Is Bradford No. 1 or No. 10?
1/12/2009 11:48:10 PM
Dennis Dodd, an excellent reporter and columnist for CBSportsline.com, posted an interesting column Monday night on Sam Bradford.
Dodd caught up with Bob Stoops at the coaches' convention Monday in Nashville, where the OU coach said he knows which way Bradford is leaning in his decision on leaving for the NFL or staying at OU for another season. But a coy Stoops said he's not revealing what he knows.
The more important information in the column was what an OU source told Dodd – the evaluation Bradford got back from the NFL reportedly projected him to be between the No. 10 and No. 20 pick in the first round.
That grossly contradicts all the hype ESPN.com has been pumping out for weeks, stating that Bradford will be the No. 1 overall pick.
It also backs up the claim of former OSU, Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders' coach Pat Jones told me when ESPN.com's experts started trumpeting Bradford as the No. 1 overall pick.
Jones, who shares a radio microphone with me Wednesdays on The Sports Animal (97.1fm) insists all these so-called draft "experts" don't have a clue at this point in the process because the NFL scouts and administration haven't ranked players yet. So they are guessing, going off what they believe is insider information. NFL general managers and scouts always tell lies during the lead up to the draft, never tipping their hand to other teams.
If also explans why Stoops has said he'd personally tell Bradford to go if he's a "top five pick." That tells me Stoops has seen the NFL evaluation and knows Bradford won't be a top five selection.
If Dodd proves to correct -- and he's seldom been wrong in the 25-plus years I've known him – in his report that Bradford is rated no better than No. 10, I'd say OU fans should start to feel better about the currently "Silent Sam" opening up and telling them later this week that he will be back.
And if I were Stoops, I’d get my hands on some of the derisive comments Florida players made about OU's team Sunday at their national title celebration. Those Gator shots at the Sooners should be enough to inspire every one of OU's underclassmen to come back next season in an attempt to finish the job.
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