The Final Drive: The 2011 NFL Draft, Rounds Two and Three

Day two of the NFL Draft is all tuckered out and ready for bed, just like my sister. Amidst Chris Berman idiocies and countless Jon Gruden “that guy’s,” I’m ready for a recap of rounds two and three. Here we go!

Shocker of the Night: QB Ryan Mallett falls into the third round, where he’s scooped up by the New England Patriots. Really? Tom Brady is under contract for FOUR more years, which will be the same length as Mallett’s rookie deal. I’m not really sure what the Patriots are doing in these past few rounds, but the Mallett pick is near useless.

Reach of the Night: The Raiders draft the fastest player on the board in corner DeMarcus Van Dyke… a full round (or two) ahead of where he was supposed to go. Al Davis apparently woke up from his nap to make that pick.

Best Moment of the Night: Barry Sanders comes out to announce the Lions’ second round pick and gets a fantastic ovation and a “Barry” chant from the typically raucous NY crowd. Well deserved.

WTF Moment of the Night: The Chicago Bears make a trade with the Washington Redskins to move up in the second round, using the fourth round pick they had agreed to send to Baltimore the night before, but never confirmed with the league. According to reports, Jerry Angelo was “encouraged” by Roger Goodell to send that fourth round pick to the Ravens as a good faith/compensatory gesture, but Angelo declined. Smooth Chicago, smooth.

Obvious Moment of the Night: See the Raiders above re: reaching. It’s what they do.

Oh, and the ‘Niners took a quarterback. That needed to happen something fierce. Alex Smith, meet Colin Kaepernick. Now get lost.

Best Pick of Round Two: The Buccaneers wind up with Da’Quan Bowers at 51 overall, adding a big name to their draft class of defensive end Adrian Clayborn and inside ‘backer Mason Foster. In an offensive division, the Bucs are loading up on the opposite side of the ball.

Best Draft Thus Far: For me it’s a tie between the Bengals and Lions. Cincy needs to replace Chad Johnson? They draft A.J. Green. Carson Palmer wants out? No problem, they just take Andy Dalton. Done and done.

The Lions are showing the league and their own players that they’re ready to take the next step. Drafting Nick Fairley to pair with Ndamukong Suh is just unfair. Picking up the speedy Titus Young gives Matthew Stafford an electric slot receiver, while drafting running back Mikel Leshoure gives Jahvid best some durable competition.

-Trades. There’ll be a few more to watch out for.

-Where does QB Ricky Stanzi end up? Stanzi is the biggest name left on the quarterback board, so a team like Seattle, Buffalo or maybe Philadelphia (perhaps preparing for a Kevin Kolb trade) could be in the market.

-Special teamers. Every team needs them. Does your coach take a linebacker you don’t think they need? He’s probably there for special teams. Get used to it.

Tomorrow’s the marathon with four rounds to get through, so get settled in early! I’ll see you all on Twitter at 11 AM central.