Peter King has spoken his last words before the 2011 NFL Draft via his wisdom-filled column at SI.com. King starts by summarizing the mock drafts of two other media experts, Mike Mayock of NFL Network and Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News. Both Mayock and Gosselin agree on their top seven picks and both have LSU's Patrick Peterson going to the Arizona Cardinals with the fifth pick.
Peterson, in King's world, is the hot commodity of the 2011 NFL Draft. Todd McShay thinks that the Houston Texans are so desperate to get Peterson that the will bribe the Cardinals into trading down. We've previously heard a similar rumor about the Dallas Cowboys.
His highness*, Peter King, isn't so sure that the Texans would be willing to pay the price the Cardinals would likely demand:
I've been told in the past couple of days that Houston GM Rick Smith is loathe to use so much draft currency to move up from 11 to five or seven to get Peterson (it would likely cost him the Texans' second-round pick to do so).
In other King news, he believes Cam Newton will indeed go number one to the Panthers and thinks Blaine Gabbert will be gobbled up by Cincinnati or Arizona. He also thinks there's a chance the Patriots will trade one of their three picks in the top 33 for a 2012 first round. But honestly, who cares.
One thing King is most certain about is the unpredictability of tonight's draft action. We appreciate that honesty but at the same time it makes us wonder why we bother with all these rumors and mock drafts in the first place? The answer, of course, is because you read them.
* No offense intended towards Mr. King. His name is "King" so we feel honor-bound to make at least one bad joke at his expense.