This year is the 75th NFL Draft.  In conjunction with this anniversary, the NFL is looking to determine the 75 most valuable draft picks of all time.  They've compiled a list of 10 players from every team.  We begin the process of determining the Most Valuable Draft Pick by choosing between pairs of players randomly generated from the list of 320 greats.  After selecting winners of 30 random matchups, fans will begin to build their own Top 10 list.  Fans may continue to vote in order to make changes to their personal Top 10 list as well as the All-Time Top 10 announced at the Draft. Users then may share their lists and their head-to-head winners on Facebook.  Voting begins today at the NFL Draft MVPs section of nfl.com.

The 49ers nominees are:

Charles Haley
Jimmy Johnson
Ronnie Lott
Hugh McElhenny
Joe Montana
Leo Nomellini
Terrell Owens
Jerry Rice
Gene A. Washington
Dave Wilcox

Anybody else you think should have been included in this list?

After the jump I've posted the list of players for every team (I have a feeling Tom Brady ends up fairly high in the rankings)...

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Earlier yesterday, ESPN put together the third version of Mel Kiper's and Todd McShay's mock drafts in a side-by-side post for comparison.  I know some details have floated around in the mock draft FanPosts, but I thought I'd post them here with some of the comments Kiper and McShay had on the picks.  I'll be in transit much of the day so smileyman, Josh Branco, Drew K ,and the rest of the staff will continue to have breaking news for you.  Thanks to them for keeping the site operating in my absence.

Pick #13
Mel Kiper: Joe Haden, CB, Florida

A less-than-great 40 showing in Indy was the first chink in the armor for Haden, but he's still clearly the top cornerback in the draft if you watch the film. If San Francisco opts to let Nate Clements go, Haden would be the perfect pick. Even if it doesn't, Haden has great value.

Todd McShay: Trent Williams, OT, Oklahoma

San Francisco's greatest need is at right tackle, so taking Williams would make sense in terms of both value and need. Williams has the physical tools and toughness to push for immediate playing time on the right side and quickly develop into an effective starter.

Trent Williams appears to be a touch-and-go candidate for the 49ers.  Some folks really like him, others think he's a bust waiting to happen.  There doesn't seem to be much in between there.  KC Joyner over at ESPN Insider is convinced he'll be a bust:

The Football Scientist lab result: Had I not known before watching video of Williams that he was considered a first-round prospect in many circles, it wouldn't have occurred to me to even consider ranking him that high. He might go in the first round because he is a left tackle, but the metrics say he will be a mediocre pro player, and that stamps him with the TFS overhyped label.

I'm sure there are plenty of you that agree with KC.  For both sides, what sticks out to you about Trent Williams?

After the jump we look at the #17 pick and some other potential ideas...

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More photos » Jim Prisching - AP

6 days ago: The Chicago Bears introduced recently signed free agents, from left, running back Chester Taylor, defensive end Julius Peppers, and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna during an NFl football news conference at Halas Hall Friday, March 5, 2010, in Lake Forest, Ill. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

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Every year we have different phases of the off-season and everyone of those phases leads in to the next. These phases all have different impacts on one and other. First phase of the off-season usually kicks off with the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl. Pro Scouts and Pro Coaches watch closely as the college players showcase their skills in these games. Usually, initial evaluations are formed before this by the scouts but it's the first time that the Pro Coaches get the chance to really zero in. Pro teams then start building their boards and watch lists. The next step is the NFL Scouting Combine which took place about two weeks ago. We are now in phase three (free agency) and a lot has already happened. These free agency signings will dictate how certain teams draft and will also undoubtedly shake things up a bit. After the dust settles and a majority of the big moves in free agency have been made, we move forward to the Draft which takes place in April this year.

Some years have more movement than others but we are in an unusual year with all of the Collective Bargaining Agreement stuff going on... or not going on. Either way, usually there is more movement because of the Restricted Free Agent requirements being different.

Today, I wanted to takes some time out to look at some of the bigger signings in free agency and what they mean to the respective teams that have signed them as well as how it affects the draft. After the jump, I will go in to a bit more depth of how the process is unfolding.

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More photos » Michael Conroy - AP

USC's Taylor Mays runs the 40-yard dash at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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Fooch's Note: For all the folks stumbling across our neck of the Internet, if you want to join in the discussion, feel free to sign up -- it's free and we promise no spam!

