Random Acts of Thought

You have arrived at Jeromes space on the Web Welcome to my rambling ground. I have set up this space for a number of reasons. Firstly I am not good at keeping in touch with people. I KNOW I should write letters, make phone calls and such, but I am plain bad at it.A blog seemed a practical way of letting many people at once know how I am doing and what I am up to. Secondly I enjoy talking and thinking. This seemed like a good place to express my views on whatever came to mind.

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The Thoughtful Ape is a primate who is honestly interested in understanding the world he lives in. He is particularly interested in cognitive biases and the limits of intuition. Like most of his species he is both vain and opinionated but is interested in understanding what is true despite these faults. The Thoughtfuls Ape's opinions change and evolve with time. What is posted here reflects his opinion at the date at which it was written.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The NFL Draft

The NFL Draft takes place today...

The Raiders and Detroit Lions, at the head of the line, when it comes to franchise ineptitude will be picking first and second respectively... As I have stated before on this blog, the most rational course of action for teams that suck in multiple areas (as high drafting teams invariably do) would seem to be trading down. That happens rarely.. I have no doubt that by the end of today Jamarcus Russell and Brady Quinn will have the hopes of mediocre organisations resting on their shoulders. Top five picks ARE the hallmark of a lousy organisation as well as a bad team. Lousy organisations are much further than just a draft pick away from excelllence.The cap space invested in a potential superstar can actually prevent a team from becoming competitive and effectively adressing the many other needs high drafting teams inevitably have.

What blows me away about predraftr prognosticators is their absurd confidence levels...

Gil Brandt NFL.com's Draft guru states about Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn...

"He will be a Pro Bowl QB and will be able to take a team to the playoffs"

Not "might" not "could be" not "has potential to be" but "WILL"
Bear in mind that this is by a guy who was VP of player personel for the Dallas Cowboys for almost 30 years! (1960-89) An NFL insider who has closely followed the NFL Draft his entire adult life!
A guy who has watched Heath Shuler Rick Mirer, Ryan Leaf, Todd Marinovich, Tim Couch, Joey Harrington and David Carr all be touted as the superstar QBs of the future!

That a guy who studies more hours of football in a year than I will watch in a lifetime and has made his living in this game can make such statements of pseudocertainty in regard to a QB prospect shows just how dramatically people underestimate the degree of uncertainty involved in these decisions and why team after team plump for the can't miss golden arm prospect rather than spreading the risk

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