“I would bang the table for that guy anywhere in the draft.”
Draft season provides us with a plethora of clichés, and the above is a personal favorite. The beauty of this phrase is that it elicits comparisons not just to “Draft Day,” the Kevin Costner vehicle that mythologizes what we spend so much time doing in thinking about the draft, but also “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” The idea that a lone scout will filibuster a front office on draft night, making a case for a player against everyone else in the room.
It makes those of us on the outside feel good, feel important, like if we were just given that chance, we would march into a conference room on draft night and when our team was on the clock with the second-overall case, we would convince everyone in the room to draft Brett Rypien.
I…I’ve said too much.
But in that spirit, here are “my guys” this draft cycle. Players that I have come to love watching and cannot wait to see embark on their NFL careers. Some might have to wait until Day Three of the draft to hear their name called — if it is called at all — while others could go as early as the second-overall selection. Still, these are the players I would bang that proverbial table for.
