Mock Drafts

The season is upon us - the fantasy football season. I'm sure, like me, you're excited and you've prepared by doing lots of mock drafts. How many leagues are you in, and who's on your sleeper list? Wait, before I revert to further adolescent behavior, let me put on my mock Eagles jersey. They don't call it a mock draft for nothing. Come on, Fitz, it's 2010. It's easier to identify those who don't play fantasy football than count those who do. Lots of people are into it now. It's mainstream.

Ed Snider, the chairman of the 76ers, doesn't pay attention to mock drafts, which is why he gave his team a high grade for Thursday's selections. The Sixers took Georgia Tech small forward Thaddeus Young and Colorado State power forward Jason Smith with the 12th and 20th picks (after flip-flopping with Miami for No. 21) in the first round. They got Vanderbilt swingman Derrick Byars and Providence forward-center Herbert Hill in the second with picks 42 and 55. "I'm thrilled with our draft and thought we did extremely well," Snider said yesterday by phone.

Danny Watkins Position: Tackle/Guard College: Baylor Size: 6-foot-3, 310 pounds Hometown: Kelowna, British Columbia The skinny: A former firefighter in Canada, the 26-year-old was rated in many mock drafts as second only to Florida's Mike Pouncey among the available guards. He started 13 games at left tackle last season because of Baylor's need at the position and was named all-Big Twelve by the Associated Press. He played hockey as a youngster but switched to football after going to junior college in California.

PATRICK KANE, Kyle Turris, James vanRiemsdyk. Get used to the names because one of them will be a Flyer by tonight. There is little chance the Flyers would trade down in the draft unless a team is willing to part with a quality, established player who will not only have an immediate impact this season, but for years to come. Just who they pick is going to depend on Chicago. The Blackhawks, as of last word, are still said to be leaning toward Kane, a smallish forward with a lot of skill.

The Chicago Blackhawks are leaning toward keeping the No. 1 pick in tomorrow's NHL draft, general manager Dave Tallon said. He also told reporters that they have narrowed their list to three. Of course, the question is which one of the three - believed to be right winger Patrick Kane, left winger James vanRiemsdyk and center Kyle Turris - will they select. "It's just down to the order," Tallon told the Chicago Tribune. "We'll have them meet with a sports psychologist and decide for sure [tonight]

Position: Shooting guard Age: 22 Height/weight: 6-5, 210 High school: Simon Gratz Relevant stats: Tyndale posted 15.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists. He also shot 48.8 percent from the floor. Breakdown: Few players helped themselves at the predraft camps more than Tyndale, who won the most inspiring player award at Portsmouth . . . He doesn't have a very fluid outside shot, but he is capable of using size and strength to get to the basket . . . Most impressive is his willingness to play strong defense . . . His versatility is what had observers raving about him during workouts.

A sampling of whom several mock drafts have the Eagles selecting with the 24th overall pick: Pete Prisco, CBSSports.com: Devin McCourty, CB, Rutgers Clark Judge, CBSSports.com: Mike Iupati, G/C, Idaho Chad Reuter, CBSSports.com: Kyle Wilson, CB, Boise St. Chris Steuber, Scout.com: Devin McCourty, CB, Rutgers Matt McGuire, Walterfootball.com: Earl Thomas, S, Texas Scott Wright, NFLdraftcountdown.com: Earl Thomas, S, Texas NFLdraftblitz.com: Kyle Wilson, CB, Boise St. Wes Bunting, National Football Post: Everson Griffen, DE, USC Newnfldraft.

There's a chance Temple's Lavoy Allen and Villanova's Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes will be excluded from Thursday's NBA draft. Just don't tell that the former Big Five standouts. All three remain optimistic despite being left off most mock drafts and receiving little to no pre-draft buzz. "The [Charlotte] Bobcats have a couple of first-round picks," said Stokes, a 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard. "They told my agent that they really like me a lot. . . . The Cavs like me. My agent got on the phone with the Nets [June 15]

In 8 short days the future of the 76ers could take a decided turn. Before the NBA draft next Thursday the Sixers could move a player or more and totally revamp their roster, or they could stand pat, make their picks at Nos. 16 and 50, and move from there. Today at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, five more potential draft picks will work out for the team's brass. Scheduled to come in are Markieff Morris, from Kansas, UCLA's Tyler Honeycutt, Eniel Polynice of Seton Hall, Xavier Silas from Northern Illinois and Villanova's Antonio Pena.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Ramone Moore finished third in the Atlantic Ten Conference in scoring this season. The Temple guard was an all-Big Five and all-conference selection, and the fifth-year senior was one rebound shy of a double-double in the recent Reese's college all-star game. But for all his college success, one big question about his future remains: Can he become an NBA-caliber point guard if called upon? That answer might go a long way in determining if he'll find his way onto an NBA roster.

