No doubt about it: The Niners were one of the biggest winners.
Having watched Michael Crabtree for two years, I thought he was unquestionably the best player in the draft. The. Best.
So what if he plays in the spread or isn’t as big as listed or didn’t post a 40 time at the Combine … He was still the best college football player in the country not named Taylor Mays (and Mays wasn’t available this weekend).
And, I might add, this is coming from someone who thought Aaron Rodgers was a much, much better quarterback prospect than Alex Smith (and would have written exactly that if I’d had a blog back then).
Just don’t ask me to name all the player projections I’ve gotten wrong.
Winner: USC. Had 11 players drafted, with eight coming off that awesome defense — the third time in four years the Trojans have led all schools in draft picks.
Loser: UCLA. Nobody drafted, just like UC Davis. And UC Irvine. And UC Santa Barbara …
Winner: Pac-10. Ranked third among conferences with 32 players drafted.
Loser: Pac-10. But what does it say when one school accounts for 34 percent of your picks? (Don’t answer that!)
Winner: ACC. Accounted for four of the first nine picks. That wasn’t David Stern at the podium, was it?
Loser: Big Ten. Only 28 players selected (tied with the Big 12 for fourth). And from what I can gather, none of them ran the 40 in under 6.0
Winner: USC. The 11 picks were more than Texas (four) and Oklahoma (five) combined.
Loser: UCLA. As many players drafted in the past five years as USC had drafted this year. It sure doesn’t seem like the “Football Monopoly” in Los Angeles is over.
Winner: USC. One of the best talent factories we’ve ever seen, but with each passing April that loss to Stanford makes less and less sense.
Loser: Notre Dame. Only one player picked from a class of fifth-year seniors that was rated 23rd by scout.com when it signed in Feb. ’04. Granted, 23rd isn’t great, but someone didn’t do a very good job coaching ’em up.
Winner: ESPN. A couple glitches, a few dumb comments and questions, but on the whole I’d give the broadcast an A-.
Loser: Todd McShay. I think he does an absolute first-rate job, but a year ago this week he predicted Fili Moala would go No. 1 in the ’09 draft. Only missed by 55 picks.
Winner: Draft watchers. When it takes less time to get through the first round than it does for me to run a marathon, that’s good news for us viewers.
Loser: Darrius Heyward-Bey. I assume that was a look of shock and/or amazement when his named was called in the 7 hole, not utter dread that the Raiders called it.
Winner: Cal C Alex Mack: Only four centers have been picked higher in the past 30 years, and they all played for Nebraska in the early 1980s. (Not really.)
Loser: USC LB Rey Maualuga. Fierce middle man projected to go as high as 15th but dropped to the second round. Guess he was the third wheel among the Trojan LBs.
Winner: Connecticut. Four players picked in the first two rounds: Just like a Jim Calhoun team, except with a more likable coach.
Loser: Ohio State. Seven players picked and three losses in ’08 — that’s 2.33 draft picks per loss. Somebody’s underachieving (in case there was any doubt).
Winner: Oregon schools. Their 13 combined picks almost tripled the total from the three big Florida schools.
Loser: Michigan. Seven players selected in ’07, six in ’08 … and two this weekend. Lloyd must have gone fishing in the winter of 2003-04 (and not for the last time).
Winner: SEC. Three of the first six picks, eight in the first round and led all conferences with 37 total picks. Still the king.
Loser: Tennessee. Signed the No. 1 recruiting class in Feb. ’05 and had a whopping one player picked in April ’09. That means one of three things: poor evaluations, bad coaching, or both.
Winner: David Buehler. The USC kicker worked his way into the fifth round by out-running and out-lifting Maualuga and Clay Matthews. Anywhere else, he would have started at linebacker.
Loser: Everyone else. Alabama had 12 wins and only four draft picks. When Saban’s recruits become upperclassmen, it’s all over.
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