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| NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announces after the Oakland Raiders selects Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper as the fourth pick in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft, Thursday, April 30, 2015, in Chicago. |
CHICAGO (AP) -- 7:53 p.m. (8:53 p.m. EDT)
Touchdown, Bears!
It certainly felt like that at the auditorium when Goodell announced Chicago's pick: West Virginia receiver Kevin White.
Fans
erupted - the complete opposite reaction of Jets fans, who routinely
serenaded their pick with boos for all those years the draft was held in
Manhattan.
A few minutes after being
announced, White came out to the stage. More cheers. And then - what
else? - a big Bear hug with Goodell.
---
7:53 p.m. (8:53 p.m. EDT)
Titans
GM Ruston Webster says it would've been difficult to convince the
Tennessee brass to trade out of the second spot and pass on quarterback
Marcus Mariota.
"Every minute we spent with him, it just felt better and better," Webster said.
And
even though the Titans like their current QB, Zach Mettenberger, "There
wasn't enough reason for us not to take him," Webster said.
---
7:46 p.m. (8:46 p.m. EDT)
You didn't really think they'd cheer, did you?
An annual tradition stayed right on track when the New York Jets selected defensive tackle Leonard Williams with the sixth pick.
Fans booed.
It's been going on for as long as anyone can remember, only this time, the draft was in Chicago, not the Jets hometown.
Accounting
for at least some of the booing may be the fact that the hometown Bears
were up next, and their fans, who made up the majority of the crowd at
the auditorium, would've loved to see Williams drop another spot.
No luck.
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7:39 p.m. (8:39 p.m. EDT)
Redskins select offensive tackle Brandon Scherff out of Iowa, the first senior picked in this draft.
Not
that OLs ever bring people jumping out of their seats, but there were
some moans and groans when Goodell announced this pick.
He's the 14th OL selected out of Iowa since 1999.
He
hurt his knee five days before last season's opener, but missed only
one practice. No surprise that scouts gave him huge props for his
toughness.
"I didn't want to let my team down, and if I could play, I was going to play," he explained on stage after being picked.
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7:33 p.m. (8:33 p.m. EDT)
Welcome to the Rai-duhs Amari.
Oakland
used the fourth pick to choose Amari Cooper out of Alabama, who
immediately becomes the best receiver that beleaguered franchise has had
in a while.
On the clock: The Redskins. The team fight song - "Hail to the Redskins" - is playing over the sound system at the auditorium.
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7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. EDT)
When quarterbacks went 1-2 in the draft, Jaguars fans must have breathed a sigh of relief.
Former
first-round picks Byron Leftwich, Blaine Gabbert, and Blake Bortles
haven't brought many wins to Jacksonville's neck of the woods.
With
the top QBs out of the mix, the Jaguars picked Florida defensive end
Dante Fowler Jr., who was considered by some to be the best player
available, even including Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.
Fowler
was in the house in Chicago, wearing a white tuxedo with red piping and
sparkling gold shoes. After walking onto the stage, he gave Roger
Goodell a nice, long bear hug.
He figures to be an instant hit in Jacksonville, which isn't far from where he played college ball in Gainesville, Florida.
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7:22 p.m. (8:22 p.m. EDT)
Marcus Mariota can bring his lei to Music City, y'all.
Mariota,
who wore the flowers while watching the draft from home in Hawaii, is
bound for the Tennessee Titans, who used the second pick on the Heisman
winner.
Tennessee used all but about 60 seconds of its 10-minute time allotment before sending the pick in to NFL executives.
Most people thought the Titans were open to a trade, but it didn't come about.
Mariota
and Jameis Winston are the sixth pair of QBs to go 1-2 in the draft
since 1967, joining the likes of Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning (1971),
Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf (1998) and Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin
III (2012).
---
7:11 p.m. (8:11 p.m. EDT)
Whew.
The wait is finally over. Thank goodness. Now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
get to stress out for the next three or four years to see what really
comes of the first pick of the NFL draft - quarterback Jameis Winston of
Florida State.
The Bucs put an end to months
of speculation by selecting the talented-but-troubled signal caller, who
won the Heisman Trophy in 2013.
Winston was not present in Chicago, choosing to watch the draft at home in Alabama.
(Oh, and Commissioner Roger Goodell got booed again when he came out to announce the pick.)
Winston apparently did enough to convince the owners of the first pick that he's worth the risk.
He's
the first QB to be selected first since Andrew Luck in 2012. Winston is
also the first player from Florida State, which produces gobs of NFL
talent, to be picked first in the draft.
Tennessee is on the clock.
---
7:03 p.m. (8:03 p.m. EDT)
New York. Chicago. Some things just won't change.
