The NFL draft is a time of hope for football clubs around the league. New players, new faces and new talents will all be thrown into the fire during this year’s draft from April 26 to 28.
The best part is that no one knows where that best player will be going until draft day.
Apparently, the Indianapolis Colts disagree.
Earlier this week the Colts announced they would choose quarterback Andrew Luck from Stanford with the number one overall selection. Everyone already knew that Luck was going to be donning the horseshoe on draft day, but there was still that possibility of uncertainty hanging in the air.
Had they not announced that Luck would be their selection, the name Robert Griffin III would still be floating in people’s heads as a possible surprise selection. While many would say the possibility of RGIII going number one overall is absurd, things like this have happened in the past.
For example, in 2006 the majority of the NFL analysts, draft experts, fans, etc. expected the Houston Texans to select Reggie Bush with the number one overall pick in the draft, and it made sense. Bush was arguably the most electrifying player in college football history, making him the frontrunner to go first.
Then the Texans shocked the NFL world by drafting defensive end Mario Williams with the first overall selection.
Another example of a surprising selection would be the 2009 Oakland Raiders. With the seventh overall selection, the entire league expected the Raiders to take the top-ranked wide receiver in the draft Michael Crabtree who had surprisingly slipped out of the top five picks.
Instead, the Raiders made one of their signature head-scratching draft selections by picking Darrius Heyward-Bey out of Maryland when most saw him as a late first round or possibly even early second round selection.
These are the types of drafts that are remembered, and as long as the public doesn’t know for sure who is going to be drafted then there will still be that unquestioning feeling in the minds of NFL fans as they prepare to make their selection.
There will still be a lot of uncertainty surrounding the rest of the draft however, as there are many big names in this year’s draft.
RG III will obviously be the next most anticipated player off the board, and most analysts and draft experts see him going number two to the Washington Redskins who traded up with the St. Louis Rams to be in that spot.
Wide receiver Justin Blackmon from Oklahoma State is a guy that will likely go top 10, with a good chance of the Rams taking him at number six, which is a pick they got out of the trade with the Redskins.
Running back Trent Richardson from Alabama is another very highly anticipated pick who will likely go top 5 and might be the only running back taken in the first round of this year’s draft. Mark Ingram, who is also an Alabama product, was the only first round running back taken in last year’s draft as well.
In the end, no one knows for sure where these other players will end up, and that’s how it should be.