There was not an astonishing amount of movement on the draft boards this past week, but there was definitely enough to warrant some discussion. The Combine started last week on Thursday and ended yesterday in case you missed it. NFL Network had roughly 10 hours of new coverage each day adding up to near 50 hours of total coverage. Over 300 players took part and were invited that could be playing on Sunday's in the NFL this upcoming season. Most will make it and some will have to settle for being practice squad players initially.

Players such as Tim Tebow and Taylor Mays, who have been talked about to the point of exhaustion, did quite well in the events that they decided to take part in. Many other players that took part in the events went one way or the other in their performances. And some players did well in some events and not so well in others. Bottom line is that a lot of these coaches, and a lot of the scouts that were present during the week of events, will go back and look at the tape again and come to the same conclusions they had pre-combine. Mike Mayock said about 95% of the decision making that will go down in regards to the draft, will be done based off of game tape.

The first day of real action started on Saturday with the Offensive Linemen, Kickers/ Punters, and Tight Ends. Trindon Holliday was the lonesome "special teamer" and did all his drills alone. the 5'5" Running Back from LSU higlighted his day with an official 4.34 40-yard dash time which was very impressive. This specific 40-time created some debate by the end of the events because they ran a simulcast with Holliday and Mays'  official 40-time and Mays actually beat him, but had a lower time with a 4.43. So a lot of folks speculated that something was definitely off with the way the 40-times were being timed. There were official times and unofficial times conflicting with one and other by .10 and more, so it leaves the question of just how seriously can we take these times?

Sunday featured the Quarterbacks, Running Backs, and Wide Receivers. Four of the top quarterbacks entering the draft this coming season did not throw, and one of them decided just to throw to stationary targets. Jimmy Clausen, Sam Bradford, and Colt McCoy did not throw all due to injury while Tim Tebow didn't throw because he is working on his throwing motion to "wow" scouts at his pro day, and Dan LeFevour decided only to throw to still targets because that is what his agent advised him to do. Later on in the day, Clemson track star, slash-wide receiver, Jacoby Ford set the track on fire with his official 4.28 40-yard dash which was the closest of this draft class to Chris Johnson's record setting 4.24 official 40-yard dash time in 2008. Out of the Running Back's, Jahvid Best validated his last name with his official 40-time of 4.35.

Monday was the big showdown of Ndamukong Suh versus Gerald McCoy as the defensive linemen and linebackers took the field of action. While Suh slightly out performed McCoy in almost every category, McCoy had the better 40-time of the two and showed scouts that he is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Suh. There weren't any major milestone's by the linebacking class and the highly sought after Rolando McClain did not participate in the events.

The final day of action showcased the defensive backs. While players like Taylor Mays did what everyone knew he was capable of athletically, other players that had mounds of hype surrounding them all year long like Joe Haden fell flat on his face. Other players like Eric Berry and Earl Thomas held steady with their above average performances. The cap to all of the action was a hilarious 40-yard dash by commentator Rich Eisen. This has become sort of a tradition every year since he did it for the first time when Terrell Davis dared him to do it in 2005... maybe next year, he'll be smart enough to do it in something a little lighter than a $5,000 Prada suit. At least he's getting smarter, he wore track shoes this year. The simulcast with Terrence Cody and Eisen was as comical as it gets.

The purpose and concept of what I wanted to do here with this recap post, is to take a look at the top three players that really may have influenced (for the better) when and where they are drafted come April 22nd. After the jump, at each position, I will list the positions, player names, and their respective combine results.

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One of the more controversial random aspects of the NFL Draft is the trade value chart that floats around.  For every source there are often subtle differences (see Draft Countdown versus ESPN).  However, in general there is a consensus on these picks.

Well, I wanted to point you to a new draft chart someone created over at Big Cat Country, that contains some fairly big revisions.  Why would someone take the time to re-do the draft chart?  As SoCalStites stated:

With changes in the NFL over the last few years, specifically in the rookie salaries and depth of rookie classes, this generic chart has become outdated.
...

In fact, according to the old chart the teams trading up won their trades 7 out of the first 8 times in the draft. This obviously indicates that the higher picks have been devalued in recent years.

