It may be a bit premature to try and determine the winners and losers from this year’s NFL Draft, but that doesn’t stop the pundits nor myself from doing just that. With a number of teams trying to build for the future and turn their franchise histories around, the draft is the best way to go about doing just that. There are always a few teams that tend to excel more than others during the process and contrastingly there are a few franchises that just don’t seem to have a clue. This particular piece is going to criticize those franchises appearing to be a bit lost in terms of strategy and really clueless as far as scouting is concerned.

This list must begin with the biggest reach of the first round in what the Denver Broncos did by choosing former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. Denver did take a potential playmaker the replace Brandon Marshall in Demaryius Thomas just three picks before taking Tebow, but the former Gator is a project at best and no project is worthy of a first round selection. If it was character that the Broncos were trying to emphasize they veered drastically from that path in their 5th round selection of cornerback Perrish Cox who was widely considered the most risky prospect in this year’s class. The sense of direction in Denver is really quite muddled as an 8-8- team with holes to fill wasting a frivolous first rounder on a project quarterback.

Another team lacking direction was the Jacksonville Jaguars who certainly rivaled the Broncos reach by taking defensive tackle Tyson Alualu with the 10th overall selection in round one. The reaching continued for the Jags with yet another defensive lineman in D’Anthony Smith in round number three. Jacksonville continued their misguided personnel moves by cutting ties with big man inside John Henderson after taking those two defensive linemen in the opening rounds of the draft. The Jags landed some developmental gems in the later rounds, but that doesn’t excuse their incompetence with their first two draft choices. It could be yet another long year for Jack Del Rio and company in the always difficult to maneuver AFC South.

Although they were in the NFC title game last year, the Minnesota Vikings still had some aging needs to address via the draft. They began that process by trading back out of round one and taking Chris Cook a sizeable defensive back who is a tweener without a position and followed that with a strange move in the selection of Toby Gerhart at the end of round two. After losing Chester Taylor in free agency the Vikes had a definite need in a ball carrier behind Adrian Peterson, but Gerhart isn’t exactly a Taylor type replacement. They tried to redeem themselves by taking Everson Griffen in the 4th round, but the remainder of their draft was quite uneventful and really detracts from the value of Griffen at that spot. Minnesota must be counting on Brett Favre coming back or else they are planning on running the ball ninety percent of the time next season.

Now that the recapping is complete in both a positive and negative fashion, all that’s left is the second guessing for general managers and owners across the league. And if you are as big of a draftnik as myself, then you are already busy compiling your big board for 2011.

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