Got It Goin’ Bossanova.

So Barry Sanders has a son.  His name is Barry Sanders, Jr.  No pressure there.

Anyhoo, he’s a rising high school sophomore, and he’s a running back.  Check out this run he broke off last fall in the Oklahoma state semis, when he was a freshman.

The best part is the last 30 yards when the the guy chasing him (#52) is running full out to catch him, and BS II is sorta in a half trot.  Damn genetics, you scary!

Remember when there was great debate among the football pundits as to who would be the better NFL QB - Ryan Leaf or Peyton Manning?  Yeah, me too.

Check out the latest with Ryan Leaf now.

And to recap how that debate was resolved:

• Leaf threw for 3,666 yards and 14 TDs in his entire NFL career.
• Manning has thrown for 45,628 yards and 333 TDs so far.

So it’s a push, I guess.

"I've called this press conference to say - it's Monday."

Is it just me, or is the Brett Favre thing completely played out?  As of the most recent report, Favre has retired.  But if we wait a day or two, there will inevitably be a new report out saying such and such team is in discussions with Favre regarding his return to the NFL.  Apparently the Vikings are still hot and heavy to have Favre keep his Wranglers in the closet for another season.

Statistically, Favre will go down as one of (if not the greatest) QB in NFL history.  I can understand why a team with QB issues (such as Minnesota) would try to bring Favre back.  And I can even understand why Favre is struggling with leaving the game.  Football has been pretty much his whole life for the last 20+ years.

Fine.

But what I don’t understand is why this story won’t go away.  A team either needs to offer him a deal or not.  And then Favre either needs to accept it or not.  All this wishy-washy in between crap is just a huge waste of time.

Maybe the league is so QB starved that it needs to keep a guy who is well past his prime in the rotation.  Or maybe Favre can’t let go of the attention that comes with his position.

Or maybe NFL whores, not unlike myself, need something to fill the enormous football void between the Superbowl and training camp.  And sportswriters know how starved we are; it’s too easy a story not to write about.

Whatever it is, it’s annoying.  Let’s either find something else to talk about or the Commish should force Favre and his suitors to either sh!t or get off the pot.

And we think most of you did.

Take a look at our FANTASTIC NFL Draft Analysis.  It’s really good.

The ‘Nova’s Historical Draft Analysis

We’re still waiting for the news to come in saying the Redskins have traded Brian Orakpo - we don’t handle good fortune well.

New Redskins DE Brian Orakpo

Anyway, on the surface it seems like the ‘Skins winding up with Orakpo at pick 13 is an incredible stroke of luck.  It is true most of the so-called “experts” had Orakpo slotted to be selected much higher.  But the Redskins front office (completely unintentionally) pulled off a bit of public maneuvering which helped their cause in securing Orakpo.

Make no mistake, if the stars had aligned differently last month the ‘Skins would have given away an awful lot to land Jay Cutler.  But since that didn’t work, the ‘Skins stayed in every QB discussion/rumor that was going around.

The most notable speculation centered around Mark “Dirty” Sanchez.  Danny Boy’s man crush on Sanchez seemed to have lit a fire under a handful of other NFL teams targeting a QB in the Draft.   It also seemed to piss Jason Campbell off to the point he said he would request a trade should the ‘Skins select a QB.

These headlines seems to have created enough buzz to spur a couple of teams into action.

The Browns have a lot of defensive needs, and Orakpo would have been a great fit for them.  But the Jets called ‘em up and and offered them a deal the Browns couldn’t refuse - and the Jets wound up with Sanchez.

Who knows for sure if the Jets needed to get ahead of the Redskins in order to secure Sanchez?  The Jets seemed to believe they did, and that just about gift wrapped Orakpo for the Redskins.  The only other obsticle was the Broncos picking at 12, who completely ignored their needs on defense and took Knowshon Moreno out of Georgia.

If nothing else, Danny Boy’s reputation for trying to make the big splash helped grease the wheels.

Our buddies over at Big Chatter have a great piece up about Matt Stafford going to Detroit.

Check it out and tell ‘em we said hi.

Do you know which NFL team historically has been the most successful on Day 1 of the Draft?  How about the worst?  Did you know your favorite NFL team is nearly three times as likely to draft a bust with their first round pick than a future Hall of Famer?

Though his NFL career never really panned out, he did rock an awesome mullet.

We went through the first round of every NFL Draft for 15 straight years, one player at a time, to identify which teams have proven to the best (and worst) at making their first round selections. Every player from 1990’s pick #1 (Jeff George) to 2004’s #32 (Ben Watson) has been poked and prodded by our crack crew and rated on the Bossanova Super Deluxe Football Player Rating Scale for Kids Who Can’t Read Good (or the B.S.D.F.P.R.S.F.K.W.C.R.G. for short.)

Here’s how our rating system works:  Every player chosen in the first round between 1990 and 2004 was assigned a point value, 1 through 5.  A player with a 5 ranking is a Hall of Fame caliber player, and ranking of 1 is a player who stuck in the League for a 3 or more years, but never truly contributed to his team in any meaningful way.

And then there are the dreaded “busts”.  A player deemed to be a bust is given a ranking of -1.  Our thinking is, any player taken with a first round pick who absolutely bombs has a negative impact on his team for years to come. Negative impact, negative point.

So once every player has been graded, we add up the total number points for each first rounder by team, and divide by the total number of picks.  This gives us a per team mean in our 1 through 5 range.

Wha happen???

