NFL Draft 2012: News, Notes, Video And More

Browns General Manager Tom Heckert told reporters before the draft that the team feels pretty “confident” picking fourth, which means they probably have a pretty good idea of who they’ll take.

Reporters differ on who the Browns prefer. Richardson comes across as more of a sure thing, but Blackmon could add some much-needed explosion to the Cleveland offense.

But the Patriots’ Twitter account disputed with the report, which came from NFL Network’s Albert Breer. The Pats tweeted: “The Patriots have not spoken w/ Seattle about moving up to the #12 pick.”

Well, then.

The 2012 NFL Draft will take place over three days this year, and everything kicks off on Thursday with the first round from Radio City Music Hall in New York. Teams will have 10 minutes to make their picks on Thursday, so they’ll need an entire night of primetime television just to get through the first round. Things will move a little more quickly on Friday.

Of course, the draft has been broken up this way for television coverage purposes. Thursday’s live draft coverage on television starts at 8 p.m. ET, and you can watch the draft on both ESPN and NFL Network.

SB Nation: You went through the whole process. Exactly how and when does that start? Who’s the first person who legitimately comes up to you and says, “Hey, you’re probably going to the NFL.”

Tim Couch: You know, it started my junior year, and I had a really big sophomore season. Peyton Manning came out, and he was the No. 1 pick, and coming into my junior year I was kind of the favorite to be the Heisman winner, top player in the SEC, all that stuff.

Mike Mayock spent Tuesday night doing mock drafts. Not for publication, not for any other reason than the fact that he’s Mike Mayock, NFL Network’s draft guru. Multiple times in the course of a 10 minute interview with a gaggle of reporters, Mayock referred to making mock drafts last night. While you slept, Mike Mayock made mock drafts ... for the hell of it. Over the course of his draft talk, Mayock returned over and over again to trade talk, sometimes by his own accord, sometimes by a media that salivates at the idea of trading draft picks.

Columnists have pointed to the rookie pay scale again and again in speculating about what could be a busy day of trading on Thursday. Not having to pay a brand new NFL player $50 million in guaranteed money makes a big difference when talking about trading up.

Both players represent positions where Cleveland could use an upgrade. The only question will be which player the Browns feel most improves their team in the short-term and going forward.

For more news and information regarding the Cleveland Browns, head on over to Dawgs by Nature. For lots more on the 2012 NFL Draft, you can check out Mocking the Draft.