The 75th NFL Draft

There’s a familiar smell floating around in the air. Can you smell it? Mmm, it smells like the 75th annual NFL draft.

The off-season trades in football have been unpredictable to say the least and with all the talk surrounding draft picks, it is hard to predict what team the top rookie quarterbacks like Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow will end up playing for.

The draft order begins with the St. Louis Rams, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins and Kansas City Chiefs in the top five. The Rams, Chiefs, and Lions had a pick in the top five of the 2009 draft as well with Matthew Stafford (quarterback) being drafted by the Detroit Lions as the number one overall pick. Previous number one picks include Eli Manning, Carson Palmer and Michael Vick.

Sometimes, drafting a quarterback as a number one overall pick can be a bust. For example, JaMarcus Russell of the Oakland Raiders and Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers can fall into the ‘bust’ category. Smith started to come around in the 2009 season and eventually became a starter while the opposite happened with Russell. So will the 2010 number one overall pick be Sam Bradford? If he is, hopefully he won’t get the curse of the bust.

Other top 2010 draft class prospects include Gerald McCoy, Ndamukong Suh, Eric Berry and Russell Okung. Suh was a finalist for the Heisman award in 2009, but Mark Ingram ended up winning the trophy although many people believe it should’ve went to Suh.

The NFL draft will start Thursday, April 22 and be broadcasted ESPN live at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and will continue until April 24. Going with the trend of quarterbacks usually being drafted first, I think Sam Bradford will be the number one overall pick this year. Let’s hope he plays as good as everyone thinks he will.