2012 Denver Broncos Mock Draft

The Broncos seem to have become one of the most talked about NFL teams the past couple of years: from Josh McDaniels improbable 6-0 start, to drafting Tebow, to hiring John Elway, to firing McDaniels and hiring John Fox, to starting Tebow, to going on a magical run, to trading the QB that made them relavent after acquiring the best regular season QB of all time. So here we are. Less then two weeks away from the draft and the Broncos have 7 picks in this years draft and they are going to need them if they hope to make a super bowl in the next couple of seasons.

Lets be honest, the Broncos were not pursuing Manning just to escape Tebowmania (although I fully believe that was a reason), they want to win a super bowl with a guy who has done it before. With 10 QBs starting in Denver since John Elway's departure, Manning is by far the best QB to put on a Broncos uniform since Elway left and possibly all time. Is Manning alone enough to take them on a Super Bowl run? Absolutely not. There are many holes that need to be filled and this prediction is a little biased for who I would love to see in Denver, as well as pieces I believe would work there. So lets begin.

Round 1 (pick 25): Derel Worthy (DT, Michigan State) 6'2 308 lbs

The Broncos were ranked 22nd against the run allowing an average of 126 yards per game. They need drastic improvement at the defensive tackle position since losing Bunkley in free agency to the Saints. Between Derel and Javon Still it was a hard pick but Still has had two major surgeries and if I'm the Denver Broncos I want a player who is healthy and is ready to win now. With time running out with a questionable Peyton Manning, you can't take chances on fragile players. With Derel making many top player appearances after this past season and the consistency he shows on the field, you can't go wrong with Derel at 25.

Round 2 (pick 57): Jamell Flemming (CB, Oklahoma) 5'11 206 lbs

This is where my bias and hopes come into play. However, Jamell has a lot of upside despite my bias. He should excel as a zone defender because of his closing speed to wrap receivers after the catch. He is able to deliver the big hit and isn't afraid to jump inside to slow the ball. He is also able to transition well from coverage to close on the ball and has very strong hands and quick reactions which lead to interceptions. In high school he played as a wide receiver if that speaks for his ball handling skills. His willingness and successful blitzing off the edge is huge as the Broncos need some speed off the edge after losing Andre Goodman. If it doesn't work out at CB, the Broncos could consider to move him to safety with combination of range and sure tackling. With an aging Champ Bailey and a secondary that was exploited badly against the Lions, Patriots, Packers, and THE VIKINGS, there is a need of a cornerback that needs to be filled.

Round 3 (pick 87): Brock Osweiler (QB, Arizona State) 6'7 242 lbs

If available, Brock is a steal in the 3rd round. Brock's height of 6'7 just....screams to be drafted and learn behind a 6'5 Peyton Manning. Brock, overshadowed by many playing for an average Arizona State team, set school records this past season becoming the first QB to throw for over 4,000 yds and had 63.7% completion percentage in spite of the lack of talent around him. With Manning's neck being a liability, it doesn't hurt to draft a guy who has a similar physical set such as Brock.

Round 4 (pick 108): Ryan Broyles (WR, Oklahoma) 5'10 192 lbs.

Is there any team with as many question marks at the receiving corp than the Denver Broncos? I do not believe there is. An argument can be, and has been, made regarding the lack of passing ability they had at the QB position but Calvin Johnson was able to be a top 5 receiver the past few seasons despite Matthew Stafford being injured most of the time. If you have a safety blanket WR, any QB can give him great numbers. We already saw how huge Ryan Broyles was for Oklahoma's offense after he tore his ACL. It's hard for me to think of, off the top of my head, many QBs that self destructed like Oklahoma's after losing any wide receiver. Ryan Broyles, statistically one of the best wide receivers of all time, can provide Manning with a security blanket in the same way Wes Welker offers Tom Brady. Ryan Broyles has some of the best hands you can ask for and if you look past his height and ACL injury, a steal in the 4th round and a major asset to a team with questionable receivers. 

