Too many expertsJustin Tejada

I sense belligerence in the air. It must be that time of year again. Y’know, where all the stat-junkies and die-hard team fanatics come out to parlay mock teams and trade grades and percentiles instead of blows. Then again, I have borne witness to some of these sessions ending up in fisticuffs, but I digress. When it comes to the NFL, it revolves around three events: the Super Bowl, the Combine and the Draft.

Though neither the Combine nor Draft will ever match the enduring popularity of the Super Bowl, they just about match each other in terms of coverage, popularity, and as being useful tools in exposing tools. You have to admit, it is fun razzing your buddies about their picks and countering arguments and statistics with your own.

What’s not fun is encountering ‘that guy’ who’s only there to try to make a fool out of somebody. Y’know, he’s that one guy who will disappear for a month to scour sports blogs and comment on them with the same fervor of a guy who has discovered “WoW” for the first time. He’s that one guy who can tell you more about any one top pick player’s history than what he can relate about his own. That one guy whose sole purpose in life seems to revolve around attempting to refute every single word you say.

So on second thought, instead of coming up with my own mock-up or to throw in my own two cents about the top picks for this season, I’d like to ask a favor: If you ever encounter one of these guys or know one of these guys, do yourself a favor and punch him in the face.

Fans and bloggers across the country would thank you for putting these menaces in their places. I’m just glad they only show up this time of year.

Oakland RaidersDavid Green

The team that can benefit the most from the NFL draft is the Oakland Raiders. I am not just saying this because I was born and raised in the Bay Area, but they have nowhere to go but up.

Because Warren Sapp retired during the offseason, there is a big gap in the middle of the defensive line. If Al Davis is smart, which he is not, he will try to go for Chris Long from the University of Virginia and Howie Long’s son, or pick up the reincarnation of Warren Sapp, and Glen Dorsey. Defense wins championships!

The Raiders gave up their second and third picks last year, so they have to make a very wise decision with this first-round pick.

Trading for a veteran will not solve their problem because that veteran, whomever they get, will retire in a couple of years and they will be back to square one.

They should just start with fresh new talent and build the team around that key player – keeping him healthy and motivated to play for the Raiders; something they are not good at that.

Our guy was supposed to be quarterback JaMarcus Russell, but now he is 300 pounds and sitting on his butt eating Twinkies, so we have to go back to the drawing board.

Don’t get me started on the offensive line. There is no point in picking up Darren McFadden – even if he makes it to the fourth pick – because all he is going to do is get hurt.

Davis needs to pick up an offensive lineman in the fourth round, make a couple of moves in the off-season to get younger talent who still can develop and slowly work them up.

It would be wise to get a defensive player because that is what we are known for – our bread and butter. We can’t really get a skills player on offense because a decent quarterback is needed for that, so the Raiders have to make it work somewhere.

The Raiders went out and picked up DeAngelo Hall and already have Michael Huff to hold down the secondary for defense; now all they need is that presence that Long or Dorsey can give them.

Whomever they pick, all I am saying is that they need to play defense.

No surprisesJose Martinez

The Miami Dolphins are on the clock?and have been for quite some time now.

It’s time to see who will go where, which team bettered itself and which team made a dumb draft choice. These three things help die-hard football fans pass the time until the first pre-season game sometime in August.

The NFL draft, a complete weekend devoted to football’s couch potatoes, is a place where some men get their dreams made by getting that phone call telling them that they are now part of a professional football team.

In reality most people watch just about a combined hour of the NFL draft. To me the only interesting thing about the draft is seeing who goes first and which players the Raiders select.

Big-name collegiate players such as Darren McFadden, Chris Long and Glenn Dorsey all anxiously wait to hear their names called before the audience to see where they will start their professional football careers, barring a trade or holdout. JaMarcus Russell and Eli Manning both have had this occur to them.

A thing I find strange about the NFL draft is the incredibly large number of mock drafts held by professional football analysts – everyone is entitled to probe owners’ minds in order to guess which player owners will invest in.

To be frank, nobody truly knows who’s going to go where and for how much. This is probably another reason why people choose to watch the draft to see who was right and who was wrong.

To me a major flaw for the audience who watches the NFL draft is that when the commissioner announces a player’s name, that athlete already knows who he will play for. Prior to stepping on stage those who are invited to the actual event have already been in contact with the team that he was selected by, therefore killing the total element of surprise.

Players who attend also receive jerseys and hats before they pose for photos with the commissioner. I mean really – the player, if he signs a contract, will afford to by his own damn jersey and multiple hats.

This is just done in order to gain more publicity for the company who mass produces the apparel – it’s like subliminal advertising.

Fans are allowed inside the actual draft arena, making it more interesting for the players because in many occurrences fans have booed players who were selected by their favorite teams because of apparent disliking of the selection.

Hopefully this year’s draft is full of surprises and choices that tear up the various mock drafts.

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