So for clarity’s sake:

5  =  Hall of Famer
4  =  Perennial Pro Bowler (4 or more Pro Bowls)
3  =  Multi Season Starter, 8+ Years in the League
2  =  Majority Starter, 4+ Years in the League
1  =  Reserve Player
-1 =  Ryan Leaf

So without further ado, here is how it shook out:

The Ravens are the clear cut winner - although their sample size is significantly smaller than most of the other teams as the Ravens have only been making picks since 1996.  But strengthening their cause is what they were able to pull off in their Draft, by selecting Jonathan Ogden AND Ray Lewis.  Not too shabby when you can reel in two future HOFers in one round of picks.

Futer HOFer, Ray Lewis

The Colts also have a very solid resume of picks - their mean score of 2.933 factors in two disasters with Steve Emtman and Trev Alberts.  The Colts can take credit for at least 3 future Hall of Famers in Marshall Faulk, Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, with stalwarts like Reggie Wayne, Tarik Green and Edgerrin James in the HOF discussion.

As a ‘Skins fan, I was pleased to learn my boys aren’t at the bottom of the barrel (at least when it comes to drafting first rounders) - that honor is saved for Da Bears.  Curtis P. Enis, Michael Haynes, Cade McNown, Rashaan (that marijuana make you lazy) Salaam and Stan Thomas are first rounders of note selected by Chicago.

The Eagles have a decent laundry list of losers to their credit, as well.  The best by far though has to be Bernard Williams.  For those of you who don’t remember Bernard, you’re not alone.  Bernard was an offensive tackle out of Georgia, selected 14th overall by Philadelphia.  He actually started all 16 games his rookie year, but was then banned from the NFL after failing 15 drug tests.  15.

The Bucs had a pretty decent first round in 1995 when they selected Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks.  And while our system found nearly three times as many busts (40) as sure fire future Hall of Famers (15), we also found 58 perennial Pro Bowlers.  A handfull of these players have a decent shot of winding up in Canton, depending on how their careers finish up.

5. 5 dollar. 5 dollar foot long.

25% of our busts were quarterbacks (WARNING!!!  Redskins fans hoping to land Mark Sanchez - ABORT!)

Some of the notable no gos include Akili Smith, Andre Ware, Rick Mirer, David Klingler and Dan McGuire.

Running backs also have a high bust rate.  Lawerence Phillips, Blair Thomas, Ki-Jana Carter and Enis are famous flameouts.

And the higher a bust is taken, history will remember them even bustier.  Steve Emtman, Ki-Jana Carter and Tim Couch were all selected first overall.  Mirer, Heath Shuler, Akili Smith, Andre Wadsworth and Charles Rogers were all top three picks.

So what should NFL execs take away from this?  I dunno.  Trade down out of the first round maybe?  Or call Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome for advice?  Whatever they do, it’s the fans that have to remember there is no such thing a “sure thing”, even in the first round.

Have fun watching the Draft this weekend.  And don’t be afraid to let us know why we’re wrong (or much more likely, why we’re so awesome.)

There are reports out suggesting that if the Redskins draft a QB over the weekend, current starter Jason Campbell will request a trade.  To be clear, the guy with a career record of 16-20 (with ZERO playoff wins) believes he is beyond having to compete for his job.  Interesting.

Screw you guys, I'm going home.

This may not be the worst thing that could happen.  Obviously if the ‘Skins are seriously considering drafting another QB, then they have conceited that Campbell is not their long term solution.

Since Campbell is a free agent at the end of the upcoming season, why not try to trade him and get something back before losing him to free agency?

The ‘Skins will have to wheel and deal if the want to move up to get Mark “Dirty” Sanchez.  And there is a decent amount of news suggesting the Broncos, Browns, Seahawks and Jets all have interest in Sanchez.

Watch the drama unfold tomorrow…

Maaaarrshmellow

We can’t even begin to imagine the sheer volume of people waiting anxiously by their computers, desperate to get their eyes on our historical analysis of the first round of the NFL Draft.  But we’re not done yet.

A player-by-player review of of every first rounder from 1990 through 2004 is a bit more of a daunting task than our crack research team orignally anticipated.

So while you wait, go hit up the Tube that is Red or my main man Homestar Runner, and check back with us in an hour or so (or tomorrow morning.)

For those of you who haven’t heard, the NFL Draft is this weekend.  As long suffering Redskins fans like myself can attest, this is sort of like our Superbowl.  Except, we don’t have any real aspirations of success; rather we tune in for the gore factor.

The ‘Skins have some real doozies on their Draft day resume over the last 20 years or so.  Heath Shuler, Micheal Westbrook, Kenard Lang, Rod Gardner…I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

So as a way of maybe making myself feel a bit better, I’ve asked our crack staff of researchers to compile a pick-by-pick analysis of every first round pick from 1990 through 2005.  We figure the jury is still out on players selected after 2005, so we’ll spare them for now.

There has got to be another NFL team or two that has been at least as bad as the Redskins on Draft day, right?  Player evaluation is a crap shoot, but clearly some teams are better at it than others.  So we’ll be compiling a team-by-team list of the best and worst Round 1 drafters, and fondly reminisce about some of the most noteworthy busts from years past (Todd Marinovich, anyone?)

The Raiders had HIGH hopes for Marinovich. (Get it - HIGH hopes?)

If history is any indicator, maybe the Lions will take another receiver with the #1 pick, and Cincinnati will find the guy with the longest police record and take him.  And hopefully the Redskins will trade away multiple future first rounders so they can trade up this year to get Mark “Dirty” Sanchez.

We’ll also provide a position-by-position analysis detailing which position is most likely to flame out at the next level, and which position has proven historically to be the safest bet.  Because here at The Bossanova we live to give.

Tune in tomorrow at 4:30 EST for hot NFL Draft action.   And a special thanks to our friends at Alpha Inventions (http://aphainventions.com) for the promotional help.