Round 4 (pick 120): Chris Rainey (RB, Florida) 5'8 180lbs

Let's be real for a minute, Knowshown Moreno (AKA NoShow Moreno) hasn't lived up to the hype we all set for him before the draft and if he isn't cut before the 2012 season, he will be cut after the 2012 season. Chris Rainey just clocked in at a 4.3 40 dash time and was the show in Florida after Tebow's departure. This kid can run, catch, and play kick off return. So much talent and speed and a sleeper in this year's draft. If he's still available by this point, he's a steal for any team to draft.

Round 5 (pick 137): Leonard Johnson (CB, Iowa State) 5'10 196 lbs

As a measure to add depth, I think the Broncos need to draft another CB in Leonard Johnson. Although he does have a hard time tackling downfield I will never forget the impact he had against Oklahoma State in their upset. Although Iowa State's young QB got a lot of the praise for the upset, nobody mentions Leonard Johnson's effort to hold two-time Biletnikoff winner, Justin Blackmon, to only 99 yards (speaks a lot for Justin Blackmon), as well as had a big interception in the 3rd quarter to keep his team in the game. Along with being second team All Big XII, he has promise that could develop into a solid CB.

Round 6 (pick 188): James Hanna (TE, Oklahoma) 6'4 252 lbs

Yes, another Sooner. However, James Hanna is a very underrated TE as he left the NFL combine with a 4.49 40 yard dash time and despite having a QB who loved staring down one receiver (I'm talking  about Landry Jones of course) still finished his career at OU with 50 receptions for 765 yards and 11 TDs when spending most of his time at OU backing up star TE Jermaine Greshman. Many teams will sleep on James Hanna but he is a diamond in the rough in this years draft.

That is my 2012 mock draft for my Denver Broncos. They have Peyton Manning in place, with these pieces and enough hard work from a rookie class like this, I don't believe many teams will stand a chance. This is of course an unrealistic draft but one can dream right?

Are All Athletes Role Models?

I hope everyone had a great Easter this past weekend! I know I did! The reason I even bring up Easter is because that is where I will begin with this subject. This past Easter Sunday Tim Tebow was hosted by Celebration church in front of 15,000 people in Georgetown, Texas for a little Q & A. As a Christian I loved a lot of what he said such as his biggest dream is for the fad "Tebowing", where a person gets on one knee and starts praying, to become something that is common and not known for something done by him. Another thing he said (that I could not agree more with) was that the sooner the United States is restored to "A Nation Under God" the sooner a lot of our issues today can be a part of yesterday rather than today. But the one thing he said that stood out to me, and so many sports analysts and talk show hosts, is when he said that despite what some athletes want, they are role models whether they like it or not and its up to them to set a good example. Word for word that's not what he said but that was the main idea.

Is Tim Tebow correct though? Are all famous athletes role models? I've listened to much commentary regarding this and I think people are missing the point so let me be clear by what I'm saying. The question isn't "should" famous athletes be role models. The question is, "are" they? We can all make excuses about what we "should" have done; but the question is "did" we do it? Social media having influence on society is something that I've heard debated for a couple of years and the most consistent answer is,"Everyone thinks that it does, but it really doesn't." How sure are we of that? When Drake released his hit single "The Motto" it became an instant hit. One of the now popular acronyms in the song is "YOLO (You Only Live Once)" which by a majority of what I see in culture today is an excuse to now drink that extra beer, hook up with that random guy, to reach dangerous speeds down the highway, and other decisions that could eventually leave someone who made those decisions to say,"Why did I ever do that?" Now I'm not condemning anyone that does any of these things or believe that these things wouldn't happen despite the new fad but it is having an impact on culture and that is undeniable. Another case and point is anything that degrades our previous President George W. Bush. I admit to my conservative bias and will be the first to say he did a few things I was not fond of, however, socia media said so much regarding their belief of his lack of intelligence and alcoholism when he was in college that would turn most Americans to believe he was one of the worst presidents we ever had. Now President Obama openly admitted to smoking marijuana when he was younger but how many times can you find a comedy show rip on him for that? Social media does have a strong control over us and it's time for us to realize that and make decisions for ourselves, whether it be to agree with what they tell us or believe the opposite after conducting research. I have asked people who "hate" George Bush why they hate him, most common answer I get is,"Cause he's stupid." Nothing beyond that, but I digress.