Commissioner
Roger Goodell, speaking at Grant Park in Chicago, gets booed heartily
inside the auditorium while video of him officially opening the draft is
played inside the auditorium.
Tampa Bay is on the clock.
---
6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. EDT)
Some news in the lead-up to the NFL draft, which starts in about a half-hour:
-The
league denies a request from LSU offensive lineman La'el Collins to
pull his name out of the draft and be placed in the supplemental draft
later this year. Police want to talk to Collins, a projected first-round
pick, about the slaying of his ex-girlfriend. He is not considered a
suspect.
-The Titans, who hold the second
pick, will entertain offers for that pick but those offers probably
won't be coming from the Chargers. A report out of San Diego says
quarterback Philip Rivers, in search of a contract extension, has been
told he won't be traded.
-The Randy Gregory
watch is on. The Nebraska pass rusher's stock has taken a hit since news
hit that he tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine.
Gregory was thought to be a top-10 pick, though some reports today
speculate he has fallen completely off several teams' draft boards.
---
5:56 p.m. (6:56 p.m. EDT)
Are these clues? Or is he just trying to drive all those 12th men crazy?
Seahawks
coach Pete Carroll is trying to generate some buzz over Seattle's
draft, even though the Seahawks don't (currently) have a pick until the
end of the second round - a selection that won't be made until tomorrow
night.
Carroll is tweeting out
(hash)SeahawksDraftClues that, so far, involve a few skits from comedian
Dave Chappelle's old - and very funny - TV show.
The draft starts in about an hour. The Auditorium Building at Roosevelt University in Chicago is starting to fill up.
---
3:51 p.m. (4:51 EDT)
Let's
boil it down to the basics: A group of executives at 32
multimillion-dollar companies are about to spend several of those
millions, and risk their company's future, on a 21-year-old college kid.
Welcome to the NFL draft.
Character
issues are always on the front burner this time of year - and that's
never more true than tonight, where NFL executives will take all their
data and make life-changing decisions about a number of players who are
flawed in different ways that have nothing to do with throwing, running
or catching.
Scott Minto, director of the San
Diego State Sports Business MBA program, says no amount of vetting,
psychological profiling and background checking can ensure a team of
making the right pick.
"You see these players
who have transgressions in their past and how do you decide if this
player's going to be a good employee or not?" Minto asks. "It's a lot of
money to invest into someone who's 22 or 23 years old."
---
1:05 p.m. (2:05 p.m. EDT)
Well,
it's not exactly March Madness. Then again, it wouldn't be a true
sporting event if you didn't have a chance to win something based on the
outcome, right?
As part of its never-ending
and generally successful quest to make every date on its calendar an
Event, the NFL has created a contest challenging fans to predict the top
32 picks in this year's draft. Winner gets an all-expense-paid trip to
the season-opening game, Steelers at Patriots, on September 10th.
Much
like the gazillions of bracket-filling contests that make the NCAA
Tournament what it is, this contest offers chances to form leagues with
your buddies, play against strangers and, of course, compete for the
grand prize valued at around $4,800. This way, your future and your
happiness as an NFL fan can hinge on every pick during tonight's
four-hour extravaganza, not simply the one your favorite team makes.
Need
help? Vegas is here for ya. The over-under on Alabama receiver Amari
Cooper's draft position has been set at 4 1/2, per the Bovada website.
Bovada has also set 1 1/2 as the over-under for number of running backs -
an increasingly unpopular position in NFL-land - to be selected in the
first round.
---
11:50 a.m. (12:50 p.m. EDT)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on the clock. The Tennessee Titans are under the microscope.
With
the hours ticking down until the start of the NFL draft in Chicago, the
Bucs will surprise everyone if they don't use the top pick to take
Jameis Winston, the troubled, talented quarterback out of Florida State.
That surprise will turn to shock if they pass on both Winston and this
year's other top quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota of
Oregon.
What the Titans will do is less
certain. The smart money says they'll take Mariota (or Winston if Tampa
Bay unexpectedly passes), but Tennessee likes its current QB, Zach
Mettenberger, and if the price is right, the Titans could trade that
pick away.
Those potentially in the market for
the Heisman winner: San Diego, which can't get an extension done with
Philip Rivers; Philadelphia, whose coach, Chip Kelly, worked with
Mariota at Oregon; and, yes, the Cleveland Browns, who have two
first-round picks and aren't quite sure what they've got with last
year's glamour pick, quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Only a little more than seven hours to go.
And,
by the way, neither Winston nor Mariota will be on hand to shake
Commissioner Roger Goodell's hand after they're selected. Winston will
be watching from Alabama and Mariota is in Hawaii.
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