I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but there were only four offensive lineman picked in round one and none were black. This has not happened since 1989, when all six offensive lineman drafted where white.
Why did this occur last night? Leading up to the draft several black offensive lineman were projected as first rounders. At one point, prior to running a stunningly bad 40, the guy from Stanford was seen as a Top 10 pick? Yes, the jock-sniffers felt he would drop some after showing limited athletic ability, but none expected him to drop beyond round one. Even Caste teams like Pittsburgh, Cincy and Detroit said no to him and the others.
Two factors could contribute:
One, there have been way too many black draft busts at offensive line in recent years. Rams have been drafting these guys high for a few years (one went #2 overall in '09) and they still have little to nothing to show for it.
Two, many of the first and second round white offensive lineman picked in the last few years have been very good. Teams like the Packers, Giants, Patriots, Chargers and Colts have built great offenses around mostly white lines in recent years. Heck, even the "white busts" at left tackle like Robert Gallery are still good enough to start at right tackle or can move inside to guard and still make a positive impact.
Gentleman, the most notable thing from last night was reaching double digits. Perhaps the first time since 1989? Next most notable thing had to do with the demise of the "summos" early in the draft. Hopefully this trend will continue, and NFL teams will view our guys as "safer picks".
Few more quick points:
While all the jock sniffers figured "only" the Patriots and Packers would pick Shea McCellin and Harrison Smith, it was nice to see new blood (Chicago & Minnesota) step up and pick them.
My guess is the summos will be drafted early in round 2, but hopefully we'll see a nice run of our guys (OL's) being picked in round two and three. Also, looking forward to see where our top 3-4 DE's (Wolf and Crick) will land. I don't follow the college football much, but do follow the NFL close. Seems like Clay Matthews opened the door for white OLB's in the 3-4...Is it possible J.J.Watt opened some doors for white 3-4 DE's? This is important, because standard white DT (in the 4-3 base) have pretty much become an endangered species for close to 20 years.