879 during the draft, and yes, it will get really annoying.
He’s got the arm
Of all NFL cliches, this might be the most tiresome. Every quarterback who might be picked will have every aspect of his on and off field life examined but if they can throw the ball a ridiculous distance (he’s got a cannon of an arm, Chad) then he’s in with a shot according to the analysts. Derek Carr of Fresno State is the man you will hear has ‘the arm’ of this draft, though Jonny Manziel will probably get the accolade too.
He played in an NFL style offense in college
This is used to suggest that player X can seamlessly move into the pro game. No matter how fast paced and professional a college set up is, it is still miles away from the brutal world of the NFL. You will definitely hear this about one of the big prospects tonight, Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater.
He’s just a winner
Used about a gazillion times during Tim Tebow’s draft and subsequent, now defunct, NFL career, this will be said over and over again about Manziel tonight. The biggest name in the draft tonight, ‘Jonny Football’ is a superstar already in the US. A Heisman winner in his first year in college, he was not quite so good last season but he did lead his college, Texas A&M, to a ridiculous 52-48 win over Duke in his final game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9HvIlIi_I
With Houston picking first, he may go Number 1 overall tonight but that honour will more likely go to this beast, Jedeveon Clowney, best known for this hit.
He’s got a motor
Used for any offensive or defensive lineman who doesn’t pass out after four consecutive plays.
Intangibles
If you don’t really know what the guy is good at, just say that he has ‘intangibles’. It’s a close relative of the ‘he just wins’ comment. Works every time
Boooooooo!
Announcing each pick will be NFL head honcho Roger Goodell. Like all good sports administrators, everyone hates Roger so he will be roundly booed every time he appears on stage. However, the New York Jets fans really hate him, so keep an eye out for them when they pick at Number 18.
Don’t draft QBs/Wide Receivers/Running Backs high
There are various theories about what sort of player you should draft with your first pick and why and you will hear all of them aired out tonight. There are tons of examples of bad QB picks high in the draft but there are tons of good ones too. Same theory goes for Wide Receivers and to a lesser extent Running Backs these days.
The entire process is a bit of a lottery, despite all the data teams now have and anyone who says different is telling porkies and, more likely, trying to fill airtime until the next team is ‘on the clock’.
