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National Football League
Draft King Analysis
January 8, 2009
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
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Congratulations to the Florida Gators for winning the BCS Title. If that was Percy Harvin's final game for the Gators, he went out on top. Meanwhile, Tim Tebow played masterfully against a great Oklahoma defense and willed his team to victory.
People who went to sleep early might have missed the second Sam Bradford INT (when Oklahoma trailed 17-14) with 10 minutes remaining in the game when a spot-on pass hit Sooners WR Juaquin Iglesias on his hands, bounced off, and ended up having the ball picked off by Ahmad Black. Don't hang that one on Bradford; those are the breaks sometimes in football.
I hate the bowl system and the lack of any sort of playoffs in major college football. But, to be sure, tonight's BCS Title game was intriguing and entertaining.
 | Jermaine Gresham scored two TDs in the BCS Title game. (Icon SMI)
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One thing became clear tonight: Oklahoma TE Jermaine Gresham will be the #1 tight end prospect if he leaves school early for the 2009 NFL Draft. When I get the chance to update the Draft King mock draft, possibly tomorrow, look for Gresham to be plugged in where I currently have Oklahoma State TE Brandon Pettigrew.
In a move that was no surprise, Ohio State RB Chris "Beanie" Wells declared his intentions to enter the 2009 NFL Draft. He wasn't the only Big Ten RB to declare today, as Wisconsin's P.J. Hill also threw his hat into the ring for early entry into the NFL. Of course, unless they sign with an agent, they could change their mind and come back to college by January 18. The deadline to apply for early entry is January 15, but there are three days allowed after the deadline for early applicants to change their mind.
The hot rumor for tomorrow is that Pitt redshirt sophomore RB LeSean "Shady" McCoy will announce that he is leaving school early for the NFL (a reversal from what was announced earlier this week from his camp). Also tomorrow, Missouri redshirt sophomore WR/KR/PR Jeremy Maclin plans to announce his decision on either going pro or coming back to Missouri. At this point there has been no indication to the public on what direction Maclin is leaning.
One player who fell out of the Draft King 2009 NFL Mock Draft on my last update is Wake Forest senior CB Alphonso Smith. It's possible that Smith will work his way back up into the first round projection, though at 5'9" 190 he has some size disadvantages that will likely work against him. But Smith has shown that he can intercept the ball, with six picks in 2008 and an ACC conference record-tying 20 for his career, and he should end up being a good fit somewhere in the NFL. But the competition for spots in the first round is, at always, quite stiff.
I doubt that we'll hear anything definitively tomorrow from Florida QB Tim Tebow or Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford, though after a weekend to contemplate and evaluate their options, it wouldn't surprise me to see their decisions come out early next week.
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