Pretty quiet on NFL draft front … With just over a week to go until the start of the 2015 draft, its pretty quiet around the NFL as teams hunker down in their war rooms putting the final touches on their draft boards. The big mystery which may not be answered until around 8:15 PM ET on April 30th is whether any team trades up into the top 5 or so picks to acquire Oregon QB Marcus Mariota with Cleveland, which has two picks in the opening round including the 12th and 19th selections, one of the leading possibilities for a move up. And while Browns’ head coach Mike Pettine appears to have fielded more questions about Johnny Manziel’s immediate football future at his pre-draft presser yesterday, he didn’t throw any cold water on the notion that the Browns might move up when he answered simply ‘Sure, why not!’ when asked whether the Browns were still open to trading up for Mariota. The implication from Pettine, though, was that nothing was likely to happen until teams actually get on the clock next week. Stay tuned. And speaking of Manziel, here’s nice piece on how teams try and evaluate player’s real passion for the game in their pre-draft evaluations. Meanwhile, no position appears to draw more diverse reactions from pro scouts this year that the offensive line and the Florida Times-Union has a piece on the some of the questions along the offensive line this year.
