The Most Important Day For Your Favorite NFL Team

The most important time of the NFL year is upon us. The NFL Draft begins April 26th. Building through the draft is by far the most effective way to construct a winner in the NFL. Making bad choices in April generally means no football in January. As a guy who grew up following the football Cardinals during their St. Louis days and watching the Kansas City Chiefs since the late 1960s I’ve had that lesson drummed into my head.
Most recently, the Chiefs had some problems with draft classes up through ’04 and they paid for that on the field from’07 through ’09. From the ’05 draft on, the choices have been better and we’ve seen steady improvement. Don’t get me wrong, there is still work to do.  Biggest thing for the Chiefs to do is to solidify the offensive line.  When Matt Cassel gets protection, he’s pretty decent. Note what he did in New England in ’08 and with the ’10 Chiefs. Cassel threw for 27 touchdowns with just seven interceptions during his second season in Kansas City—and that was with a receiving corps that pretty much began and ended with Dwayne Bowe, rookie Tony Moeaki and Jamaal Charles floating out of the backfield. Last year, he was running for his life again.
The St. Louis Rams are still paying for draft day errors they’ve made back to the Martz era. Holding up the Redskins for rights to the #2 overall pick in this year’s draft gives the Rams a chance to fill in several roster spots over the next couple years much like the Chiefs trade of Jared Allen yielded a solid tackle in Branden Albert and running back Jamaal Charles. Having the second #1 pick to use on Albert also made it an easier decision to take DT Glenn Dorsey.  The Rams need to cash in on the picks they received from Washington. They need football players—especially guys who can help Sam Bradford.