Eagles Looking Up; Umenyiora Unhappy
The Giants seemed pleased with themselves about their draft picks this past weekend, but managed to displease one of their current players. It's not a new story. Osi Umenyiora has been unhappy with General Manager Jerry Reese for a while. Giants fans have to hope that Umenyiora can set aside contract distractions and play with abandon, as he did last season during the team's Super Bowl run. But it seems too much to expect that he'll be happy doing it.
Ralph Vacchiano, The Daily News:
One day after the Giants' GM insisted the team has offered Umenyiora a contract extension in each of the last two seasons, the unhappy defensive end fired back, saying Reese was distorting the truth to make him look like "a greedy pig." In an email to the Daily News on Sunday, Umenyiora said the Giants' offer last summer wasn't actually an extension, and their offer this year wasn't much of an offer at all.
The Eagles appeared to emerge with more harmony:
The Eagles seemed to have one of those drafts in which everything fell their way. They didn't even need to pay too heavy a price in their first-round trade up for Fletcher Cox, as the Cowboys and Redskins did in their first-round trades.
Jonathan Tamari, Philadelphia Inquirer:
After a toxic 2011, Andy Reid and the Eagles management have restored a sense of optimism and hope around their team.
Some other stories to follow after three days of drafting:
Matt Waldman, Rookie Scouting Portfolio, on the 49ers:
One thing is easy to tell with San Francisco's offseason acquisitions: they felt they were deficient in the vertical game. Randy Moss, Mario Manningham, A.J. Jenkins, and Chris Owusu are all speedsters.
The selection of Kendall Hunter last year and LaMichael James in this draft does indicate that they want runners that operate best in the screen, draw, and delay portion of the run game.
The Redskins raised eyebrows by picking a quarterback so soon after selecting Robert Griffin III. Michael Silver of Yahoo Sports says Kirk Cousins could learn something from Gus Frerotte.
Clark Judge of CBSSports.com on two 2012 favorites:
Look what happened with Green Bay and New England. The Packers ranked last in overall defense. The Patriots were 31st. So where did they go this weekend? Defense, that's where, with neither drafting an offensive player until the seventh round.
Stanford wideout Chris Owusu embodies the mystery of concussions in football. He wasn't drafted, but his former coach with the Cardinal, Jim Harbaugh, is making sure he's getting his chance.
ESPN Stats and Info with a draft wrapup:
More than 55 percent of the drafted players (142 of 253) came from four conferences: SEC (42 players), Big Ten (41), ACC (31), Pac-12 (28). It's the sixth straight year that the SEC had the most selections. Almost 20 percent of the players drafted (50 of 253) were defensive backs.
