FanHouse MichaelCrabtree

It would have been nice if, after the Raiders selected wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh-overall pick in April's draft, the talented but raw Maryland product quietly went about proving his critics wrong.

Instead, he suffered a hamstring injury two weeks after the draft (speed kills, apparently), which made it easy for detractors to point out that Michael Crabtree or Jeremy Maclin -- two receivers everybody but Al Davis had rated higher than Heyward-Bey -- might have been better choices.

Then again, Davis loves the vertical passing game, and to pull it off you need a strong-armed quarterback and a receiver who can blow past defenders. JaMarcus Russell was an obvious choice for the former, and of all the available pass catchers in the 2009 draft, Heyward-Bey made too much sense (at least from Al's perspective) for the latter.

I'm guessing Mike Singletary doesn't have much of a poker face. Of course, he probably doesn't need one, either. He just wills himself good cards, or, worst case, he intimidates his opponents into folding, even with high-percentage hands.

Singletary is an NFL Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champ, and now he's the 49ers head coach. He took over for Mike Nolan last October, and one game into his tenure (a 34-13 loss to the mighty Seahawks), Singletary ordered Vernon Davis to the showers early in the fourth quarter for pouting.

It's May, NFL practices are voluntary, and they mainly consist of 80 or so players running around in shorts and t-shirts trying not to get hurt. Despite barely resembling football, organized team activities (OTAs) are an opportunity for coaches to install new schemes, and new faces to get acclimated to their surroundings.

It's also a chance for veterans to become more comfortable. This assumes the scheme doesn't change every offseason. Which brings us to JaMarcus Russell, the first overall pick in 2007, and currently penciled in as the Raiders starting quarterback.

Darrius Heyward-Bey was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round of the NFL draft for one reason: speed. The former Maryland wideout has tons of it, and while that may not be enough to justify his selection to anyone with a brain most people, it was enough for Al Davis.

Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Heyward-Bey's speed comes with a troublesome side effect: injury. That's right, DHB messed up his hamstring and sat out the final day of minicamp because he was "running too fast."

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

With the 10th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers had the good fortune of having one of the best (if not the best) players fall into their laps.

There are a number of theories as to why Michael Crabtree was still available at the No. 10 spot, ranging from his lack of a 40 time, to the alleged "diva" attitude he displayed in St. Louis and Cleveland during his visits, leading to an hilarious battle of wits between Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach and Browns coach Eric Mangini.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

Earlier this offseason Donovan McNabb said he wanted to see how the Eagles upgraded the roster before he would talk about a contract extension. After last fall, when things got so bad that Andy Reid benched McNabb for Kevin Kolb, it looked as if neither head coach nor starting quarterback would be in Philly another year, much less long term.

The goofy NFL news of the day Saturday was the renaming of the home of the Miami Dolphins after Jimmy Buffett's beer company. "Land Shark Stadium" will be the fifth different name this building has had since it opened in 1987.

The stadium has an interesting history. Its $115 million construction cost was completely privately funded (imagine that!) with the help of season ticket holders who made long-term commitments in exchange for the promise of a state-of-the-art football facility. Joe Robbie, the owner of the Dolphins at the time, envisioned it as a stadium that could host baseball as well as football, and for that reason, the front-row seats are set back further from the sidelines than at traditional NFL venues.

Next February, Super Bowl XLIV will be the fifth Super Bowl this stadium has hosted -- under four of its five different names:

Coming off their sixth consecutive non-playoff season, the Oakland Raiders entered the 2009 NFL draft with a number of holes. With the seventh overall pick, they couldn't have made a bad selection in terms of position. Offensive tackle, wide receiver, defense ... all would have been wise choices.

As it turns out, the Raiders went with a potential playmaking receiver for third year quarterback JaMarcus Russell. In theory, it's a solid move. Too bad they took the wrong receiver.

There are usually a few surprises over the course of the NFL Draft. Maybe I watch too much college football, but I was stunned during the fourth round Sunday.

That was when the Dallas Cowboys selected Texas A&M quarterback Stephen McGee with the 101st overall pick. I understand that college stats don't mean much when it comes to having NFL-caliber talent, but this seemed quite odd to me.

Another NFL draft has come and gone, and it's possible that you spent much of your weekend glued to a television set laughing at the Raiders and screaming for your team to find the next Tom Brady at the bottom of the sixth-round. If you're like me, you live in an area of the country where your only option for draft day coverage is ESPN's wire-to-wire mayhem.

If you happened to miss the draft, or watched it on the NFL Network, here's what you missed.