Draft Takes Too Much Thought

Let's identify this year's NFL draft for what it really is -- Draft Lite.

Relatively speaking, this draft is less filling.

But that hasn't stopped GMs, coaches and scouting directors from spending mega-man hours, testing and re-testing, analyzing and over-analyzing players ... and still they have little clue what to do.

The overkill gets worse every year. There has been more preparation put into this draft, which originates noon Saturday from Madison Square Garden, than went into the Allied Invasion during World War II.

This problem could be quickly rectified by holding the NFL draft about 10 minutes after the last college all-star game. Not mid-April.

This too-much-time-on-your-hands theory never has been more evident than this year when both the quality and quantity are suffering. Consequently, GMs and coaches have approached this weekend as if it were a speed trap.

They try to find a detour. South sounds like a good direction.

Never have so many teams wanted to trade down. If you listen carefully to what the scouting reports are telling us, every prospect in the '99 NFL draft has a flaw. If it isn't a player's height, it's his rap sheet. The results have left teams waffling.

What might be viewed as simple confusion is really total condemnation.

Peel away the smoke and mirrors, dreadlocks and Wonderlic test scores, and what you have are a bunch of over-analyzed names on a giant draft board that upon further review provide more fodder for debate than hope for the future.

Mike Ditka isn't the only one who would gladly trade away his entire draft in a New Orleans minute. He's just the only one who spoke up.

And the Saints are willing to cash in all their chips this year, plus a few more next year, to get a player who isn't even the consensus No. 1 pick overall. Ricky Williams most often is mentioned as the No. 4 pick in this draft.

The day he broke Tony Dorsett's 22-year-old NCAA career rushing record, Williams was the No. 1 pick in this draft. When Williams accepted the Heisman Trophy, he was the No. 1 pick in this draft.

So what happened? NFL front-office types and coaches were given too much time to think about it. It's like going on a blind date -- and getting two months to get ready for it. The NFL has turned simple evaluation into a Mensa event.

NFL teams have only themselves to blame. OK, the NFL and Draft Lite. One has tried to make it bigger and better than it really is, and the other has made it smaller and shallower than it has been in awhile.

Starting, of course, with the QB Class of '99, a.k.a., QB Class of '83 Wannabes. The comparison is unfair, as well as inaccurate, and begs to be put into perspective.

Just imagine if the top three picks in the '83 draft had been Todd Blacklege, Ken O'Brien and Tony Eason. Now you have Tim Couch, Akili Smith and Donovan McNabb.

This draft has plenty of quarterbacks -- mobile quarterbacks, athletic quarterbacks -- but in terms of arm strength, experience and savvy, there isn't an Elway, a Marino, an Aikman or a Bledsoe among them. There isn't even a Manning in the mix -- Peyton or Archie.

Running back? Don't look past Williams and Edgerrin James.

Wide receiver? Slim pickings after Torry Holt and David Boston.

Offensive line? Better than average ... but no Orlando Paces.

Defensive line? Deficient line.

Linebacker? Dat Nguyen -- this past season's 5-foot-11, 230-pound Lombardi Trophy winner --figures to be picked on the second day. Sharp drop off after Chris Claiborne and Andy Katzenmoyer.

Cornerback? Don't look past Champ Bailey and Chris McAlister.

Safety? Forget it.

This draft is neither deep nor compelling -- just confounding.

Even the NFL's testing methods have come under harsh scrutiny, that is, harsher than normal. This is a league that measures the minds of its rookies with a 12-minute, 50-question Wonderlic test, which over the years has produced an average score of 22.

But what does the test really mean? Dan Marino once scored a 13 ... Kerry Collins a 30.

In a game that requires high levels of anticipation and instinct, suddenly players are being asked to solve math problems.

Or else they're being asked to ponder something really deep: I prefer a shower to a bath tub. True or false? That's on the test.

University of Miami RB Edgerrin James took the New York Giants' infamous 90-minute monster at the NFL combine in February.

"It was an unbelievable (test). They kept asking the same question over and over," said a dazed and confused James, shortly after undergoing psychological jousting by the Giants.

"What was the question?" a reporter asked.

"Uh ... I don't remember," James replied. And he was serious.

But nothing created more wonderment than the Wonderlic test results of Akili Smith, the strong-armed Oregon QB who scored 12 one time ... 37 the next.

That's similar to if you bowl 98 one time ... 280 the next.

Or you fail to break 100 on the golf course one time ... shoot 70 the next.

Or you nearly drown in four feet of water one time ... swim the English Channel the next.

Smith's sudden improvement in poise, logic and acumen over the course of two 12-minute, 50-question anxiety drills raised a lot of eyebrows. Some of those who thought psychological testing was strictly overkill were left wondering if it might not be underhanded, too.

Agent Leigh Steinberg explained it away by saying that Smith simply was coached between tests. He was tod to take a deep breath and relax.

Yet it served to pile another layer of doubt on a class of NFL prospects whose astrological sign already is the question mark.

Kentucky QB Couch ... another David Klingler?

Syracuse QB McNabb ... ran the option in college.

Oregon's Smith ... ran a pro-style offense but was only a one-year starter.

Texas RB Williams ... hands like Mister Rodgers.

And these are the top picks in this draft.

Maybe UCLA quarterback Cade McNown was onto something when he said in February at the NFL combine that teams try to find a flaw in a player because they know it'll come in handy later at the negotiating table.

By the way, McNown ... too short, too side-arm.

But that's now.

Before all the evaluation and testing, all the NFL knew about Cade McNown was that he won 20 of his last 22 college games.

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