PA Season Ticket Holder
04-27-2003, 06:26 PM
NEW YORK (April 26, 2003) -- It started the way so many NFL drafts start, with a tall, lean athlete striding to the middle of the stage at the Theater in Madison Square Garden to pose for some photographs with Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
Another year, another quarterback taken with the top overall pick.
But before you file this under the Carson Palmer Draft, consider the size and shape of the majority of athletes selected in Saturday's first round. They were tall, although in many cases not as tall as the 6-foot-5 Palmer. Many were much wider. All were much stronger and conditioned to do something Palmer would never consider, which is put a quarterback on the ground. Hard.
As expected, defensive linemen -- and especially tackles -- dominated the first 32 choices of the draft. A total of 11 were selected in the first round, the most of any draft since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Of those, seven were tackles, breaking a first-round high for the position reached in 1977 and '01.
Clearly, NFL teams believe that the best path to success is in the points you prevent rather than the ones you produce.
The Baltimore Ravens made a resounding statement to that effect when they won Super Bowl XXXV with a defensive line that featured a pair of behemoths in the middle, Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers reinforced the point when end Simeon Rice and tackle Warren Sapp overwhelmed Rich Gannon and the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/6338458
Another year, another quarterback taken with the top overall pick.
But before you file this under the Carson Palmer Draft, consider the size and shape of the majority of athletes selected in Saturday's first round. They were tall, although in many cases not as tall as the 6-foot-5 Palmer. Many were much wider. All were much stronger and conditioned to do something Palmer would never consider, which is put a quarterback on the ground. Hard.
As expected, defensive linemen -- and especially tackles -- dominated the first 32 choices of the draft. A total of 11 were selected in the first round, the most of any draft since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Of those, seven were tackles, breaking a first-round high for the position reached in 1977 and '01.
Clearly, NFL teams believe that the best path to success is in the points you prevent rather than the ones you produce.
The Baltimore Ravens made a resounding statement to that effect when they won Super Bowl XXXV with a defensive line that featured a pair of behemoths in the middle, Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers reinforced the point when end Simeon Rice and tackle Warren Sapp overwhelmed Rich Gannon and the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/6338458