10 Burning Questions Heading Into the NFL Draft That No One Can Answer

The NFL draft is upon us. That event is every year where college football players’ lives change within a matter of minutes. Ticking minutes on a countdown. The proverbial sports world stops for a few days and all the clicking cameras and football analysts center on one city. Hours of analysis, whether accurate or not accurate. This year, the draft is in Pittsburgh, and the projected number one pick Fernando Mendoza is expected not to be present for the event, opting to stay at home with his family in Florida (which is understandable due to his mother’s health). While this draft was already amiss of actual attention seeking headlines, the absence of its projected number one pick leaves even more headline titles to fill. The NFL draft beckons for a dramatic shift or two but there are plenty of questions surrounding the upcoming season.

And so, the list begins…

10.

The trade between the Las Vegas Raiders and Baltimore Ravens never happened. If it did, Maxx Crosby would be a Baltimore Raven and Trey Hendrickson would not be. The Ravens made it seem as if it was no big deal really. Crosby failed a physical exam. End of story. Case closed. There in lies the problem. It was a big deal. Something that seemed overlooked is that the Ravens got the player they really wanted by slighting another star player in the process. That slightly seems shady. In that sense, the Baltimore Ravens seem to have some characteristics of a team not to be trusted. Separating from John Harbaugh was an amicable decision between the two but truth be told, the Ravens have underperformed for quite some time. Their playoff resume leaves plenty to be desired. Not keeping Maxx Crosby is another sign of a team, not entirely sure of who it is.

9.

There are plenty of teams in Super Bowl windows. Meaning if they do not win a Super Bowl, the team most likely will be dismantled. The Detroit Lions come to mind. The San Francisco 49ers. The Buffalo Bills. And the Philadelphia Eagles. Jalen Hurts finds himself with yet another offensive coordinator and AJ Brown is still an Eagle, even though most people would agree he probably shouldn’t be. While most pundits would like to blame Jalen Hurts for the team’s failures, the truth of it is that there is plenty of blame to go around. How many quarterbacks are supposed to be successful with a revolving door of offensive minds? Would Tom Brady have been successful if he had 4 and not just one for most of his career? The Hurts slander is a mindless argument and not realizing that the team appears to have more core issues than if Hurts throws for 200 yards is the real issue.

8.

Are the Kansas City Chiefs still in a championship window? Probably. Does something seem amiss with this team in the previous seasons? Yes. So, the real question is, is Patrick Mahomes still great enough to overcome the team’s apparent holes?

Maybe.

7.

The New York Jets. The media frenzy surrounding this team always is only ridiculous to people who don’t live in the New York City area. Listening to any talk radio in New York, nobody really knows what to say about the Jets. Geno Smith coming back…feels okay. Frank Reich being the new offensive coordinator…feels okay. Aaron Glenn returning as the head coach…feels okay. You see the trend here? Nothing really garners too much excitement. The Jets constantly prove what a dysfunctional franchise looks like. Nobody really takes them seriously as a legitimate anything. The problem is that low expectations don’t really work in New York. Aaron Glenn is on the same type of timer as a draft pick is. And not much time has passed.

6.

 The Michigan Wolverines won a national championship, and the Detroit Pistons are the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. So, Michigan fans have plenty of things to be elated about. But when it comes to the Detroit Lions, there may be a lingering feeling of nausea. It feels like ages ago when the Lions were two seconds from making a Super Bowl and everything was bliss. A few underachieving seasons, including one embarrassing loss to the Washington Commanders in the playoffs, and the bliss has worn off a bit. Is Dan Campbell still trusted in making decisions? Is Jared Goff still the guy to lead a team to the top? The Lions have plenty of uncertainty surrounding them. But maybe the Pistons will make the Finals, and the Lions will be able to make it midseason without much fanfare.

5.

 There was Brett Favre. There was Aaron Rodgers. And now there is Jordan Love. The Green Bay Packers have had plenty of consistent quarterback play for decades. Most teams haven’t even had two years of consistent quarterback play. While the recent playoff loss is not necessarily Love’s fault, the reality remains. The expectations are. You don’t trade for Micah Parsons, be penned as a Super Bowl favorite by everyone in sports media and then lose to the Chicago Bears. While Parsons was injured and couldn’t play, the Packers still didn’t look ready to take any steps toward hoisting a trophy. Favre’s time eventually ran out and so did Rodgers, albeit for different reasons, but the world of the NFL expects immediate results. And in a town, where the Packers mean everything, having them mean nothing in the NFL landscape is not feasible forever.

4.

At some point, the Raiders fans deserve the opportunity to air their grievances about not just the state of the franchise but also about moving from Oakland to Vegas. Firing Pete Carroll after one season and never really having a true answer at quarterback, has left the franchise as dry as the desert the team is in. Drafting Mendoza will be another attempt at fixing something that has never really felt fixed. And while Tom Brady may be an advisor on the team, nobody has ever really had the answer to bringing the team any real success. At this point, drafting number one overall really seems like a sign of the continued ineptitude and drafting Mendoza may not be enough to dispel that.

3.

Does anyone care about the Dallas Cowboys really? Besides Cowboys fans. Or probably Jerry Jones. With the season being so racked with other headlines, the Cowboys managed to fly under the radar for the first time in a long time. But it is highly unlikely that Jerry Jones will want to fly under the radar much longer. The defense at times appeared like a bunch of players waiting for something to happen which then led to plenty of losses. The NFC East division has a bunch of teams that have plenty to prove so winning the decision is not that far off for the Cowboys. But is that what Jerry strives for? Playoffs? No. If the team doesn’t find success in winning, Jerry will find a way to make headlines. He will always find a camera.

2.

Firing Sean McDermott was one thing. The press conference that followed was another. The Buffalo Bills fans can only hope that there was a blip on the radar and things really are not that absurd in the building. Josh Allen is revered as one of the league’s top quarterbacks and rightfully so, but Buffalo Bills fans know time is running out. It is now or never. The team has found new ways each season to not make it to the championship game and Bills fans are running out of ways to just turn the page. Are they going to watch their future Hall of Fame quarterback go to another team and find more success than the present one? Maybe a year or two ago, that may have seemed like a wayward dream but one more season of underachieving and this current chapter of the Buffalo Bills may be put on a shelf to collect dust.

1.

The Cleveland Browns are still the Cleveland Browns. It doesn’t matter if Shedeur Sanders starts. It doesn’t matter that Myles Garrett is still there. It doesn’t matter that they have a new head coach. All of that is irrelevant. The Cleveland Browns have proved time and time again that they have no idea what it takes to be a good team in the NFL. The fans of this team have constantly deserved better and have not received it. Deshaun Watson is still there and at this point, the Browns are paying him to sit on the bench. What could it be like to have a job where you just showed up and got paid millions of dollars for flicking erasers into a trashcan? Whatever the organization would do to fix the problem would not be enough to erase the enormous mistake they made. Until the Browns can show growth in their decision making, they are not to be taken seriously. The NFL should try to figure out a way to allow teams not to continue to have control over franchises that make a mockery of a sport so many people love.

To be continued.

Next offseason.