Not even Eric Berry knows where he'll be going in tonight's NFL Draft at 7:30 EST on ESPN. He said he's been hearing a lot of different things from general managers, and that they're asking him not to talk about what they're saying.
Here's what we do know: Berry's probably going to go somewhere in the top ten picks. Dave Hooker breaks down the teams most likely to pick Berry and what about their situations make it likely or not. The most common scenarios are Tampa Bay at #3, Kansas City at #5, Seattle at #6, and Cleveland at #7.
Honestly, Berry should go in the top three except for his one weakness: his position. Historically, safeties haven't been valued very much by NFL teams, which tend to pick quarterbacks, defensive ends, offensive tackles, cornerbacks, defensive tackles, and linebackers ahead of safeties, all else being equal.
But all else is not equal when it comes to Berry. He's nearly perfect, and he could, with the groundwork set by Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu and the Ravens' Ed Reed, change the perception of the position forever by being picked "too high" and then being worth every single shiny penny.
Former Tennessee defensive tackle Dan Williams will join Berry live at the draft tonight, and has been climbing the mock drafts so fast that his name is rivaling Berry's. His most likely scenarios include Kansas City at #5, Cleveland at #7, Oakland at #8, Buffalo at #9, and Miami at #12.
Other Vols figure in to this year's draft as well. If you reviewed all of the mock drafts and the opinions of the pundits, you'd find that Jonathan Crompton could be worth scores of millions tomorrow morning or consigned to a long, slow death by cubicle by Monday morning. Sporting News lists him at the second-best quarterback, between Sam Bradford and Jimmy Clausen, and, on the other end of the spectrum, SI.com's Stewart Mandel is in pre-bewilderment mode over the prospect of any NFL team drafting Crompton.
Montario Hardesty and Chris Scott have also been identified as probable late-round draft picks. Rico McCoy, Dennis Rogan, Jacques McClendon, and Vladimir Richard are likely post-draft, free-agent signees.