It’s Draft Day! The Storylines and Potential Surprises to Watch For

The increasingly descriptive tale of Daniel Snyder’s reported power play in Washington, which has staffers and personnel types alike fairly unsure what they’re going to do in the draft, illustrates either how far a team is willing to go to make you think they’ll do something heading into night one, or how disruptive the process gets when owners finally get involved.

Imagine leapfrogging the guy who sent his entire staff home after 200-plus grueling days on the road because he doesn’t trust them as the biggest organizational wild card heading into draft day. It takes some skill. And yet, here we are wondering if Snyder is going to pull an RGIII on everyone, and deal way up into the first round, possibly for a quarterback whom no one else thinks is going to go that high.

The point is that a lot can happen tonight, and some weird stuff probably will. Kyler Murray might not go No. 1, and could ultimately end up playing for the Athletics. The Bills could trade LeSean McCoy. Jon Gruden could use his three first-round picks on tight ends.

In that spirit, I polled our hard-working staff, who, along with yours truly, have been churning out a steady stream of draft content, for their opinion on what the most surprising moment of the draft might be tonight.

Here were the responses:

Jenny Vrentas, Senior Writer: *thinking face emoji* Oakland takes a quarterback?

Kalyn Kahler, Staff Writer (via text): Hmmm … Roger Goodell is booed moderately less than usual … Kyler goes undrafted… jk jk … Raiders take a QB … or Raiders don’t make a surprising pick like they have been hyped to do … or if the Packers take a QB, that would be my all time fav thing to happen.

Gary Gramling, Senior Editor: Actual surprise: Raiders take a defensive player (let’s say Josh Allen) at 4, then come back into the top 10 in exchange for their other two first-rounders to take Dwayne Haskins. Also, NFL and NFLPA announce that all draftees will now be unpaid interns for the first five seasons of their careers, which the union agreed to in exchange for a four-minute reduction in mandatory offseason work (and because that greedy Johnny Manziel didn’t live up to his contract so now no one gets one).

Jonathan Jones, Staff Writer: Oakland bottles 24 and 27 to trade up into the top 12 to get two blue-chip players.

Conor Orr, Staff Writer: I think that there will be a receiver people don’t expect taken at the end of the first round. My guesses: Either Terry McLaurin out of Ohio State, or JJ Arcega-Whiteside from Stanford.

Andy Benoit also responded to our poll and said something about Brett Favre coming out of retirement, setting off a chain of events that results in the Vikings drafting Greedy Williams. What a goofball.

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HOT READS

NOW ON THE MMQB: Albert Breer’s pre-draft notes column: What’s happening, who is moving around and who will go at the top of round 1? … The nine myths you’ll hear on night one of the NFL draft … Vrentas live in Nashville, talking to all the major prospects who showed up on Wednesday … Kahler on how prospects increasingly are scrubbing their social media histories.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: A cool idea from our editors to create the Mega Mock, combining all of our mock drafts into one easy-to-read list … How agents are cleaning up the social media messes created by their clients pre-draft … The pre-draft information trade is wild, and involves all of us  … Michael Rosenberg on the first-round bust who’s happy he busted.

WHAT’S ON TAP TODAY AND TONIGHT AT THE MMBQ: One last mock draft ... Breer checks in late afternoon with what he’s hearing ... The MMQB’s pick-by-pick draft tracker ... Vrentas live from Nashville on the night’s big stories ... Benoit’s draft grades ... and much more. Check back throughout the day and during the draft.

THE SI NFL DRAFT SHOW: Tonight from 7:30 pm. EST—live draft analysis from Albert Breer, Jonathan Jones, Andrew Perloff, Andy Staples and Pro Football Focus, plus fun stuff from Charlotte Wilder and Jessica Smetana. Streaming on SI.com, Facebook, YouTube and Periscope.  

PRESS COVERAGE

1. No charges have been filed against Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill in a case involving injuries to his three year old child.

2. Looking at Demaryius Thomas’ prospects as a Patriot.

3. A final mock draft from The General in Houston has the Texans leaning cornerback.

4. A final mock from plugged-in NFL Network scout Daniel Jeremiah has Murray still going No. 1, and Washington getting Haskins at 15.

5. Does Jerry Tillery love football? He sure thinks so.

THE KICKER

It’s finally here. Thank the lord. See you all in about nine months when we start prodding accomplished collegiate kids again for things they can’t control.

Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com.