Now I'm not sure about most of you, but I did feel positive influences from athletes when they did good things. I always liked Peyton Manning and all of the things he did outside of football as well as his very positive attitude he showed on television. I do disagree with the idea that because Michael Vick fought dogs that somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia some group of kids are searching all over the city to host dog fighting competitions. But the idea is that with a large stage like Michael Vick, Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Lebron James, etc. that you CAN influence the lives of others it's just how they go about doing it. 

I'm 20 years old and have a few role models: My dad, my grandfather, and Tim Tebow. It sounds ridiculous to have a sports role model at the age of 20 but think about it. At one point we all embrace a pressure that makes us uncomfortable, I don't know what yours may be but at one point or another we are faced with it and it's up to us to see how we handle it. Tim Tebow is in the National Football League, played four years in Florida, and could have any girl he wants sexually and get any drug he wants under the table yet nobody has or can bust him. The pressure he felt, to me, must be unimaginable. The fact he said no to all of it is huge! If he can say no to all the free sex, parties, and anything that could tarnish his name, what's our excuse? He's impacting lives by building children's hospitals in the Philippines and uses any opportunity he has to meet very sick children and I know I'm not the only one who looks up to Tim Tebow. 

The point is that with the stage provided, any athlete can become a great role model and influence the mind set of the younger generation and mold it into something great. On the opposite end, I don't believe bad role models seen in the media can influence how people act as much as bad role models we see in our physical life. So in a way Tebow is correct but in a way he is not. Yes, all big time athletic stars do have an opportunity to set a positive example and change the world in their own way, but if they choose a lifestyle that is opposite to others I don't believe people are weak minded enough to mimic that lifestyle just for the sake of being similar to their favorite athlete. Charles Barkley, despite how much I disagree with him on many issues, makes a good argument in this commercial (it's only 27 seconds long so it won't kill you to watch this).

This was difficult to expand on because there are so many points to be made regarding if athletes are all role models. Should someone who throws a football, shoots a basketball, hit a baseball, kick a soccer ball, shoot a hockey puck, and is a classified world champion swimmer (I'm looking at you Michael Phelps) be a role model to our younger generation? No, but the sad truth is young kids do look up to them and if history has taught us anything most of them will fall eventually. We are only human after all and we tend to forget that they make mistakes well. It's up to us to teach younger generations to judge people by their actions AND their intentions. We judge ourselves by our own intentions and not actions   but we need to be even with ourselves and others and do the same. I realize this is supposed to generally be about sports and it quickly turned into a social issue rather than a sports issue. I'd love to hear what you guys think of all this and I realize I didn't touch on enough but this is a general idea on how I feel about the whole issue.

OU's QB Football Spring Game Evaluation.

I'd be lying if I said this post isn't just me trying to get away from writing a journal for my history class as well as begin studying for my accounting exam but...this is something I was wanting to address at some point. So my first year at The University of Oklahoma has been everything I had dreamed it would be. Perfect. The only real blemish was the disappointing 2011 football season the Sooners had, but I am not going to go ahead and address all of the issues the 2011 national title favored Sooners had last season but instead, address what I saw in the spring scrimmage from March 31, 2012.

If you haven't had a chance to or wish to watch the highlights from their scrimmage you can catch all three videos here: http://www.soonersports.com/allaccess/index.html?media=313639

