A last look at the 2009 NFL Draft

Four Hawks were selected in this year's NFL Draft while another four signed free agent contracts. I know this is old news for the most part but most of this site has been devoted to following their progress before the draft and I want to give it some closure.



Shonn Greene

First pick of the Third Round (65 overall) NY Jets traded 3rd (76), 4th (115), and 7th (228) picks to Detroit Lions for the pick.

Signed a 4 year deal including a $905K signing bonus and an option on the 4th season paying him a salary of $1.308 million or Restricted Free Agent Tender

This season he will compete with Thomas Jones to be the primary ball carrier, along with Leon Washington who is more of a 3rd down/ pass recieving type of back. The Jets have an outstanding offensive line and with the exception of Alan Faneca they are also relatively young. From left to right they line up as follows D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Alan Faneca, Nick Mangold, Brandon Moore, and Damien Woody. They drafted a lineman in the 6th round and don't seem to have a lot of depth so health would seem to be key for them. The Jets have a very difficult schedule ahead of them drawing the AFC and NFC South outside of the very tough in conference AFC East. They will face top ten defenses Miami and New England twice, Tennessee, Atlanta, Carolina, and Indianapolis. The only easy games seem to be Oakland in week 7 and Cincinnati in week 17. I think that Shonn will get a lot of opportunities to carry the ball with the Jets looking to start the other draft pick they traded up for USC QB Mark Sanchez. New coach Rex Ryan may be looking to pattern the Jets after the Ravens team he left by leaning heavily on the run and not asking a rookie qb to win games for him. Sanchez may be a little more polished than Joe Flacco was at this point in their careers but he has never played in a cold weather environment. I think the Jets could be looking at Greene to be like Le'Ron McClain the bruising change of pace for the Ravens. I think that Shonn might not be your number one fantasy option but the Jets will be more than happy with his production.



Bradley Fletcher

Second pick in the Third Round (66)

Has yet to sign (St. Louis hasn't signed any of their picks yet, I will update when they come to terms)

After the first round of OTAs (organized team activites) Fletcher was listed as the third string left corner. He is competing for a spot with Tye Hill, Justin King, Ron Bartell, Marcus Brown, and Quincy Butler. King and Hill are pretty high profile draft picks with decent sized contracts. If Fletch can beat one or the other out for a starting spot or even the nickel or dime role he can save the team some money. I think that the Rams are looking at him strictly as a corner and special teams player not as a free safety. Fletcher has a lot of learning to do as he played mostly cover 2 or cover 3 in college and new Rams coach Steve Spagnoulo is going to want to aggressively pressure a team's qb into making mistakes. The Giant's ran mostly man cover schemes when he was their DC. I think that Fletch is more than capable of doing that and Iowa has become a little more aggressive on 3rd down in the last few seasons so he has played some man coverage. The Rams' Schedule ( http://www.stlouisrams.com/schedule/ ) does have them playing some pretty pass heavy teams including the Saints out of conference and of course the upset defending NFC Champion Cardinals (and divisional opponent) twice. I see Fletcher not only making the roster but making an impact right away for his new team.

Seth Olsen

Thirty-second pick in the Fourth Round (132) Broncos traded 3rd round(79) and 3rd round(84) to Steelers for 2nd round(64) and 4th round(132)

Seth has yet to sign

Seth must feel like he has walked into a soap opera. First there was the Jay Cutler- Josh McDaniels stare down, and now after his second round of OTAs and his first with the vets he has to deal with another drama between McDaniels (and to be fair Owner Pat Bowlen) and star wide out Brandon Marshall ... a.k.a. Baby T.O. Fortunately for Seth he didn't let it bother him as he ran with the ones during the entire camp as starting Right Guard Chris Kuper was excused to attend his wedding. I don't expect Seth to beat out either Kuper or Left Guard Ben Hamilton but I do look for him to be the top backup at both positions. I also look for his being picked by the Broncos and the retention of O-line coach Rick Dennison as a signal for little to no change in the vaunted run scheme. Nobody runs a better zone blocking scheme than the Broncos and Seth already knows how to do it. The biggest adjustment for him will be in the pass blocking game and it was great for him to get so many reps in the early camps. Other than Greene, no Hawk from this draft class could have fallen into a better situation. I see a very bright future ahead for Seth.

Brandon Myers

Twenty-ninth pick of the Sixth Round (202) Oakland traded for 7th round (210) and 6th in 2010

Brandon has yet to sign

Brandon Myers landed in football's black-hole. Oakland. He could excel and only Hawk fans would know. Remember 95% of the football world thinks of Robert Gallery as a bust even though he has never missed a start except for injury. He has even been playing at a Pro Bowl level and when some team with a good scouting department pays him a ton of money after this season they will get killed for it. Anyway back to Brandon, he has two guys to beat out to be the #2 tight end- journeyman Tony Stewart and practice squad player Darrell Strong. I think that Brandon can beat out both as he has been vastly underrated as a reciever by most scouting services and the media outside of the midwest. Brandon's other big advantage for making the Raiders is his ability and willingness to play coverage teams on special teams. He was a demon on the Kickoff teams his red shirt freshman and sophmore seasons. I think Brandon can have a fairly successful career in the NFL, I just hope the comparisons to Dallas Clark stop. I hope he signs a one year deal though and he can get the hell out of Oaktown and land somewhere warmer like maybe Miami.

All right I am exhausted the Undrafted Free-agents is going to have to be its own article.

I am doing some housecleaning

Anyone can now leave a comment after a post, you no longer have to register as a follower of this blog. I understand that the yellow is hard to see and I am working on getting rid of it entirely. Lastly there are finally new posts to read and comment upon. Sorry for the delay.

Sorry for the Lag

Sorry for the lack of activity. Real life has gotten in the way. Obviously I was pretty hit or miss with my draft predictions. I feel really good about hitting on Fletcher but like everyone else in draftom I missed huge on Mitch King. I promise that I will be more vigilant with the site soon. I have several columns?, blogs?, or articles I don't know what to call these things that just need a little polish. Hopefully I will I have some more time to devote to the site soon.