The NFL, under Goodell’s watch, has done an amazing job of moving the concept around to different cities each year. Those in Chicago, Philadelphia and Nashville, as well as the one in my hometown of Dallas, were all special in their own way. But New York City was unique and provided an easy selling point for players I recruited.
In 2005, we invited just six to the draft: two quarterbacks (Alex Smith of Rodgers and Utah), two fullbacks (Ronnie Brown of Auburn and the late Cedric Benson of Texas), one wide receiver (Braylon Edwards of Michigan) and one defensive player (CB Antrel Roles of Miami). By recent standards, a very small group.
My job as a recruiter was to call teams and find out who they were going to pick in the first round, and try to pull it all off like a mockery. They trusted me to keep the information confidential, and I did. It enabled me to do my job to get the best players to New York for a week of concept festivals. It was a promotional tool, and it worked. News outlets from across the country followed the players’ movements in the city and took photos and videos of it in famous parts of the city to discuss their week in the Big Apple.
About ten days after the start of the draft week, I got a bet from Smith, who I think was San Francisco’s target with the best overall choice. That information is leaking everywhere. I knew it, Smith knew it and so did Rodgers, who was not committed to accepting his invitation. I understood. No one wants to be second; no one wants to be in danger of being the last man.
But Rodgers finally agreed. Some may say blindly, because it was unknown at the time of his acceptance, days before the players would board a plane to the East Coast, exactly where he would go. I knew where the other players would end up in the draft with certainty, but due to a confluence of factors, Rodgers was always the game card.
Miami had the second pick and needed a quarterback, with AJ Feeley (8 starts), Jay Fiedler (7) and Sage Rosenfels (1) taking turns starting for the Dolphins in 2004. But there was a new sheriff in Miami, and his name was Nick Saban, who came out of college without any previous decision-making powers in the short time he was in the NFL, a reason he was considered by most observers to be unpredictable. was considered.
Luckily for me, Coach Saban and I go far back. I got to know him when he was the defense coordinator at the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick, a year after leading Toledo to a 9-2 record in his first head coaching position. I recommended him in 1995 in Michigan State and five years later again in LSU.
Anyway, Saban and I spent a lot of time on the road together on pro days after being hired by the Dolphins. He chose my prospects on my brain, and I learned his tendencies in the concept. In mid-March of that year, we met in four different cities within four days. Two of the stops were on rugby days in Salt Lake City and Berkeley, home of the Cal Golden Bears.
Smith’s Wednesday workout in Utah was excellent. He displayed an athleticism that separated me – and, more importantly, I believe – in Saban’s mind, from Rodgers, which Smith followed the next day with an impressive pro day from him on Cal. The two campuses were 725 miles apart, but the difference between Smith and Rodgers was razor sharp.
Saban and I ate the night of his workout with Smith and his parents. It became clear to me that the new Dolphins coach had already decided what he needed to do with his team’s first choice.
Although he never told me directly, I believe he wants a quarter in the draft, and in his final evaluation, it was just Smith and Smith. He seemed to like Rodgers, but he beloved Smith. He talked to me about the days he tried to recruit Reggie Bush at LSU and saw a lot of Smith at Helix High in San Diego, where the two played in the same team. He was very familiar with Smith, and in Saban’s case I bred, in my opinion, satisfaction.
Rodgers was a game card not only for Saban, but also for the rest of the NFL. Why did no one recruit Chico, California’s quarterback in high school? Why did he end up at Butte Community College? And what’s going on with the high ball grip he learned on Cal by coach Jeff Tedford? Speaking of Tedford, why have so many of his former quarterbacks (Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller) had less than an excellent career in the NFL? Would Rodgers be next in line?
These were all questions Saban considered when he decided that Smith would not be at number 2, he would pass Rodgers and take a setback or trade. The morning of the draft he called me around 7 from his car phone and asked which run I would take first. We both agreed that Ronnie Brown was the man.
With the fact that Brown would definitely go to the Dolphins, something I was sure of a few weeks before Saban’s last call to me the morning of the draft, I began to see what could happen. A slide by Rodgers was inevitable; just how far was the question? At this point, I knew of teams that actually preferred Jason Campbell of Auburn over Rodgers, so I wasn’t even sure if Rodgers would be the second fullback (or third, since uber-athletic Arkansas QB Matt Jones as a band first reversal conversion).
I put together every bit of information I could, and if teams were honest with me – and it always has been – I knew the first 23 picks, and none of them included Rodgers. Pick 24 was held by the Packers, who of course had Brett Favre on their rankings.