WITH A CHORUS of boos raining down from the Radio City Music Hall crowd, Matt Schucker couldn't help but smirk. Luckily, Schucker, an Eagles fan, had expected this from the Giants-heavy horde, so he gathered himself and announced the Eagles' fourth-round selection of the NFL draft — Georgia cornerback Brandon Boykin. Schucker, 28, who lives in Lexington, Va., but grew up in Lancaster, was the winner of an Eagles Facebook promotion that sent him and three friends to New York City for an all-expenses-paid trip to the draft.

NEW YORK - Andrew Luck knows exactly where he's heading, and so does Robert Griffin III. For the rest of the college stars preparing for the NFL draft Thursday night, the anxiety is building. Nobody is looking forward to the green room at Radio City Music Hall. "It kind of made me a little nervous when we were talking to the commissioner, and he said, 'You'll be back there for an hour, and it'll feel like you've been back there for five days," ' Southern California tackle Matt Kalil said.

  The signature play that defined the senior season of Penn State defensive tackle Devon Still came on a first-down play in Week 2 against Alabama. Tide quarterback A.J. McCarron took the snap, but before he could even hand the ball off to running back Trent Richardson, Still was already 5 yards into the backfield with Richardson easily wrapped up and on the turf. The play opened the eyes of draft analysts across the country and placed Still in a class of defensive linemen expected to be taken in the first round of the NFL draft, which begins at 8 p.m. Thursday.

IT IS NFL draft week and this is an Eagles story that plops Jerry Robinson's name into the first sentence. If you don't know where we're headed, please turn to the features section. You don't belong here. In Philadelphia, some names or phrases serve as shorthand for sore subjects, no explanation required. Joe Carter. Leon Stickle. Chico Ruiz stole home. Moses Malone traded to the Bullets. Von "5 for 1" Hayes. Every NFL draft week, "Jerry Robinson" invariably goes at the end of the sentence that starts, "The Eagles haven't taken a linebacker in the first round since 1979, when they chose . . . " Everyone knows this, bemoans this, laments this.

The Eagles' true feelings about their young defensive backs will be revealed this week. If coach Andy Reid and company believe that safeties Nate Allen and Jaiquawn Jarrett are the real deal, if they believe that either Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie or Curtis Marsh is the long-term answer at cornerback, then the Eagles likely will not take a defensive back in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. General manager Howie Roseman can say that the Eagles will select the best player on their board, and if that happens to be a cornerback or safety for all nine of their picks, then so be it. "I think the most important thing is we want to add competition of good players to our roster, and things will sort themselves out," Roseman said last week when specifically asked about Jarrett's future.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Ramone Moore finished third in the Atlantic Ten Conference in scoring this season. The Temple guard was an all-Big Five and all-conference selection, and the fifth-year senior was one rebound shy of a double-double in the recent Reese's college all-star game. But for all his college success, one big question about his future remains: Can he become an NBA-caliber point guard if called upon? That answer might go a long way in determining if he'll find his way onto an NBA roster.

Dion Waiters decided to play his college basketball at Syracuse when he was in the eighth grade. But after just two years with the Orange, he's heading to the next level. Waiters, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Philadelphia, announced Monday he will sign with an agent and enter the NBA draft in June. "I've decided to pursue my dream of becoming a professional basketball player by entering my name in the NBA draft this spring," he said in a statement released by the university.

Dion Waiters decided to play his college basketball at Syracuse when he was in the eighth grade. But after just two years with the Orange, he's heading to the next level. Waiters, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Philadelphia, announced Monday he will sign with an agent and enter the NBA draft in June. "I've decided to pursue my dream of becoming a professional basketball player by entering my name in the NBA Draft this spring," he said in a statement released by the athletic communications department at Syracuse.

NOW THAT the Eagles have found their 2012 starting middle linebacker, what impact will the acquisition of DeMeco Ryans have on whom they might take in the first round of the draft next month? Before Tuesday's trade, most mock drafts had the Eagles selecting Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly with their first-round pick, the 15th overall. Because of his impressive showing at the scouting combine in Indianapolis last month, Kuechly probably wouldn't have made it to 15, but the thinking was the middle-linebacker-needy Eagles would target him and find a way to move up and get him. Now?

INDIANAPOLIS - Turns out, Vontaze Burfict's assessment of himself jibes perfectly with how a lot of Eagles fans see him. Birds fans - some of them, anyhow - are so tired of undersized, colorless linebacking, that they have latched onto the wild man from Arizona State as exactly what their team needs, a big-hitting, flamboyant, Jeremiah Trotteresque force in the middle. Never mind that draft analysts have pushed Burfict (6-1, 248) well out of the first round, based on a disappointing senior season that included a locker-room fight with a teammate, numerous personal fouls, accusations that he was out of shape, and less difference-making play than his blow-'em-up style might promise.