Best Picks From 2007 NFL Draft
Evaluating the Smartest Draft-Day Decisions as 2008 Selection Nears
Jan 29, 2008
Once the Super Bowl XLII champion raises the Vince Lombardi Trophy and the confetti falls in Glendale, AZ, the NFL will shift from celebration to preparation. From that moment until April 26-27, the draft will be such a dominant storyline that even the start of baseball season won’t be able to compete with tales of a player running the 40-yard dash in 4.35 seconds in borrowed sneakers (Thank you, Calvin Johnson).
Will the picks live up to the hype? Well, as your history teacher always said, the best way to predict the future is to study the past. In Part I of the 2007 Draft Evaluation Series, we examine the best investments in last year’s draft class. Also, check out the worst picks -- so far -- in Part II.
1. Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings (7th overall): Peterson is a first-year wonder. He rushed for 1,925 yards and 15 touchdowns as a true freshman at Oklahoma in 2004. Were it not for the NFL’s “three years after college” rule, he likely would have gone No. 1 in 2005 (No way the 49ers would have taken Alex Smith if Peterson were on the board). But an ankle sprain as a sophomore and a broken collarbone as a junior lowered his production and his draft stock. He was a steal at No. 7, rushing for 1,341 yards and 12 TDs, while breaking the league’s single-game record with a 296-yard outburst in Week 9. Peterson showed better pass-catching ability than he did in college, collecting an additional 268 yards and one score on 19 receptions.
2. Patrick Willis, LB, San Francisco 49ers (11th overall): The Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year registered a monstrous 174 tackles and earned a ticket to Hawaii. If you only counted his solo stops, he still would have been league’s fourth leading tackler. Like Peterson, an injury during his junior season threatened to hurt Willis’s standing with scouts, so he returned to Ole Miss as a senior. It proved to be an excellent decision, as Willis won the Butkus Award and the Lambert Trophy as the nation’s top linebacker and was a consensus All-American. But, somehow, four defensive players were selected ahead of him.
3. Mason Crosby, K, Green Bay Packers (193rd overall): In a football fan’s eyes, Crosby has nicer legs than Scarlett Johansson. He became the first rookie kicker since 1979 to make a game-winning field goal on opening day when he booted a 42-yarder with two seconds left to lift the Pack over the Eagles 16-13. That was a chip shot for him. The former Colorado Buffalo split the uprights on 31 of 39 opportunities, including three of 50 yards or more. His 58-yard connection in 2005 is an NCAA record and 31 CU game, season and career marks belong to him. It’s not a stretch to say he’ll hit a 65-yarder some day – he came up less than a yard short in 2006. The rest of the NFL looks pretty foolish for letting him be the third and final kicker taken in the draft.
