The NFL Draft's first pick will be made sometime before 12:30 p.m. Saturday, and two days of the most uneventful television in sports will commence.
There always seems to be something happening during ESPN's draft coverage, but really, it's just a glorified version of that quintessential playground moment where the captains pick teams. Just add, to that moment, millions of dollars, a cottage industry of draft experts like Mel Kiper and the futures of a few hundred football players -- including several Cavaliers -- and you get the NFL draft.
That's not to say I won't be watching, however. The draft satisfies the sports nerd in me and many other football fans more completely than any other event. It combines college and professional loyalties for one day, as football fans can track their pro squad's picks and where their favorite college players will be selected. This year, for Virginia fans, collegiate allegiance definitely could dominate.
More Cavaliers could be selected on the first day of the draft this year than any draft since 1997 when the Barber twins, James Farrior, Jon Harris and Jamie Sharper all were selected in the first three rounds.
Four Cavaliers are projected to be picked in the first two rounds by various publications. Heath Miller likely will be taken late in the first round as the best tight end in the draft, the highest selection for a Cavalier since the Cardinals took Thomas Jones with the seventh overall pick back in 2000.
There's been a lot of speculation about Miller lately, largely because of a lingering sports hernia injury. But I think Miller's draft status is slipping because of a photo in ESPN: The Magazine that depicts the massive tight end clinging to a thick branch with a furry kitten situated at the end of the limb. How did they talk the Mackey award winner into this? Carlos Rogers, a cornerback from Auburn is in the same spread with an alligator on a leash, unfazed and looking tough. Miller is on a branch with a kitten, a truly inspiring image. I refuse to believe this is Miller's fault.
Chris Canty, Elton Brown and Darryl Blackstock also are projected to go off the board on the first day. Canty, if he can stay healthy, is a steal in the second round.
Look for Brown also to go in the second since he never got to work out for scouts during the offseason because of various injuries. His 40-yard dash time is listed between 5.3 and 5.5 in various publications. Brown certainly didn't look like he was running a 5.3 when he was pulling on a toss sweep and pancaking defensive ends last fall.
Alvin Pearman also is being touted as a draft day sleeper, so at least five Cavaliers will be one step closer to cashing that first huge NFL check come Sunday. Who says Arts & Sciences majors can't make money in the real world?
As far as the rest of the draft goes, Alex Smith is now the top candidate to go number one overall, and I'm sure I'll regret saying this, but I think he seems a natural candidate to be a bust. He played in a quarterback-friendly system in college, he's skinny, and he doesn't even have the strongest arm in the draft -- Aaron Rodgers does.
Plus, in the same picture spread that portrayed Miller with a kitten, Smith was photographed with a huge snake wrapped around him in the shower. I don't know what that means, but as the wealth of coverage before the draft has shown, you can't have enough information on the players, and things like a picture likely will show up later as a "character flag."
I just wouldn't touch Smith, and I think that's why the latest rumors suggest the 49ers are trying their best to trade out of the pick. I'd get out of that spot to, or at least take a sure thing like Michigan wideout Braylon Edwards or any of the top-three running backs listed (Auburn's Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams and Texas' Cedric Benson).
Smith doesn't remind me of Ryan Leaf or anything, and he seems to have his head on straight, but nobody can deny he's going to have some work to do in the NFL. I don't think lining up behind the 49ers' makeshift offensive line is the ideal place to do it.
Most pundits are predicting one of the most unpredictable drafts ever this weekend, with players projected all over the place. For example, in four separate mock drafts, the Green Bay Packers are slated to take four different players. Nobody is actually sure where anyone will fall, and that certainly makes Draft Day exciting ... if you can commit yourself to an entire day of watching people pick sides.
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