CHICAGO (AP) — 7:22 p.m. (8:22 p.m. EDT)
Marcus Mariota can bring his lei to Music City, y’all.
Mariota, who wore the flowers while watching the draft from home in Hawaii, is bound for the Tennessee Titans, who used the second pick on the Heisman winner.
Tennessee used all but about 60 seconds of its 10-minute time allotment before sending the pick in to NFL executives.
Most people thought the Titans were open to a trade, but it didn’t come about.
Mariota and Jameis Winston are the sixth pair of QBs to go 1-2 in the draft since 1967, joining the likes of Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning (1971), Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf (1998) and Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III (2012).
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7:11 p.m. (8:11 p.m. EDT)
Whew. The wait is finally over. Thank goodness. Now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get to stress out for the next three or four years to see what really comes of the first pick of the NFL draft — quarterback Jameis Winston of Florida State.
The Bucs put an end to months of speculation by selecting the talented-but-troubled signal caller, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2013.
Winston was not present in Chicago, choosing to watch the draft at home in Alabama.
(Oh, and Commissioner Roger Goodell got booed again when he came out to announce the pick.)
Winston apparently did enough to convince the owners of the first pick that he’s worth the risk.
He’s the first QB to be selected first since Andrew Luck in 2012. Winston is also the first player from Florida State, which produces gobs of NFL talent, to be picked first in the draft.
Tennessee is on the clock.
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7:03 p.m. (8:03 p.m. EDT)
New York. Chicago. Some things just won’t change.
Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking at Grant Park in Chicago, gets booed heartily inside the auditorium while video of him officially opening the draft is played inside the auditorium.
Tampa Bay is on the clock.
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6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. EDT)
Some news in the lead-up to the NFL draft, which starts in about a half-hour:
—The league denies a request from LSU offensive lineman La’el Collins to pull his name out of the draft and be placed in the supplemental draft later this year. Police want to talk to Collins, a projected first-round pick, about the slaying of his ex-girlfriend. He is not considered a suspect.
—The Titans, who hold the second pick, will entertain offers for that pick but those offers probably won’t be coming from the Chargers. A report out of San Diego says quarterback Philip Rivers, in search of a contract extension, has been told he won’t be traded.
—The Randy Gregory watch is on. The Nebraska pass rusher’s stock has taken a hit since news hit that he tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine. Gregory was thought to be a top-10 pick, though some reports today speculate he has fallen completely off several teams’ draft boards.
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5:56 p.m. (6:56 p.m. EDT)
Are these clues? Or is he just trying to drive all those 12th men crazy?
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is trying to generate some buzz over Seattle’s draft, even though the Seahawks don’t (currently) have a pick until the end of the second round – a selection that won’t be made until tomorrow night.
Carroll is tweeting out #SeahawksDraftClues that, so far, involve a few skits from comedian Dave Chappelle’s old — and very funny — TV show.
The draft starts in about an hour. The Auditorium Building at Roosevelt University in Chicago is starting to fill up.
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3:51 p.m. (4:51 EDT)
Let’s boil it down to the basics: A group of executives at 32 multimillion-dollar companies are about to spend several of those millions, and risk their company’s future, on a 21-year-old college kid.
Welcome to the NFL draft.
Character issues are always on the front burner this time of year — and that’s never more true than tonight, where NFL executives will take all their data and make life-changing decisions about a number of players who are flawed in different ways that have nothing to do with throwing, running or catching.
Scott Minto, director of the San Diego State Sports Business MBA program, says no amount of vetting, psychological profiling and background checking can ensure a team of making the right pick.
“You see these players who have transgressions in their past and how do you decide if this player’s going to be a good employee or not?” Minto asks. “It’s a lot of money to invest into someone who’s 22 or 23 years old.”
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1:05 p.m. (2:05 p.m. EDT)
Well, it’s not exactly March Madness. Then again, it wouldn’t be a true sporting event if you didn’t have a chance to win something based on the outcome, right?
As part of its never-ending and generally successful quest to make every date on its calendar an Event, the NFL has created a contest challenging fans to predict the top 32 picks in this year’s draft. Winner gets an all-expense-paid trip to the season-opening game, Steelers at Patriots, on September 10th.
Much like the gazillions of bracket-filling contests that make the NCAA Tournament what it is, this contest offers chances to form leagues with your buddies, play against strangers and, of course, compete for the grand prize valued at around $4,800. This way, your future and your happiness as an NFL fan can hinge on every pick during tonight’s four-hour extravaganza, not simply the one your favorite team makes.
Need help? Vegas is here for ya. The over-under on Alabama receiver Amari Cooper’s draft position has been set at 4 1/2, per the Bovada website. Bovada has also set 1 1/2 as the over-under for number of running backs — an increasingly unpopular position in NFL-land — to be selected in the first round.
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11:50 a.m. (12:50 p.m. EDT)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on the clock. The Tennessee Titans are under the microscope.
With the hours ticking down until the start of the NFL draft in Chicago, the Bucs will surprise everyone if they don’t use the top pick to take Jameis Winston, the troubled, talented quarterback out of Florida State. That surprise will turn to shock if they pass on both Winston and this year’s other top quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota of Oregon.
What the Titans will do is less certain. The smart money says they’ll take Mariota (or Winston if Tampa Bay unexpectedly passes), but Tennessee likes its current QB, Zach Mettenberger, and if the price is right, the Titans could trade that pick away.
Those potentially in the market for the Heisman winner: San Diego, which can’t get an extension done with Philip Rivers; Philadelphia, whose coach, Chip Kelly, worked with Mariota at Oregon; and, yes, the Cleveland Browns, who have two first-round picks and aren’t quite sure what they’ve got with last year’s glamour pick, quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Only a little more than seven hours to go.
And, by the way, neither Winston nor Mariota will be on hand to shake Commissioner Roger Goodell’s hand after they’re selected. Winston will be watching from Alabama and Mariota is in Hawaii.
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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL
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