Pegboards’ Fifth Annual NFL Mock Draft

Hello and welcome to Pegboards’ Fifth Annual NFL Mock Draft where the rules are made up and the picks don’t matter because we will be wrong 95% of the time.

This year Jesse and I are switching things up slightly. We have pulled our “friends” Eric and Ryan into the mix to help us throw darts at the mock draft dart board. Why would we do this you ask? Is it because we realized we lack some real expertise and sought out intelligent football minds to help bring some professionalism to this blog? Hahaha, no, of course not, it’s mostly because we are lazy (if you haven’t noticed by the lack of updates lately).

So here’s how it’s going to go, the draft order is Eric, Jesse, Ryan, and myself, Kevin. We were allowed to make trades but, spoiler alert, none of us did. Jesse and I will be providing most of the commentary for each pick. We will most likely use our pick’s commentary to praise ourselves and use their pick’s taking some deep shots at their character, intelligence, and overall self-esteem. So just normal, healthy friend stuff.

Without further ado, the Browns of Cleveland are on the clock…

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Assessing the Broncos’ Draft Needs

Trying to predict which players an NFL team will take in a draft is a fruitless endeavor. In the age of social media, there are plenty of rumors fueling the fire, but good luck seeing the truth through the smoke. It’s a lot of fun though, which is why Pegboards will be presenting its fifth annual mock draft in a couple days. You know, the one where we spend more time making fun of each other for our bad picks than trying to provide any semblance of useful insight. Think of it as mock draft rehab.

Anyway, what isn’t hard and in a way can be equally enjoyable is figuring out what a team needs to get out of a draft, so in the meantime I’ll be going position by position and taking a stab at why the Broncos may be addressing that part of their team on Thursday. I was just going to cover the positions of need and then I realized that the Broncos are rather needy and require all kinds of help. More than you would think since they are barely a year removed from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

But that’s life in the NFL, no? Not for long. Let’s get to it.

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Better Call Saul is Perfectly Serviceable, and that’s the Problem

The challenge that Better Call Saul came up against when it premiered was how it could create drama even though it’s destination has already been predetermined. We know that Jimmy McGill ultimately becomes Saul Goodman, who develops a reputation as the top “criminal” lawyer in all of Albuquerque and like all criminals, sees his reign come to an end.

Prequels don’t often have the luxury of surprising the audience, so no one is holding their breath hoping that Jimmy has a chance as a legitimate attorney or that he’ll make amends with his brother, Chuck. The question is if the show can keep people invested even if they know where things are going. Better Call Saul is in its third season now, so someone out there is paying attention to what’s happening. Personally, a lot of my interest was riding on whether or not Jimmy would get lucky with Kim. Score one for the guy who looks like Kevin Costner.

And while the pre-Breaking Bad escapes of Slippin’ Jimmy hint at greatness and occasionally even delivers it, there’s just not enough substance to make me forget that I’m watching a prequel. When I’m constantly reminded of what awaits these characters in the future, I find myself wishing that I was watching Breaking Bad instead.

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The Girl On The Train and The “Woman As A Villain” Problem

Just the other day I was thinking about the lack of fearful lady antagonists in films and television. Off the top of my head I could think of two females that scared the shit out of me. Annie Wilkes in the Stephen King adapted film Misery and Amy Dunne in the Gillian Flynn adapted film Gone Girl.

By mere coincidence, the strangeness of the absence of the psycho female role came up again as I sat down to watch another book adapted into a movie. This time it was The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

This film engaged my attention all the way through. But the ending got me back to my original question. Why does Hollywood fear villainizing female characters?

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