NFL draft filled with excitement

By By Tony Krausz / assistant sports editor
April 25, 2003
The first pick of the NFL draft, which gets underway Saturday, may already be announced, but there is still plenty of action on the board for teams.
Heck, even with the No. 1 pick already announced, it just gives all the arm-chair general managers more time to scrutinize the pick.
Carson Palmer, the Heisman Trophy winning signal caller at USC, signed with the Cincinnati Bungles, er Bengals, Thursday to take away the great debate of who will go No. 1?
This has to be a big relief to Marshall's Byron Leftwich.
Sure the gutsy quarterback, who played a game on one leg this year, doesn't get the prestige and bigger money of the top over all pick, but he does avoid going to the Bungles.
No quarterback can possibly be happy about heading to Cincinnati out of college.
The Bungles are not just the worst team in NFL over the last 12 years, they also have an abysmal record of finding even halfway decent quarterbacks since Boomer Esiason skipped town to go play for the New York Jets.
Cincinnati moved up to take David Klingler with the sixth overall pick in 1992, and chose Akili Smith with the third overall pick in 1999.
Klingler and Smith were very mobile QBs out of college, but the Bungles in their infinite wisdom decided to try and keep them both in the pocket.
End result, Cincinatti's No. 1 signal caller last year was journeyman Brian Kitna.
Good luck to Palmer, he is going to need it, even with defensive guru Marvin Lewis doing every thing he can to turn around the most hapless organization in the parity rich NFL.
So with No. 1 out of the way, it is time to turn to the rest of the board.
The Detroit Lions, another squad with a new coach in Steve Mariucci, and the Houston Texans pick two and three, respectively.
These two franchises will be seeking targets for two of the best young quarterbacks not named Michael Vick.
Expect Detroit to snag Michigan State wideout Charles Rogers or Miami's Andre Johnson, and Houston to take the other one.
The No. 4 pick is very intriguing.
Chicago will go fourth in the NFL's lottery, and many experts are looking for the Bears to bolster their defense with Kentucky defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson.
The Bears need to put some serious thought into taking Leftwich in the four spot.
Chicago's anemic offense needs help, and though the club signed quarterback Kordell Stewart it needs a QB for the future.
If the Bears don't take Leftwich, Dallas could start wheeling and dealing inside its 15-minute time span to announce the fifth pick.
The Cowboys may need a quarterback desperately, but Bill Parcells will not be waiting for a rookie signal caller to develop.
But no one can really predict what will happen over the top five, and after that, it gets even crazier as teams tangle with the age old question of do you draft to fill need or take the best on the board?
One monkey wrench in this year's draft is running back Willis McGahee.
The dynamic back out of Miami appeared to have his first-round dreams shattered, along with his knee, in the national championship game.
McGahee's recovery and healing abilities have been nothing short of remarkable, and uber-agent Drew Rosenhaus' efforts to show everyone in the free world his client is ready to play have been overwhelming leading up to the weekend.
So now the Hurricane standout that was expect to at best sneak in as a risky third round pick could very easily be a late first-round selection.
McGahee won't make the Pro Bowl as a rookie, as Rosenhaus seems to think, but a veteran club, can you say Raiders, with no immediate need for a running back could roll the dice with a late pick on the back.
If nothing else, it should be wild seven rounds.
The only certainty over the weekend is that each team will take the full 15 minutes.