Draft Revisited 2009

When I do these draft recaps I'm usually floored by the talent taken. My first one was 2004, one of the better drafts, especially the college talent, then the 2010 draft has 3 slam dunk Hall of Famers and maybe a couple more. Well the 2009 draft has none of that. I often look for where mistakes were made, well unless you traded all your picks from 2009 you made a mistake. That said this may be the greatest punter draft ever.

Pick 1 Detroit Lions: Matthew Stafford QB, Georgia. Stafford is by far the best pick in the top 10. He was the consensus #1 pick and has had probably the best career of anyone in this draft. He's been good at Detroit and paired with Calvin Johnson they were lethal. Never got to far in the playoffs but they did make it a few times. Stafford is still playing, one of the few from this draft, and I'm sure he's got a few more years left in him.

Pick 2 St. Louis Rams: Jason Smith OT, Baylor.  Now it begins, who doesn't love it when the guy who you take to solidify your offensive line for the next 10 seasons loses his job to a rookie in his 2nd season. That's what happened to Jason Smith, started his rookie year until a concussion then lost his job the 2nd season. He made it a couple more years before being traded to the Jets, hung with them for 2012, got a shot with the Saints and Jets in 2013, but didn't pan out and was done with football before 2013 started.

Pick 3 Kansas City Chiefs: Tyson Jackson DE, LSU. Here's the thing about taking a pass rusher in the top 10, you want him to rush the quarterback. Well Tyson Jackson didn't do that very well, he had a combined 2 sacks his first 3 seasons. Jackson made it 5 years with the Chiefs and a couple years with Atlanta before being out of football after the 2016 season.

Pick 4 Seattle Seahawks: Aaron Curry LB, Wake Forest. This was 2009, I was pretty plugged into college football at the time, I can't remember any of these guys, except for Stafford. Curry made it a few years in Seattle but was out of the league after 2012, Here's the thing though, there isn't a lot of glaring guys who could've been taken here and made the teams better, this draft class is bad.

Pick 5 New York Jets: Mark Sanchez QB, USC. What if I told you Mark Sanchez lead the Jets to the AFC Championship game in his rookie season. Then he did it again in 2010. What a career trajectory right? Welp, it didn't last long, a career with so much promise was thwarted when the defense wasn't so good. Then in 2012 Sanchez made the most infamous play in Jets history with the butt fumble. He never recovered in New York, he bounced around from 2013-2019, before announcing his retirement.

Pick 6 Cincinnati Bengals: Andre Smith OT, Alabama. Andre Smith was at least solid for the Bengals, he struggled wit injuries early in his career but eventually got healthy and played a solid right tackle. He left Cinncy after 2015 and has since bounced around a little, he most recently signed with Baltimore and will try to play for them in 2020.

Pick 7 Oakland Raiders: Darrius Heyward-Bey WR, Maryland. The Raiders gonna Raider. I distinctly remember them getting killed for the pick, Heyward-Bey barely belonged in the 1st round, let alone the top 10. Michael Crabtree, Jeremy Maclin, Percy Harvin, Hakeem Nicks, and Kenny Britt were the other WRs taken in the 1st round, and they were all better than DHB. Now he did better than I thought he would, I was certain at the time he would be a bust and out of the league before his 2nd contract. Instead he had a nice 10 year career split between Oakland and Pittsburgh, but man they could've gotten him later.

Pick 8 Jacksonville Jaguars: Eugene Monroe OT, Virginia. Are these guys even real? Did the 2009 draft actually happen or was all just a prank? Monroe was solid for the Jags, started right out of the gate. But again only made it a few years before being traded to Baltimore, where I think half of these guys stopped at least once. After being traded Monroe signed a deal with Baltimore but didn't finish it out and retired in 2016.

Pick 9 Green Bay Packers: B.J. Raji DT, Boston College. Raji was a pretty good player for a short amount of time. He made it 6 seasons in the league before retiring, but those first 3 years were pretty good. His 2nd season was by his best with 6.5 sacks and 39 tackles, which for a Nose are decent numbers. Raji also got to star in a State Farm commercial with Aaron Rodgers, what else could you want. Oddly Raji is probably the 2nd or 3rd best player taken in the top 10, even with a 6 year career.

Pick 10 San Francisco 49ers: Michael Crabtree WR, Texas Tech. This was a smart pick by the team across the bay from Oakland. Crabtree was the best WR in this class coming out of college, he had put up some good numbers and was a beast physically. He was the first ever 2X Biletnikoff winner as the best receiver in college football. Well Crabtree didn't help himself out his rookie year, he held out until October (no rookie wage scale like we have today), so he got off on the wrong foot with the 49ers. He was fine for San Francisco before going to Oakland for his 2nd contract, and eventually got to the Ravens, seriously the Ravens had half of these guys. He got cut before the 2019 season by the Cardinals, not sure he still wants to play. He did end up with 54 TDs and 7,499 receiving yards for his 10 year career, not terrible.

The rest of the 1st round had a little more talent than the top 10. Picks 10-20 had 4 eventual Pro Bowlers. The Redskins took Brian Orakpo at 13, Saints took Malcolm Jenkins at 14, Texans took Brian Cushing (and his PEDs) at 15, and the Eagles got Jeremy Maclin at 19. How any of the defenders in the top 10 got taken before that trio at 13-15 is beyond me. Orakpo was pretty good, Jenkins was good, and Cushing won defensive rookie of the year.

The back end of the first round had Cleveland who traded back a few times getting Alex Mack, a pro bowl center. Minnesota took Percy Harvin, who I believe was in between a RB and WR and that's why he fell. Miami got Vontae Davis, a corner who had a decent career. Green Bay got Clay Matthews at 26, he was a big piece for them for many years, including their Super Bowl run. Lastly Buffalo got Eric Wood, another center who eventually made the Pro Bowl.

2nd round had some dudes, Patrick Chung for New England. Ray Maualuga was the 3rd USC linebacker taken. I remember in college thinking Maualuga was the best of the 3 (Cushing and Matthews), but Matthews ended up the best with Cushing, and then Maualuga. For pro bowlers in the 2nd you had Jarius Byrd (Buffalo), Connor Barwin (Houston), Max Unger (Seattle) (also with Unger another center, that's 3 pro bowlers in the first 50 picks, this is a center/punter draft) LeSean (Shady)  McCoy (Philadelphia), and William Moore (Atlanta) I don't remember him.

3rd round had 2 Hawkeyes taken with Shonn Greene (Jets) and Bradley Fletcher (Rams) going. Mike Wallace went to Pittsburgh, and Jared Cook went to the Titans.

The Packers got T.J. Lang in the 4th round, they did ok with how shitty this draft was, that's 3 pro bowlers in 4 rounds.

In the 5th round it begins, the Bengals take Kevin Huber at pick 142. The Saints took Thomas Moorstead at 164. 7th round the Colts got the dude Pat McAfee at pick 222. That's 3 stud punters taken, I have nothing to back this up, but that might be the best punter class ever.

It's hard to select a bust for the draft because it was like half the top ten. You can't pick many guys who should've gone higher, maybe some of the RBs but who knows on those guys.  I think Stafford is the best player in the draft so Detroit got something right for once.

The best draft would have to be Green Bay, they got 3 studs that helped them win in 2010.

This draft sucked, I'll try to get 2008 done so I don't scare all my readers away with this garbage ass class.