Meriweather & Day One of the NFL Draft

As I predicted the Patriots drafted University of Miami safety Brandon Meriweather in the first round of the NFL draft yesterday. He can step in and start right away or he can come along slowly as an understudy to his kindness Rodney Harrison. Either way, no matter what he does this year, he's a great addition to the New England secondary and the Patriots.

As far as the rest of the Patriots draft day - in which they did nothing but trade away picks for next years draft. I really have no idea on what their doing but I sort of trust them to do the right thing. It's really impossible to judge anything right now. The teams that everyone is saying made the biggest draft day splash today and yesterday in a few years will be critized for wasting so many picks on players that ended up doing nothing so... don't jump to any conclusions.

However two teams I thought really improved themselves in this draft were the Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers. Both of them needed to have excptional drafts in order to stay afloat and it right now appears both did. Starting with the Browns, they got Brady Quinn and Joe Thomas in the first round then got a really good cornerback, Eric Wright, in the second. The Panthers ended up getting three potential first round value picks with linebacker Jon Beason (first round, 25 overall), USC wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, and the highest rated center in the draft, Ryan Kalil.