Let me just start out by saying that I'm doing my very best to ensure this isn't in anyway biased as I am not a huge fan of current starting QB Landry Jones. I tried my best to support and believe in his abilities , but at the end of every game he plays it becomes something very difficult to do. I find myself feeling as frustrated as Dallas Cowboy fans do with their QB Tony Romo. I mean, sure Romo and Landry have good numbers but can they, or have they, come through when you need them too? No. Looking back on his first year starting, due to Sam Bradford's injury, I had a lot of hope and was more understanding as he was a backup to the best QB in Oklahoma college football history. He had no chance of reaching similar numbers or producing as much as Bradford. But when we look back at OU's past couple of seasons, starting with 09; OU is one good QB away of reaching a BCS game and maybe the national title as I believe Bradford beats BYU, Miami, University of Texas, and the Cornhuskers. The loss by TTU was too much to argue that OU could have won with Bradford. Anyway, after his freshman campaign he had a fairly successful sophomore campaign throwing for almost 4,800 yds and 38 TDs. Then his junior season arrived and he fell apart as OU's best wide receiver would miss the rest of the season due to a torn ACL. After this, Landry wouldn't throw another TD, have 6 ints, all through 171 pass attempts and then end the streak against the lowly Iowa Hawkeyes. To be fair, Blake Bell was put into a special package around the same time Broyles suffered the season ending injury that would take Landry out of a majority of red zone situations and give Blake Bell 12 rushing TD's during the same stretch. But I digress. This is about how OU looked in their first scrimmage of the year.

Of course, I spent a majority of the time watching all 3 of the quarterbacks through the scrimmage and I am going to start with Drew Allen. Drew Allen is a QB that doesn't receive enough credit as he is a great backup and a guy I wouldn't mind getting a shot at starter. He looked good in the scrimmage as he was only sacked once and did everything he could to secure the ball and not turn it over. He didn't do anything jaw dropping but he didn't do anything that made me cringe. Something that OU coaches and a lot of people are used to seeing as he gets an A+ as a game managing type of QB, but a B- for a full time starting QB. Some games you have to take risks if you're behind a couple of scores in the 4th and I wonder if he has the ability and the confidence to make those deep throws if needed. Although I doubt he will ever be in that position, he definitely could be a starter for many college teams out there.

Next I'm going to evaluate Landry Jones. Landry Jones just made me sick throughout most of the throws he was making. Now although all 3 QB's ran a lot of slant patterns and some screen passes, Landry still found areas to force the ball as you see in the 2nd video he forces a terribly thrown ball to Jazz Reynolds, who's running a slant to the right side, that is covered by two defenders and would very closely be intercepted. The very next pass I have a hard time analyzing as I can't tell if it was a broken play because Trey Franks (#2) accidentally fell, or if it was just a really bad pass as it was swatted down by the safety. Besides a couple of very poor throws he was sacked (or in this case, touched) 3 times, and had a hard time adjusting to the pressure around him. He did have a couple of very good throws as you'll see in the third video he has a great pass thrown to a spot to only where Kenny Stills can (and does) catch it, and another down the left side to freshman Trey Metoyer who breaks two tackles to score the TD. Trey is looking like someone who will eventually dethrone the talented, but lazy, Kenny Stills as the go-to receiver. Overall, after much thought, Landry Jones is getting a B-. A grade that pains me to give him but he did make throws that neither Blake Bell or Drew Allen could make during the scrimmage.

Finally, there is QB Blake Bell. A QB that is being called by many fans to send Landry to the bench and create an offensive style that Stoops has never ran before. A system that is built around a mobile QB. Blake Bell has been discussed as being the best Jumbo package QB you can have but is not a good passing QB. From what I've seen in the scrimmages, he is surely developing into the next starting QB for the Sooners when Landry enters the NFL draft. Blake Bell had an amazing performance and looked very comfortable stepping back in the pocket and reading the field. He even made a terrific deep throw to wide-out Kenny Stills down the left side. He plays the QB position that makes many defensive coordinators have nightmares as he is able to make the defense uncomfortable as he would make them put more in the box to account for his ability to scramble, except this time he is actually able to make the throws needed to succeed at the college level. He has the ability to run the OU offense in the same way Tim Tebow ran the Florida offense. When the pressure did get to Bell, he made a great read and short pass to his wide-out that allowed the receiver some space to get a fast sprint going before he was pushed out of bounds. There is a lot I love about Blake Bell, especially as he is showing to develop as a passer. Overall, Blake Bell gets an A-. The only QB I didn't change my mind about when grading. He is finally coming into his own as he is making great reads, making defenses put more in the box, and finally making the passes needed to become a successful starting QB in college. In my dreams, I see Landry having 3 ints against UT and getting benched for Blake Bell to rally OU to a victory as Longhorn fans and players feel beaten down. Let's just wait and see if dreams really do come true.