In order to revise the chart, he took draft day trades and adjusted the chart values to make various apparently lopsided trades look more even.  The downside to basing these revisions on previous trades is that we cannot get into the heads of the GMs doing the dealing.  There might be financial considerations, particularly for deals involving first round picks.  A team doesn't think the necessary value is there so they don't want to give out the slotted contract value, and thus they give up the pick for less than they might normally do.

Nonetheless, we don't really see many mainstream challenges to the status quo of the trade value chart.  So, even if you disagree with the revisions, at least somebody is trying to shake things up a bit.  Do you agree with the revisions?  If not, what do you see as potential problems with this new chart?

NEW DRAFT TRADE VALUE CHART

Given that tails never fails, I'm guessing either Tennessee chose tails or Carolina chose heads.  Whatever the case, the 49ers second pick will be 17th in the 2010 NFL Draft.

In other results, Jacksonville won the toss between them and Chicago (Denver holds this pick) and Atlanta won versus Houston.  The revised draft order is after the jump.

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More photos » Paul Sakuma - AP

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Over in the draft and FA threads we've had an interesting discussion about the rate of busts in the first round and in particular in the top 10. I thought that was a good question and decided to do some research on it. I wanted to look at the position, the year drafted, the pick and the team to come up with any idea of the success vs failure rates.

The first thing I had to do was come up with some sort of reasonable definition of bust. For me a first round pick should come in and be an almost immediate starter for you. They should also be a long term starter for you--if you have a guy that only plays for one or two seasons for you that's a waste of a pick. I also think that a first round pick should be better than most of the rest of the league. Here's how I decided to grade the players.

Criteria #1--Are they a starter by their 3rd season?
Criteria #2--If they were a starter during their 3rd season are they still a starter during the last year of their original contract? (Generally the 4th or 5th season)
Criteria #3--If they met criteria from #1 and #2 were they in the top 30% at their position?

With the top 30% rule I tried to be as generous as possible. For players with stats (basically everybody but offensive lineman), I used their best year and their best statistical category. For offensive linemen I had to dig a little deeper. Profootballfocus has rankings from 2007 through 2009 so I used those to help determine a player's ranking. For players not in that database I hasd to do some searching to see how they were viewed during their playing days.

One final note--if players left their original team and then turned it on with a new team I still counted them as busts, since they were not successful with the team that drafted them.

I didn't want to overwhelm myself with doing too much research, so I limited myself to players drafted from 2002 through 2009. The reason I did this was because that was the expansion year of the Houston Texans and I wanted to make sure that each team had the same number of years to choose from. That still gives us 256 players to choose from and 8 drafts so I think it's a large enough sample to give us a pretty good idea of where things stand.

I created a spreadsheet to help me sort the data--for those interested you can download it and play around with it or add to it if you would like to.

NFL Draft Spreadsheet

Join me after the jump as I tell you who the best and worst drafting teams in the NFL are (and they're probably not who you think they are).

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The National Invitational Camp is set to take place in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium and college football fans and NFL fans alike are gearing up to watch their favorite players take the field in performances of both physical and mental drills. This process is to help NFL Teams gauge the value of the rookie class that will be entering the NFL in each given year. This event occurs by invitation only. A player must receive and invite to participate. Outside of the Combine certain schools will hold what is called a "Pro day". This is the other event that players will have to showcase their talents. The event will take place February 24th-March 2nd.

Earlier in the week, Fooch wrote two different articles on both the Combine Drills and a list of Pro Days at particular schools and the respective dates attached to them. These are very informative and if you are somewhat unfamiliar with just how everything works, then it's definitely work taking a look. I want to take it just one step further and provide one more link in which Mike Mayock from NFL Network describes each event in depth through video. It is very detailed in how each event can effect a specific position and also very much worth a glance over.

The purpose of the article is to Preview the Combine (which the title obviously states) and to also take a look in to the history of the draft and certain players that it has helped and hurt. After that, I am going to break down the Top 10 players that have alot to gain at the combine and the top 10 players that have a lot to lose at the combine. Unfortunately, some of the players will not be participating in the events. The most notable are potentially the top 4 Quarterbacks (Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, and Jimmy Clausen). All four Quarterbacks will however take part in their respective schools Pro Days.

After the jump, I'll go in to some of the history behind the NFL Scouting Combine and after that provide a short summary of each player that has something to lose and something to gain through the events.

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