FanHouse MarioUrrutia

I know that jockeying for position, strategery, deception, and manipulation are all par for the course in the NFL draft. So it's not exactly a head-turner when one team jumps ahead of another for a player they're both interested in. Three players, however, is a tad more interesting.

The Saints and Bengals both came into the draft with comparable needs, and the two coaching staffs have some sort of friendly bond, pairing together last summer for a couple of training camp scrimmages. But yesterday played out like a consistent bit of dueling, and the Saints won all three times.

The obvious battle was the one for Sedrick Ellis. It was no secret that both teams were gunning for Ellis, and the Saints beat the Bengals to him. The Saints then traded to move up two spots in the fifth and drafted defensive tackle DeMario Pressley right in front of the Bengals, forcing them to draft fellow tackle Jason Shirley, he of alcoholic infamy. Obviously the Bengals got flustered by the Saints thievery and took Shirley because he was the right position, if not the right personality. Finally, the Saints identified a player in the seventh who wouldn't reach them in free agency and traded a '09 pick to grab receiver Adrian Arrington. The next receiver taken? Mario Urrutia from Louisville, just seven picks later by -- you guessed it -- the Bengals.

It just seems a little too coincidental, doesn't it?

A look at the 2007 junior class as players decide whether to enter the 2008 NFL draft.

After a solid 2006, a nagging leg injury limited the production of Louisville wide receiver Mario Urrutia during the 2007 college season. According to Urrutia, that's what made him decide to declare for the NFL draft:

"Unfortunately, with missing time this season and playing injured I got to see football from a different perspective. You only have so much time to play this sport, and the 2008 draft is my opportunity."

I get Urrutia's logic, but I think he has it exactly backward. The fact that he's coming off an injury-plagued 2007 is all the more reason that he should return to school in 2008, prove to NFL scouts what kind of player he can be when healthy, and become a much higher pick in the 2009 NFL draft.

Urrutia has good speed and great size (he's listed at 6-foot-6, 220 pounds), but he hasn't yet shown that he's a complete wide receiver. With some work on route-running, I could see Urrutia being a first-round pick in 2009. As it is, I think he'll be a fourth-round pick in 2008. Unless Urrutia's financial situation is such that $500,000 in 2008 could help his family more than a few million in 2009, he would benefit from another year in college.

See the full list of 2008 NFL draft early entries.

For a conference that was on the verge of losing their BCS status in the court of public opinion at the end of the 2004 season, things have definitely changed in the past couple years. While no one is ready to mention the Big East in the same breath as the SEC, no one is talking about taking away their BCS status either. Thanks in no small part to the emergence of the Louisville and West Virginia programs. Not to mention the season Rutgers put in last year. Actually, if you were a Big East team in a bowl game last year, go ahead and pat yourself on the back for helping the conference to go 5-0.

Great seasons and great teams don't happen without great players. I was thinking about skipping the big names in the conference and going into some of the lesser known players before I wrote this. But after going over some of the numbers, that just wouldn't be right. The Big East has four legitimate Heisman candidates going into this season. Four players that should be on the lips of everyone in the country. Four players on three teams that should all be looking to get into a BCS bowl game if not the title game this year.

Follow me after the jump to take a look at the top five players in the Big East in no particular order that will offend any West Virginia fans