Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 966: A Small Year for Draft
On April 2019th, in Nashville, the NBA Draft officially begins.

After the ups and downs of 2017 and the quarterback explosion in 2018, 2019 is generally considered to be a year of serious decline.

Overall depression.

From offense to defense, young players with talent and potential are generally not good enough. Scouts and professionals have said that there is a serious gap this year and the results of the draft may not be satisfactory.

Not only the NFL, the NCAA is also aware of this.

Precisely because of this, college students who "do not meet the draft standards" this year have applied for early drafts, including juniors and even redshirt sophomores. Everyone realizes that this year is a weak year, which also means that their hopes of entering the first round have greatly increased, so they have submitted their applications one by one.

The number of players selected in the draft set a new historical high, with 119 players selected in advance.

Is this a good thing?
Not necessarily.

But this is the reality and the teams can only accept it.

More importantly, the trend of young rookies taking on more and more main responsibilities since 2016 has further risen after the Kansas City Chiefs successfully defended their title with a young team, and team managers are still rubbing their hands.

Who knows, maybe one or two diamonds will appear this year?

Like Levi, like Mahomes, like Jackson.

It is enough to find just one of these "potential stocks that were not favored but turned out to be very successful".

This year, judging from the strength on paper, this is a great year for the forward line, both the offensive and defensive lines are far ahead in both quantity and quality.

However, after the rookie training camp, the scouts collectively sighed——

There are no good seedlings.

Be it physical test scores, tactical awareness, or even team interviews, all are below expectations overall, and are very, very far away from a "big year".

Despite this, after the busy first day of the draft came to an end, the forward line still became the focus of the first day due to its numerical advantage.

Eleven defensive linemen. Five offensive linemen.

A total of sixteen forwards were selected in the first round. In other words, among the thirty-two teams, fully half placed their precious first-round picks on forwards.

reason?

The Kansas Chiefs can’t be blamed, but to a greater or lesser extent, the Kansas Chiefs still play an important role.

Ultimately, it is because the league is upholding the banner of passing offense, and the intensity of the front-line confrontation between the offense and defense continues to rise. The offensive team needs to increase pocket protection, and the defensive team needs to increase rushing pressure.

In the midst of this, Levi's sudden emergence reawakened the importance of ground offense. Compared with the second line of defense, the pressure on the defensive front such as the defensive forwards and linebackers soared.

Simply put, if you want to curb the Mahomes and Levi combination of the Kansas City Chiefs, it is imperative to increase the impact of the defensive front line.

By the way, there are four linebackers in the first round, and all of them happened before the 12th pick. The importance of ground defense is returning to the coaches' tactical manuals.

Linebackers, like defensive linemen, play an important role in ground defense, and the threat of running backs seems to have reached a five-season high.

Although the overall talent and ability of the players are lower than expected, the defensive frontline players who are slightly better than expected are still snapped up by the teams at the first opportunity, and the competition is still fierce. Levi: Please shoot at me!
Are there any star players among these players?
The answer is yes.

However, in the year of the Little Year, star rookies stand out.

In previous years, even the top three draft picks might have seen a series of trades; however, this year, everything was calm, and all the players holding high draft picks refused to be traded. The first draft pick trade did not occur until the tenth pick, which is truly rare.

This also shows the importance that the teams place on rookies. These teams all follow their own draft strategies and snatch up all the already scarce star rookies.

With the second pick, the San Francisco 49ers selected Ohio State University defensive end Nick Bosa, which instantly caught countless attention.

There is no doubt about Bosa's talent and ability, but last season, Bosa underwent a core muscle surgery at the beginning of the season, missed two full months of games, and then announced his withdrawal from Ohio State University, skipping his entire junior season and participating in the draft, which caused many questions.

The San Francisco 49ers do need to strengthen their defensive line, but is it worth it to use the second pick to select Bosa?
With the third pick, the New York Jets selected University of Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen-Williams, which also caused a lot of discussion.

Although Williams came from the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, he and Levi have never fought side by side. In 2016, Williams, a freshman, did not play, but put on a red shirt and witnessed Levi's miracle in the sparring group.

In the following two seasons, Williams showed great potential on the court. However, it was only two years after all. He skipped his college career and participated in the draft. He also stated in front of the media that he "hopes to follow in Levi's footsteps."

Likewise, the New York Jets make a fuss every year when drafting and select Williams with the third pick. Is that correct?

The second and third picks, in the end, were all young people who "did not meet the current draft standards", which once again verified Xiaonian's statement.

In this wave of heated discussions, there is only one player who is truly in the spotlight:

Oklahoma University quarterback Kyler Murray, the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner, is undoubtedly the focus of the focus, and is also the absolute superstar who dominates this small year.

Everyone speculated that the Arizona Cardinals, who held the No. 1 pick, would choose him. After all, he was a quarterback and the most talented and accomplished player among all the rookies this year. There was no reason not to choose him.

Perhaps, the only doubt is that the Arizona Cardinals selected UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen with the tenth pick in the first round of last year's draft, and this was also a draft pick traded up, paying a series of costs; are they preparing to select a quarterback for the second consecutive year?
What kind of self-slapping silliness is this?
however!
The Arizona Cardinals did it anyway and selected Kyler Murray with the first pick!

Applause! Cheers! Praise!

It is indeed stupid, but it is also decisive.

The Arizona Cardinals realize that they may become a laughing stock for selecting a quarterback in the first round for two consecutive years, but they also realize that they cannot miss Murray.

After all, Rosen was not up to the task last season. With him as the starting quarterback, the team had three wins and thirteen losses on the season, relegated to second-to-last place.

So, wearing the mask of a clown, the Arizona Cardinals still chose Murray.

Moreover, at the end of the first day of the draft, Rosen was traded to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a series of draft picks, including a second-round pick of the Miami Dolphins this year.

Not only did they reduce the damage from last year's draft mistakes, but they also turned around and began preparing for a fresh start this year.

Act swiftly and decisively.

The Arizona Cardinals also showed their decisiveness, making decisions quickly and efficiently.

(End of this chapter)