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Rick Gosselin's NFL draft top 100
Bush remains the No. 1 story



11:56 AM CDT on Friday, April 28, 2006
By RICK GOSSELIN / The Dallas Morning News

RICK GOSSELIN'S NFL DRAFT TOP 100


1-10
No. Player Pos. School
1. Reggie Bush HB Southern California
2. Mario Williams DE North Carolina State
3. A.J. Hawk OLB Ohio State
4. Matt Leinart QB Southern California
Of the three quarterbacks sitting atop this draft board, Leinart is the most ready to play. He started for three seasons at Southern California and played in three national championship games. He threw 1,245 passes, had a Pac-10-record 99 TD passes and won the Heisman, Unitas and Manning awards in his career. "I think I've been prepared the best you can be prepared," Leinart said. He won 37 of his career starts, including two national title games. "I've been a winner my whole career," Leinart said. "I lost two games [in college], both by six points. That's the most important thing – I win ... kind of like the Tom Brady-type. He's a winner."
5. D'Brickashaw Ferguson OT Virginia
6. Vernon Davis TE Maryland
7. Vince Young QB Texas
8. Michael Huff S Texas
9. Jay Cutler QB Vanderbilt
10. Brodrick Bunkley DT Florida State

11-20
No. Player Pos. School
11. Ernie Sims OLB Florida State
12. Haloti Ngata DT Oregon
13. Kamerion Wimbley DE Florida State
14. Antonio Cromartie CB Florida State
15. Chad Greenway OLB Iowa
16. Manny Lawson DE North Carolina State
17. Donte Whitner S Ohio State
18. Bobby Carpenter OLB Ohio State
19. Johnathan Joseph CB South Carolina
The NFL loves Joseph's physical package. He's 5-11, 193 pounds and runs a 4.32 40. But he's flawed. So are the other top cornerbacks in the first round. Antonio Cromartie started only one game in his college career and didn't play in 2005 because of a knee injury. Jimmy Williams is almost too big at 6-2, 213, and his personality rubs NFL types the wrong way. His confidence borders on arrogance. Tye Hill is a shade on the small side at 5-9, and Joseph played only one season of college ball. Yet all four players are listed as the top cornerback on various NFL draft boards.
20. Tye Hill CB Clemson

21-30
No. Player Pos. School
21. Winston Justice OT Southern California
22. Laurence Maroney HB Minnesota
23. Jimmy Williams CB Virginia Tech
24. Nick Mangold C Ohio State
25. DeAngelo Williams HB Memphis
26. Santonio Holmes WR Ohio State
27. Tamba Hali DE Penn State
Understand how the NFL draft works – it's about measurables, not ability. It's about finding players with the ideal height, weight and speed. Hali represents an annual draft-day dilemma. He played himself into the first round last season when he led the Big Ten with 11 sacks. Scouts say he has the fastest first three steps in this draft. But he ran a 4.86 40-yard dash. First-round talent, third-round speed. So where does he get drafted? Not as high as he should. Watch the game tape, not the stopwatch. Hali will be one of the better first-round values.
28. Jason Allen S Tennessee
29. Marcus McNeill OT Auburn
30. LenDale White HB Southern California

31-40
No. Player Pos. School
31. Eric Winston OT Miami
The Miami Hurricanes are no longer No. 1 in the NCAA. They haven't won a national title since 2001. But Miami is still No. 1 in the eyes of the NFL with 21 first-round draft picks in the 2000 decade, 13 more than any other school. The Hurricanes also have a string of 11 years with a first-round draft pick – six years longer than anyone else. You'd have to go back to 1994 to find a draft that didn't include a Hurricane in the first round. Miami has two chances to extend that streak to 12 drafts Saturday: offensive tackle Eric Winston and wide receiver Sinorice Moss. Both hover in the 30-35 range.
32. Joseph Addai HB LSU
33. Chad Jackson WR Florida
34. Marcedes Lewis TE UCLA
35. Sinorice Moss WR Miami
36. DeMeco Ryans OLB Alabama
37. Mathias Kiwanuka DE Boston College
38. Richard Marshall CB Fresno State
39. Roger McIntosh OLB Miami
40. Ashton Youboty CB Ohio State

41-50
No. Player Pos. School
41. Davin Joseph G Oklahoma
42. Kelly Jennings CB Miami
43. D'Qwell Jackson MLB Maryland
44. Greg Jennings WR Western Michigan
45. Daniel Bullocks S Nebraska
46. Cedric Griffin CB Texas
47. Thomas Howard OLB UTEP
Athletically, Howard stacks up with any linebacker on this draft board. He's 6-3, 239 pounds with 4.42 speed. He also has the genes to play the position – his father, Thomas, was a second-round draft pick by Kansas City in 1977 who spent seven seasons with the Chiefs. But the younger Howard didn't play the same caliber of competition that A.J. Hawk, Chad Greenway and Bobby Carpenter played in the Big Ten, so all those linebackers project to be drafted a round ahead of him Saturday. But this is a thin outside linebacker board; only eight figure to be drafted on the first day. So Howard looms as an attractive second-round selection.
48. Chris Chester C Oklahoma
49. Leonard Pope TE Georgia
50. Daryn Colledge OT Boise State

