Morning Report: Mel Kiper, draft guru
It's hard to think of a personality more closely identified with a single event than Mel Kiper is with the NFL draft.
It's hard to think of a personality more closely identified with a single event than Mel Kiper is with the NFL draft.
Michael Phelps and the Olympics are pretty synonomous right now, but let's wait 25 years and see how things stand.
"The draft is the second-biggest day - or two days - in the calendar year, next to the Super Bowl. And Mel had something to do with that," said Ernie Accorsi, the former Inquirer reporter who was a GM for three NFL teams.
The draft has exploded in popularity since ESPN first put it on from beginning to end in 1979. ESPN's ratings for the broadcast have shown a similar rise.
The 1984 telecast - Kiper's first - drew a 0.6 rating; ESPN has averaged better than a 4.0 rating for its last five Day 1 draft shows.
(A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, 1 percent of the nation's estimated 109.6 million TV homes.)
On the 25th anniversary of Kiper's first appearance on ESPN's draft coverage, the Associated Press went back through the broadcasts and came up with a sampler of his hits and misses.
In 1990, Kiper rated Purdue quarterback Jeff George the 84th-best player in the draft. George was chosen No. 1 overall by Indianapolis, but went 46-78 as a starter plus a 1-2 playoff record in 12 seasons with five NFL teams.
In 1993 Kiper rated Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer as the 30th-best player in the 1993 draft. Mirer was chosen No. 2 overall by Seattle, but went 24-44 as a starter, with 50 TDs and 76 interceptions, in eight seasons with five NFL teams.
In 1989, Kiper touted Towson State running back Dave Meggett, who lasted until the fifth round before being drafted by the New York Giants. Meggett wound up as a two-time Pro Bowl selection and ranks 37th in league history in all-purpose yards.
That might be Kiper's biggest single hit.
But not all of his picks came up golden.
In 2001, Kiper rated LaDainian Tomlinson only the 25th-best player in the 2001 draft, and only the third-best running back, behind Deuce McAllister and Michael Bennett.
Tomlinson, chosen fifth overall by San Diego, ranks second in NFL history with 126 rushing TDs and is still going strong.
And in what was probably his most famous bungle, Kiper had quarterbacks Dan McGwire and Brett Favre rated evenly heading into the 1991 draft.
McGwire was chosen No. 16 overall by Seattle. Favre wasn't taken until the second round, No. 33 overall, by Atlanta.
McGwire made all of five NFL starts, the last in 1995.
Favre was traded to Green Bay before the 1992 season and retired in February with a Super Bowl ring and league records for career TD passes (464), completions (5,720), yards passing (65,127) and regular-season victories (169).
Bird seed. The consensus of the four NFL.com mock drafts is that the Eagles will take running back Knowshon Moreno of Georgia.
Colleague Bob Brookover, picking for ESPN's SportsCenter, had the Birds tabbing running back LeSean McCoy of Pitt.
ESPN's Matt Mosley, however, disagrees. He wrote that the Eagles should draft tight end Brandon Pettigrew of Oklahoma State in the first round and pick up a running back like Iowa's Shonn Greene in a later round.
I agree with Mosley. Not necessarily on the choice of Pettigrew but on waiting for a running back.
If the intent is to have the back play behind Brian Westbrook, why invest a rare first-round pick? If the pick is going to be sitting on the bench for a couple of years, why not trade it to Arizona for Anquan Boldin, who will be on the field?
