Race for #1

Race for #1

This series of articles is not what you may expect from the title. The race that is being referred to is the jockeying for the #1 overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft in April. Of course, the most losing team in football gets this dubious honor. I am a Browns fan so this particularly appeals to me because we are struggling and in last place in the surprisingly tight AFC North.

There are four other teams that are also non-competitive at this point and will be looking for a top five pick. The St. Louis Rams are 0-6 and not showing much sign of improvement. The Detroit Lions have already improved on their last years win total with one, but have already got their number one overall pick, and starting quarterback Matthew Stafford injured. Kansas City also, like the Browns and Lions, has one win. But, Coach Todd Haley is not looking like a genius for trading for Matt Cassell. And how could we forget about Tampa Bay? They are winless after week 6. In hindsight it looks like maybe they should have stayed with Jon Gruden, instead of hiring 32 year old Rahim Morris.

I know it is only week seven, but these five teams are looking so terrible that I know their fans have to be thinking what I’m thinking. Who are we going to draft in the first round? Even though we don’t know who will be drafting where right now we can start to speculate about team needs and fill in some of the blanks with top college performers.

Along with thinking about whose going to be going where, at some point these teams that are constantly losing each week have to draw suspicion of giving up to get the first pick in the draft. This is not unique to football, though. In basketball speculation of tanking in the past was so wide spread that the NBA implemented the lottery process in the draft in order to prevent intentional losing. I personally do not believe that any NFL team would not play to win, though, because of the pride of the players.

In any event the Browns, Lions, Chiefs, Rams, and Bucs are pretty much guaranteed not to make the playoffs. With that in mind, you can bet these teams have scouts that are following college football standouts to see who can help their team most. I will try to take on the mind state of that scout for these teams in Race to #1.