51-60
No. Player Pos. School
51. Taitusi Lutui G Southern California
52. John McCargo DT North Carolina State
53. Danieal Manning CB Abilene Christian
54. Anthony Fasano TE Notre Dame
There could be as many as four tight ends selected in the second round: Marcedes Lewis, Leonard Pope, Anthony Fasano and Joe Klopfenstein. Lewis won the Mackey Award last season as the best tight end in the college game. Klopfenstein is big (6-5, 255) and Pope bigger (6-7, 258). But maybe the most intriguing prospect is Fasano, who left his senior season on the table at Notre Dame to turn pro. He reminds NFL talent evaluators of another Notre Dame tight end – Mark Bavaro. "I pride myself on being an all-around tight end, a tight end who doesn't come off the field in any situation," Fasano said.
55. Darryl Tapp DE Virginia Tech
56. Demetrius Williams WR Oregon
57. Max Jean-Gilles G Georgia
58. Ko Simpson S South Carolina
59. Charles Spencer G Pittsburgh
60. Maurice Drew HB UCLA

61-70
No. Player Pos. School
61. Joe Klopfenstein TE Colorado
62. Brodie Croyle QB Alabama
63. Clint Ingram OLB Oklahoma
64. Derek Hagan WR Arizona State
The second figures to be the "hands" round. If defense pushes offense down the board in the first round as expected, there could be five wide receivers who turn up in the second round along with all those tight ends. Chad Jackson, Sinorice Moss, Greg Jennings, Demetrius Williams and Hagan all figure to go here. Hagan is the Pac-10's all-time leading receiver with 258 catches. Jackson and Moss both have sub-4.40 speed, Jennings was the MAC Offensive Player of the Year and Williams caught 10 touchdowns passes in 2005 for Oregon. All are seniors except Jackson, who gave up his final year at Florida to turn pro.
65. David Pittman CB Northwestern State
66. Maurice Stovall WR Notre Dame
67. Victor Adeyanju DE Indiana
68. Travis Wilson WR Oklahoma
69. Jerious Norwood HB Mississippi State
70. Gabe Watson DT Michigan

71-80
No. Player Pos. School
71. Andrew Whitworth OT LSU
72. Tony Scheffler TE Western Michigan
73. Kyle Williams DT LSU
74. Rashad Butler OT Miami
75. Chris Gocong DE Cal Poly
76. Brian Calhoun HB Wisconsin
There are five running backs at the top of this draft board who could wind up in the first round: Reggie Bush, Laurence Maroney, DeAngelo Williams, LenDale White and Joseph Addai. If you need a runner and don't get one of them, your options are limited in the first day. The last attractive option is Brian Calhoun, the Big Ten's leading rusher. The only knock on him is his size – 5-9, 200 pounds. "I think what sticks out about me is my durability," Calhoun said. "This past year I carried the ball 350-some times, I had one fumble and never missed a game. I played all four downs. That should prove that I'm able to carry the load in the NFL."
77. Jeremy Trueblood OT Boston College
78. Charlie Whitehurst QB Clemson
79. Abdul Hodge MLB Iowa
80. Darnell Bing S Southern California

81-90
No. Player Pos. School
81. Ryan O'Callaghan OT California
82. Calvin Lowry S Penn State
83. Tim Jennings CB Georgia
84. Brandon Williams WR Wisconsin
There is an elite class of return specialists in this draft. There are 20 players on the board who returned both kickoffs and punts in college and 19 of them scored touchdowns. There could be eight to 10 players in this draft who wind up returning kicks in the NFL. The run on return specialists figures to start at the end of the third round and steam into the fourth. Wide receivers Williams, Willie Reid of Florida State, Skyler Green of LSU, Cory Rodgers of TCU and Jeremy Bloom of Colorado plus defensive backs Devin Hester of Miami and Will Blackmon of Boston College all could be a part of that run.
85. Paul McQuistan OT Weber State
86. Kellen Clemens QB Oregon
87. Ryan Cook C New Mexico
88. Jason Hatcher DE Grambling State
89. Parys Haralson DE Tennessee
90. Jason Spitz G Louisville

91-100
No. Player Pos. School
91. Rob Ninkovich DE Purdue
92. David Thomas TE Texas
93. Babatunde Oshinowo DT Stanford
94. Roman Harper S Alabama
The strength of the safety board is in the middle rounds, where there's an abundance of three- and four-year starters plus all-conference picks. Charlie Peprah was a four-year starter at Alabama and Bernard Pollard (Purdue) and Eric Smith (Michigan State) both three-year starters. Harper was All-SEC at Alabama, and other all-conference selections who figure to get drafted in Rounds 3-5 include Greg Blue (Georgia), Darnell Bing (Southern California), Calvin Lowry (Penn State) and Nate Salley (Ohio State) and Anthony Smith (Syracuse). Harper made 300 career tackles for the Crimson Tide.
95. James Anderson OLB Virginia Tech
96. Freddie Keiaho LB San Diego State
97. Anthony Smith S Syracuse
98. Jonathan Scott OT Texas
99. Isaac Sowells OT Indiana
100. Willie Reid KR/WR Florida State