NEW YORK, N.Y. – The 2010 NFL Draft has been full of surprises. After much speculation about teams trading for the St. Louis Rams first pick in the 2nd round to land Notre Dame quarterback, Jimmy Clausen, the Rams kept the pick and Clausen dropped all the way down to 48th overall where he was selected by the Carolina Panthers.

Clausen’s drop in stock was one of the biggest surprises but he wasn’t alone. As Clausen squirmed in his seat, dropping 44 picks lower than the slot ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper, Jr. had him in, Texas Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy dropped all the way into the 3rd round. McCoy was selected 85th overall by the Cleveland Browns who threw in the towel on the Brady Quinn project, trading Quinn to the Denver Broncos in the off season.

NFL 2010 DRAFT SECOND ROUND RESULTS

33. St. Louis Rams: Rodger Saffold- offensive tackle, Indiana
34. Minnesota Vikings: Chris Cook- cornerback, Virginia
35. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Brian Price- defensive tackle, UCLA
36. Kansas City Chiefs: Dexter McCluster- running back, Mississippi
37. Philadelphia Eagles: Nate Allen- safety, South Florida
38. Cleveland Browns: T.J. Ward- safety, Oregon
39. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Arrelious Benn- wide receiver, Illinois
40. Miami Dolphins: Koa Misi- linebacker, Utah
41. Buffalo Bills: Torell Troup- defensive tackle, Central Florida
42. New England Patriots: Rob Gronkowski- tight end, Arizona
43. Baltimore Ravens: Sergio Kindle- linebacker, Texas
44. Oakland Raiders: Lamarr Houston- defensive tackle, Texas
45. Denver Broncos: Zane Beadles- offensive guard, Utah
46. New York Giants: Linval Joseph- defensive tackle, East Carolina
47. Arizona Cardinals: Daryl Washington- linebacker, TCU
48. Carolina Panthers: Jimmy Clausen- quarterback, Notre Dame
49. San Francisco 49ers: Taylor Mays- safety, USC
50. Kansas City Chiefs: Javier Arenas- cornerback, Alabama
51. Minnesota Vikings: Toby Gerhart- running back, Stanford
52. Pittsburgh Steelers: Jason Worilds- linebacker, Virginia Tech
53. New England Patriots: Jermaine Cunningham- linebacker, Florida
54. Cincinnati Bengals: Carlos Dunlap- defensive end, Florida
55. Dallas Cowboys: Sean Lee- linebacker, Penn State
56. Green Bay Packers: Michael Neal- defensive tackle, Purdue
57. Baltimore Ravens: Terrence Cody- defensive tackle, Alabama
58. Houston Texans: Ben Tate- running back, Auburn
59. Cleveland Browns: Montario Hardesty- running back, Tennessee
60. Seattle Seahawks: Golden Tate- wide receiver, Notre Dame
61. New York Jets: Vladimir Ducasse- offensive guard, UMass
62. New England Patriots: Brandon Spikes- linebacker, Florida
63. Indianapolis Colts: Patrick Angerer- linebacker, Iowa
64. New Orleans Saints: Charles Brown- offensive tackle, USC

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

The NFL Draft’s first round wrapped up pretty quickly. Teams knew who they wanted but more so who they didn’t want. Tim Tebow celebrated at his home in Florida as he put on a Denver Broncos cap after being taken with the twenty-fifth pick.He said what many were thinking when he told Jeremy Schaap of ESPN that the Broncos knew that by picking him they were getting a guy who won’t get in trouble.

The word “character” was thrown around all night just as it has been for the entire episode involving Ben Roethlisberger. The media or perhaps the NFL began using character a few years back as a euphemism for words like, good behavior, discipline, lack of ego and law abiding citizen.

Despite being a first round pick in mock drafts from the likes of Mel Kiper and Mike Mayock, Jimmy Clausen was left sitting in his home in California without a phone call from any NFL team.

Generally acknowledged as the easiest of the available quarterbacks to fit into an NFL offense, Clausen had trouble with one of the meanings behind the use of the word character.

He is called arrogant and cocky. He admitted this week on the Dan Patrick radio program that he was asked about that on interviews with teams that showed interest in him.

His answer to the question was to send the clubs to his coaches and teammates, leaving draft watchers to wonder if those worries were being confirmed as Clausen went undrafted in round one.

Character is in the eye of the beholder of course and just to prove that point, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys gleefully plucked wide receiver Dez Bryant out of the pile.
Bryant was considered worthy of the #4 pick by Kiper and #11 by Mayock but came perilously close to being left out of the fun.

Jones, known as a guy who loves turnaround projects, (TO, Tank Johnson, Adam Jones) saw the glass half full when it came to the subject of Bryant.
Rather than seeing his run-in with the NCAA as a reason to ignore his obvious talents, Jones traded up to get him at #24. You think he had Deion Sanders whispering encouragement in his ear?

The Cowboys gave New England their third round pick at #90 in exchange for a chance to get Bryant and the Pats fourth round pick. But without the intervention from Jones, Bryant would be sitting in the same spot as Clausen.

It used to be that legal trouble, drug use or team suspensions were the hot buttons for NFL draft experts. Not any longer. If you’ve got an iffy personality or one that can’t be deciphered and considered manageable you better prepare yourself for getting overlooked. Rounds two and three kick off tonight at 6 pm EDT.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™