Gunzlingr
04-20-2007, 04:17 PM
OAKLAND--The NFL draft is rapidly approaching, and a handful of teams with top five picks are busy jockeying for position, making deals, and sending out “smokescreens” to obscure their real intentions. The Raiders, owner of the top pick in the draft, will throw up the ultimate smokescreen on draft day when they select kicker Mason Crosby of Colorado University.
A league source with knowledge of the Raiders plans say the idea to draft a kicker came straight from owner Al Davis.
“This is the time of year for smokescreens and trickery and everything else,” said the source. “And the Raiders are really going to befuddle the competition by selecting this Mason Crosby kid with their top pick. It’s an interesting move that’s bound to mess up a lot of team’s plans. Of course the downside is that you’re wasting your top pick on a kicker. But as the Raiders, you have to understand that whatever choice you make is probably going to be wrong, so you might as well make the cheapest one.”
The source speculated that once the Raiders flushed their top pick down the toilet, the rest of the draft would be thrown into a tailspin.
“It’s hard to predict what will happen after number one,” he said. “With Russell available, the Lions might be tempted to take him. Then again, they could take Calvin Johnson or even Joe Thomas. The Bucs have a hard-on for Johnson so they could make a trade with the Lions. The Browns could end up with Russell, Johnson, Thomas, or Brady Quinn, depending on how things unfold. Man, I can just see Al Davis sitting back and laughing at all this confusion. What a wily bastard! The icing on the cake? If anybody wanted Mason Crosby, they’re **** out of luck.”
The Raiders would neither confirm nor deny their intentions for the draft, but the evidence is piling up that they are, indeed, planning to select a kicker. Crosby himself indicated that he spoke on the phone with Al Davis recently and said the conversation was “very cordial” and “very promising.”
More... (http://www.thebrushback.com/smokescreen_full.htm)
A league source with knowledge of the Raiders plans say the idea to draft a kicker came straight from owner Al Davis.
“This is the time of year for smokescreens and trickery and everything else,” said the source. “And the Raiders are really going to befuddle the competition by selecting this Mason Crosby kid with their top pick. It’s an interesting move that’s bound to mess up a lot of team’s plans. Of course the downside is that you’re wasting your top pick on a kicker. But as the Raiders, you have to understand that whatever choice you make is probably going to be wrong, so you might as well make the cheapest one.”
The source speculated that once the Raiders flushed their top pick down the toilet, the rest of the draft would be thrown into a tailspin.
“It’s hard to predict what will happen after number one,” he said. “With Russell available, the Lions might be tempted to take him. Then again, they could take Calvin Johnson or even Joe Thomas. The Bucs have a hard-on for Johnson so they could make a trade with the Lions. The Browns could end up with Russell, Johnson, Thomas, or Brady Quinn, depending on how things unfold. Man, I can just see Al Davis sitting back and laughing at all this confusion. What a wily bastard! The icing on the cake? If anybody wanted Mason Crosby, they’re **** out of luck.”
The Raiders would neither confirm nor deny their intentions for the draft, but the evidence is piling up that they are, indeed, planning to select a kicker. Crosby himself indicated that he spoke on the phone with Al Davis recently and said the conversation was “very cordial” and “very promising.”
More... (http://www.thebrushback.com/smokescreen_full.htm)