Day 2

Welcome back to the Natural Football Log for our (somewhat overdue) review of Days 2 and 3 of the draft!

After the events of Thursday night, a dark shadow had fallen over the media. The two most overhyped players, Geno Smith and Manti Te'o, were still undrafted. "What to do?" one reporter asked. He looked visibly shaken. Then, a hero emerged. "I know," this reporter said. "Let's just forget about the other 220 draftable prospects!! We only care about these two, right? The best quarterback in a class of bad quarterbacks and a guy who fell for an imaginary girlfriend while failing against top competition? Right?"

And so, the media spent ALL of Friday talking about Smith and Te'o. There wouldn't be a breakthrough on that front for a while. When the draft reopened, the first player taken was not Smith, as many speculated, but safety John Cyprien from Florida International. (What does that school's name even mean?)  The 49ers owned the next pick from the Alex Smith trade, but they sent it to Tennessee so they could take Justin Hunter, one of the multitude of Tennessean receivers in the draft.

The circus came to town again for the Eagles. Would they draft Smith or Te'o??? After all, said everyone, they have needs at both positions. Nope, they just took Zach Ertz, tight end from Stanford, which was a pretty safe pick. Whoever starts at quarterback is going to need a reliable target, after all. (No one seems to notice that the Eagles have multiple starting-caliber quarterbacks on their roster, after all.)

After Detroit drafted cornerback Darius Slay (which is a pretty cool football player name), Cincinnati used one of its Carson Palmer picks to select  a running back. Not Eddie Lacy, the one everyone expected, but Giovani Bernard from UNC. It was becoming pretty apparent that this round was going in a different direction from what most had expected.

The media could breathe easy when the Chargers, perhaps one of the least interesting teams in the league, drafted Manti Te'o to spice things up. No doubt, he is a quality player. However, the new regime under Tom Telesco is going to have to take that quality with the attention that comes with drafting such a widely known player. (And he's not widely known for good reasons, either.)

But wait, there's more! The New York Jets took Geno Smith off the board, spelling eventual doom for Mark Sanchez. While New York insists that Sanchez is the starter, there's no way a prospect like Smith is going to hold a clipboard all season. Calling it now - Smith replaces Sanchez in Week 7 after a 1-5 start.

Things started to slow down after ESPN's two favorite players were drafted. The 49ers took recovered defensive end Tank Carradine. Then, the Bills made a very smart pick by taking Robert Woods, who was Matt Barkley's primary target at USC. He seemed to disappear from the minds of draft analysts after originally being one of the draft's top prospects.

The Raiders made a smart pick! I know, it may be hard for some of you to believe. Drafting offensive tackle Menelik Watson ensures that their quarterback, whomever that may be, will have good pass protection down the road.

Defense ruled the next 14 picks, as only three were offensive players (weird), and all were skill position players (weirder), and two of those were tight ends (weirdest). Most notably, the 49ers, who possessed an excess of picks, traded up for TE Vance McDonald (not a huge surprise since all every mock draft talked about is how much Jim Harbaugh loves multiple tight ends) and the Ravens traded up to select linebacker Arthur Brown. I think the Seahawks got the better end of this trade, though; moving down six spots and gaining two picks in the process.

At #26, the Broncos selected one-time Heisman finalist Montee Ball, who chose to stay for his senior season last year after receiving a mediocre grade from the draft advisory board. I think it's a good pick, as the Broncos don't have anyone great at running back. The other significant result of this pick was that Eddie Lacy, running back from Alabama, continued to fall...and the Packers, in dire need of a competent running game to take the pressure off of Aaron Rodgers, took him gladly at #29. This may have thwarted the Seahawks, who took running back Christine Michael immediately afterward.

And so, the second round came to a close. Fortunately, though, another round was about to begin.

The Chiefs spent their pick, the first of the round, on tight end Travis Kelce, brother of an Eagles offensive lineman. An inordinate number of tight ends were taken from the mid-second to early third rounds, an interesting trend in a draft that was rather unpredictable.

The next big news came several picks later. In the midst of a three-cornerback run, Arizona selected Tyrann Mathieu, another extremely publicized player who made a bizarre appearance on the cover of ESPN's draft preview. Honestly, what message does that send? Featuring a mid-round prospect who was kicked off his college team for violating team rules (i.e. failing drug tests)? Mathieu also planned a draft party to celebrate becoming a first-round pick, which never happened. The Cardinals, undaunted by this ridiculous character risk, selected Mathieu and announced that he would be moved to safety.

Later, the Buccaneers put some pressure on Josh Freeman by selecting Mike Glennon. (That is, not Matt Barkley or Ryan Nassib.) Perhaps this competition is what Freeman needs to elevate his game and establish himself as a consistent starting quarterback. Or, alternatively, this competition may be what Freeman needs to lose his job to Mike Glennon and be traded to the Raiders for 7 first round picks after Matt Flynn tears his ACL in Week 16. Hey, you never know.

Next, the Cowboys actually made a smart pick by taking somewhat-local wide receiver Terrance Williams, who was one of RG3's favorite targets at Baylor.

The rest of the round was rather uneventful. The Dolphins took an offensive tackle, something they definitely needed after losing former #1 overall pick Jake Long in free agency; the Bills took extremely fast wideout Marquise Goodwin; and, strangest of all, the Patriots reached for two players from Rutgers, cornerback Logan Ryan and safety Duron Harmon, the latter of whom was originally a late-priority undrafted free agent on Mike Mayock's draft board. The 49ers traded once again to select defensive lineman Corey Lemonier in the Packers' spot. The Rams selected West Virginia wideout Stedman Bailey, pairing him with his former teammate Tavon Austin. The best pick of the round, at least according to NFL.com's grading system, was the Giants' selection of Texas A&M end/linebacker Damontre Moore.

After three compensatory picks, the most questionable of which was Kansas City's selection of inconsistent Arkansas running back Knile Davis, Day 2 ended, bringing with it most of the draft's intrigue. However, the landing spots of highly touted quarterbacks Matt Barkley and Ryan Nassib were still unknown. Nassib wasn't going to his college coach Doug Marrone's Buffalo Bills, so where would he end up? Would an opportunistic contender snatch him up, hoping to develop him as their quarterback's successor? And would Barkley's junior season's film be enough to earn him an early pick on Day 3? The quarterback questions and many others would be answered in the draft's last four rounds.