Killer cover. I just hate the fact that Kaluka is so overshadowed. Norton said today that Kaluka had the best football smarts and might end up being the best of them all. Just hype, I bet, but I really hope that Kaluka goes in the 3rd and has a long, successful NFL career.

. . . the guys at pro football weekly dot com did a NFL draft preview:

He has Cush and Rey-Rey going in the middle of the 1st round. Both are listed as possible concerns as far as “intelligence”, with Rey-Rey also denoted as a “character” concern. Fair? Whatever. If you’re a Captain on your side of the ball (Cush), something tells me any “intelligence” concern renders that moot. On top of that, Cush was rarely caught out of position on the field and always made the right choices in the classroom. And apart from his freshman transgression of assault, Rey-Rey has been nothing short of a model student, citizen, and athlete since that unfortunate incident. (and it should be noted, he was suffering for acute depression, imbibing- like a college freshman, in some alcohol, and was pretty much a boy trying to become a man at the time).

Also, he has Clay going late in the 1st round as well. Clay doesn’t have any notations for concern- as a matter of fact, there is an arrow pointing up which means he could possibly go earlier in the round. (Interestingly, James Laurinaitis of tOSU is placed behind Clay? Weird? I thought JL was “supposed” to be the Best Linebacker on the planet- pro or college? What’s happened to him since 2008?

They have Fili going early in the 3rd round, Kyle Moore early in the 4th round, and Kevin Ellison early in the 6th round. None of these Trojan-badasses have notations of conern. Something tells me that Kevin is better than 5 of the 8 other safeties projected before him. Word.

Sanchez needs a post all his own. He’s doing all the right things since announcing his departure from the Trojan team and despite all the previous talk (from both his supporters and detractors) of unpreparedness and subsequent low-draft projection- he’s considered a Top 10 draft pick at this time. Some now say he’s the best prepared and projected talent in this year’s QB class.

Lastly, it’s now a bit of a wonder to me why any one of our Trojan RB’s/TB’s didn’t declare for the draft this year? Looking at the projected RB’s in this years draft, Shonn Green, Knowshon Moreno, and Beanie Wells look to be the only players who “might” be better than our stable of CJ, Stafon, and JoeMac. This, even after considering the fact that neither of the three have anywhere near the “experience”, “reps”, “results/stats”, and “media-frothing” as the non-Trojans listed above. (couple that with Shonn Green projected as the low-one in the group at a projected early 3rd round pick)

Now, in saying all this- I realize this whole draft projection is like a Gump-box-o’-chocolates. Any opinion on this matter, be it pundit, blogger, or otherwise, is about as valuable as an Icelandic-krona. But still. . .