FanHouse Mel Kiper

Although ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper and NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock always say nice, pleasant, cordial things about each other, they have an undeniable rivalry. And Kiper took a bit of a swipe at Mayock on Friday morning.

At this time last week, the Raiders made a decision to draft Maryland wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh pick of the NFL draft.

Every draft expert including Mel Kiper, Bozo the Clown, Ralph from Brooklyn, Steve from Fort Lauderdale and Carl from Chicago thought it was dumb. There's this belief that Al Davis, the man who runs the Raiders, shouldn't be doing this anymore. Some call Davis "Crazy Al" for all the bad decisions he's made.

If you look across the league there are owners and general managers making poor decisions all the time.

Everyone watching the NFL draft was shocked when the Oakland Raiders selected Ohio safety Michael Mitchell in the second round, a pick that prompted Mel Kiper, Mike Mayock and their ilk to bash the Raiders for wasting a pick on a player who would have been available later in the draft. But now there's talk that Mitchell wasn't going to be available much longer at all.

As happens on the last Saturday in April every year, I spent the day on my couch watching Roger Goodell and Ray Anderson read names off a card. The NFL Draft is the biggest event of the football offseason, even though it involves a bunch of guys in suits sitting around a set telling us about players who won't see the field for another four months.

The spectacle has gotten so big it gets wall-to-wall coverage on two networks. I'm partial to the NFL Network over ESPN because I have a crush on Mike Mayock, and because I couldn't stand the awkwardness of a Mel Kiper-Todd McShay slap fight.

Kyle Orton doesn't have Jay Cutler's franchise quarterback pedigree. He was taken in the fourth round of the 2005 draft, two years after the Bears had invested a first-round pick in Rex Grossman. And, from the beginning, his role was clear: a raw, strong-armed talent, who would spend the first few seasons on the bench learning the nuances of what it means to be an NFL quarterback.

That lasted up till the moment Grossman broke his ankle in a 2005 preseason game. At the time, head coach Lovie Smith told the AP that "I don't know exactly who there is out there but we like the guys we have right now ... Chad Hutchinson is a good player, we feel comfortable starting him, and Kyle Orton continues to shine as far as we're concerned."

It seems Mel Kiper can't open his mouth without upsetting someone. First, he went off on ESPN colleague Todd McShay (wait, what?), and now he's drawn the ire of the Dolphins' wide receivers after dismissing the group that has played together since 2008.

Brandon London, a former Giants practice-squadder and part-time model before coming to Miami, was especially bothered by the comments, and took it upon himself to share Kiper's message of hate* with his teammates in an effort to motivate them.

Maybe drafting Matthew Stafford would be a total success for Detroit. Maybe it would be an unmitigated disaster. There's just no way to know for sure how things will work out. It's a total crapshoot -- so the Lions should put the dice down, pick their money up and cash in whatever chips they hold in exchange for Denver quarterback Jay Cutler.

An interesting out-of-nowhere storyline this NFL offseason has been the drama surrounding the Denver Broncos and their quarterback situation. Just a quick rehash: Apparently the Broncos had discussions about trading Jay Cutler and nabbing Matt Cassel as his replacement. In the aftermath, Cutler's been publicly whining about the potential move. My personal opinion is that Cutler needs to just shut up and turn the page.

Mel Kiper, ESPN's long-time draft "guru" -- in quotes because he misses badly as much as he hits -- definitely agrees with me. He also thinks Cassel is better than Cutler, but that's not why we're here. He seems to have way too much personal disdain built up toward Cutler.

Depending on who you ask, Matt Cassel is either a franchise quarterback or just a guy who benefited greatly from playing with Randy Moss and Wes Welker. It's sort of an important question for teams in need of a quarterback, particularly given how much it's going to cost to acquire Cassel.

NFL Films Greg Cosell writes that Cassel is best when the offense is built around his strengths, while ESPN's Mel Kiper declares that he'd take Cassel over Aaron Rodgers or Jay Cutler.

If Ohio State's Malcolm Jenkins had entered last year's NFL draft, he might very well have been the first defensive back off the board, ahead of Leodis McKelvin and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. But Jenkins stayed for his senior season, and even though he played well, he still has a lot to prove over the next few days at the NFL Scouting Combine.