Bruce Campbell and Nolan Carroll Drafted: What Blogs Are Saying

You know by now that Bruce Campbell suffered a monumental fall. You've probably heard that Nolan Carroll was picked surprisingly high. How do the fans and management of their respective teams feel about those picks?

To start with Campbell in Oakland, the folks at Silver and Black Pride seem pretty thrilled that he was available and selected in the fourth round.

By far the best offensive tackle available on the third day of the draft, you couldn't get better value out of this pick. Bruce Campbell was someone the Raiders clearly had their eye on and suspicion turned into confirmation with the selection of Maryland's combine wonder. ... I have no complaints with this selection. Coming from a zone blocking system in Maryland, I think Tom Cable is most definitely pleased with this pick himself.

Raiders head coach Tom Cable echoes those sentiments, calling Campbell a "no-brainer" (which was probably a bad choice of words considering Campbell had brain surgery in high school, but whatever). Meanwhile, Bruce doesn't seem too upset about going so late.

It was strange, but at the same time I still got a chance to play football. I'm still in Oakland, so it really doesn't even matter to me at all. I'm just happy to have the opportunity to play football. ... I always feel like I have something to prove ever since the talk...ever since the combine where people said I was just a workout warrior. I always felt like all that stuff is good, but I am actually a good football player. So now I can prove to everybody that I am a good football player thanks to the Raiders.

Meanwhile, Nolan Carroll, thought by most to go undrafted, ended up getting selected in the 5th round by the Miami Dolphins. That's a good spot for him to be in; he's from Florida, and his mother's in the state legislature down in the Sunshine State. While the folks at the Phinsider seem noncommittal about him, but Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland isn't.

Nolan Carroll, cornerback out of Maryland. Didn't play a whole lot this year, he's coming off a broken leg, but he's a sub-4.4 guy. He's a 4.38, 200-pound guy. Very fast, great burst. He's quick, he's big, he's physical. Some would say raw, but he's got a lot of talent, and we feel like he's going to be a great contributor again on special teams and hopefully have a chance to earn a more third down and nickel role here as we go.

Other fans are more concerned with Nolan's lack of durability than anything else.

Carroll is a converted wide receiver who ran a 4.42 40 at his pro day. Most notably, however, is that he broke his leg in the second game of the 2009 season. Carroll broke his leg as a high school senior and missed the Emerald Bowl as a sophomore at Maryland with a hamstring injury. He broke his leg again in 2009. He has had only six starts at corner. Carroll again broke his leg while you were reading this sentence.

It appears that there's some talk about Nolan moving to safety, which makes some sense - he's not a natural CB anyway and hasn't been there very long, so scrapping that wouldn't be all that damaging. But it would take him a long time to play an entirely new position effectively, so that's certainly a project move.

We'll find out where the rest of the NFL Terps are headed in free agency later tonight and post them in the MM. Congrats to the two guys, and good luck on their NFL careers.