It appears that Adrian Peterson is slipping late, in part because of concern that he may have re-injured his collarbone in the Fiesta Bowl. Meanwhile, there has been talk that the Raiders may be playing the negotiation game with JaMarcus Russell by talking with Brady Quinn's agent, albeit at lowball numbers.
If the Raiders do go for Russell at #1, the Lions should be able to potentially implement a trade down for a team looking to land Calvin Johnson. I imagine that the Bucs would have the inside edge on moving to #2, with a Top 5 pick to offer (#4) and two 2007 second-rounders to work with, but Atlanta make a run at it. For Detroit, the payoff of trading down could be, as Joe Cabot said in Reservoir Dogs, "Juicy, man, real juicy."
As it is, I'm now projecting Calvin Johnson to Detroit in a possible draft-and-trade scenario. I just can't see CJ falling past #2, not with his growing hype and the mainstream's increasing awareness of his unique ability.
I think we'll see it go JaMarcus Russell, Calvin Johnson (with Detroit trading picks with Tampa Bay), Brady Quinn, Gaines Adams (to the Lions) and then Arizona lucking out with Joe Thomas. From there it could get quite tough to follow, though I'd look for LaRon Landry to go by #10 at the latest. Enjoy the draft, everyone.
