{"id":76714,"date":"2015-04-27T18:12:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T18:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=76714"},"modified":"2023-04-19T20:43:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T20:43:56","slug":"sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  NFL Draft 2015 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NFL Draft week is finally here!<\/p>\n<p>After months of speculation (and seeing the name \u201cMarcus Mariota\u201d trending more than just about any other athlete over the last several weeks), it is time for the NFL Draft.\u00a0 Redskins and Eagles fans know this Thursday is a critical time for both franchises and this week\u2019s draft could determine the future level of success of their favorite team.<\/p>\n<p>I had a chance to speak with NFL Network Analyst and former Pro Offensive Lineman Brian Baldinger and \u201cFootballstories\u201d writers Al Thompson and Rock Hoffman about the latest developments and got their insights and predictions on this year\u2019s draft and other football related topics (the entire \u201cSportsTalk\u201d show is available to watch on RCN On-Demand).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Cz1k3k1MvN8\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A few more insights ahead of Thursday\u2019s draft:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Safety is an area of concern for both the Eagles and the Redskins.\u00a0 I think there are a number of defensive backs who might be available that would help both teams:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Kevin Johnson, Wake Forest<br \/>\nAlex Carter, Stanford<br \/>\nEric Rowe, Utah<br \/>\nJosh Shaw, USC<br \/>\nQuinten Rollins, Miami<br \/>\nTrae Waynes, Michigan State<br \/>\nLandon Collins, Alabama<br \/>\nMarcus Peters, Washington<br \/>\nByron Jones, UConn<br \/>\nDamarious Randall, Arizona St.<br \/>\nJalen Collins, LSU<br \/>\nAdrian Amos, Penn State<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since the first night of last year\u2019s draft, I\u2019ve continued to be very vocal with my displeasure of the Eagles\u2019 selection of Marcus Smith as their number one pick.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping I\u2019m wrong and Smith can rebound, making some contributions this fall.\u00a0 However, this year\u2019s draft class features a number of impressive outside linebackers.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be surprised if Philadelphia is able to pick up a solid OLB in the middle rounds of the draft.\u00a0 FYI:\u00a0 here is a look at all the draft pick selections for both teams:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Eagles 2015 Draft Picks<\/strong><br \/>\n1<sup>st<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 20 Overall<br \/>\n2<sup>nd<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 52 Overall<br \/>\n3<sup>rd<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 84 Overall<br \/>\n4<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 113 Overall<br \/>\n5<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 &#8212; No. 145 &amp; No. 156 Overall<br \/>\n6<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 196 Overall<br \/>\n7<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 237 Overall<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redskins 2015 Draft Picks<\/strong><br \/>\n1<sup>st<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 5 Overall<br \/>\n2<sup>nd<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 38 Overall<br \/>\n3<sup>rd<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 69 Overall<br \/>\n4<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 105 Overall<br \/>\n5<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 &#8212; No. 141 Overall<br \/>\n6<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 182 Overall<br \/>\n7<sup>th<\/sup> Round\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 No. 222 Overall<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thompson also shared an interesting story with us. \u00a0He got word that Penn State offensive tackle Donovan Smith is heading to Chicago\u2014the site of this year\u2019s draft.\u00a0 Players normally only attend the NFL Selection Gala if they suspect they\u2019ll be selected in the first round (it certainly doesn\u2019t look good if you are there and you DON\u2019T get picked in the first round.) However, in most publications, Smith is ranked no higher than 52<sup>nd<\/sup> overall, and much further down the list in most other mock draft lists.\u00a0 Could Smith\u2019s alleged trip to the Windy City be a tip that a \u201cmystery team\u201d is going to jump and take Smith earlier than expected\u2026and would that team be in close proximately to Happy Valley?<\/li>\n<li>Hoffman indicated that there could be a number of future, high-quality NFL players available later in this year\u2019s draft, and the 5<sup>th<\/sup> and 6<sup>th<\/sup> round selections may be especially interesting to watch.\u00a0 Both Thompson and Hoffman hinted that Delaware Valley College\u2019s Rasheed Bailey has been receiving interest from a number of teams, and could be selected during the middle rounds of the draft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The draft itself should be another fun event.\u00a0 The NFL has molded this selection process into a gigantic party, with the anticipation starting shortly after the Super Bowl and building to this week.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that pro football teams don\u2019t lose games in April or May, but they can certainly put future success on hold for years if things don\u2019t go well this week in Chicago.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NFL Draft week is finally here! After months of speculation (and seeing the name \u201cMarcus Mariota\u201d trending more than just about any other athlete over the last several weeks), it is time for the NFL Draft.\u00a0 Redskins and Eagles fans know this Thursday is a critical time for both franchises and this week\u2019s draft could&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: NFL Draft 2015 Preview - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: NFL Draft 2015 Preview - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NFL Draft week is finally here! After months of speculation (and seeing the name \u201cMarcus Mariota\u201d trending more than just about any other athlete over the last several weeks), it is time for the NFL Draft.\u00a0 Redskins and Eagles fans know this Thursday is a critical time for both franchises and this week\u2019s draft could...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-27T18:12:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-19T20:43:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"headline\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: NFL Draft 2015 Preview\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-27T18:12:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-19T20:43:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":631,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Sports\",\"The SportsTalk Shop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/\",\"name\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: NFL Draft 2015 Preview - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-27T18:12:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-19T20:43:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-nfl-draft-2015-preview\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\",\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Michael\"},\"description\":\"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\\\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. 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