For those scoring draft-pick trades at home, here’s the famous Dallas draft-pick value chart.

I think the Vikings can’t draft a QB now. So they have to trade down.

Still, Nick Fairley is available. Their two run-stuffing mainstays will be missing four games (though the Vikes only division game in the first four weeks is Detroit).

The other QB question is: Will Seattle be reaching when No. 25 rolls around?

Jacksonville trades up.

So what do the Vikings do now? This’ll be interesting . . . 

USC’s athletic OL Tyron Smith goes to the Cowboys.

Wise move for San Fran.

And the Titans pick . . .Locker?!? Hmmm . . .

So where does Gabbert go now? Maybe the Vikes do get a QB in round one . . .

Cleveland got the better part of this trade I think, but Jones looks like the real deal.

(Except for the sparkly bow-tie)

More boos for Goodell as he announces the start of the draft, and now boos for Newton going to Carolina. Jimmie Clausen, call your agent.

Folks who follow football may recall that the Vikings need a quarterback.

With Cam Newton unlikely to make it past Carolina (or Buffalo), that presents the men of purple with a problem. No. 12 is too early to take any of the quarterbacks that remain (I’m assuming Gabbert will be gone by then).

Draft expert Mel Kiper has them taking Jake Locker at no. 12. To which most of the contributors to this little confab today would respond, “Wha?” Perhaps it is a bit unkind to say he has the “accuracy of a drunk weatherman” but he certainly does not warrant the No. 12 pick.

So the question is, do the Vikings trade down? Or do they draft a big, bruising offensive tackle with their first rounder? Or a defensive tackle, since it appears both of the Big Williamses will be suspended for the first four games of 2011?

The other option of course, is that they draft a defensive end — Aldon Smith, say. The difficulty there is that such a pick would tip their hand as to how they expect negotiations to go with Ray Edwards, their 2006 fourth-round pick who has emerged as one of the league’s best defensive ends. If the Vikes can’t move down to the lower half of the first, and don’t plan on paying Edwards, expect to see a DT off the board at No. 12.

Boos and the above chant greet Roger Goodell as he takes the podium . . .

For the Cowboys, there’s no need to swing for the fences on offensive stars.

Everyone’s happy with the way Dez Bryant turned out, so now it’s time to focus on defense. The ‘Boys secondary was terrible last year. Prince Amukamara would be my first-round choice, but there’s a chance he’ll be gone by the time Dallas picks at No. 9.

I guess that means we take one of the big offensive tackles available to shore up the O-line.

I’m worried that Jerry’s need for flash combined with the impression that our RB-by-committee isn’t getting it done will result in a reach for Ingram.

We got lucky with a star skill player last year. Can lightning really strike twice?

If the Cowboys can’t get Amukamara in the first round, there’s a possibility they could pick up Aaron Williams in the second. OT and CB would be the ideal takeaway early. If we get Amukamara, we can always pick up an O-lineman in the second.

Detroit fan(s): what say you?

One day after taking to Twitter to announce his “time is up” as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, wide receiver Chad Ochocinco took to the Twittersphere again. Is he lobbying for his next employer?

Ochocinco tweeted a picture of himself, Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and receiver Calvin Johnson on a practice field at Georgia Tech, saying “Training with @bigplaycj and @staff_9, today was Epic, Stafford is awesome.”

Is available here for ESPN Insiders. He’s got Pouncey going to Miami, and somehow (be still my heart) Mark Ingram headed to Big Brother Blue.

For you outsiders, here’s his first round:

1 CAR Cam Newton, QB, Auburn

2 DEN Von Miller, OLB/DE, Texas A&M

3 BUF Marcell Dareus, DT, Alabama

4 CIN A.J. Green, WR, Georgia

5 ARI Aldon Smith, DE/OLB, Missouri

6 CLE Julio Jones, WR, Alabama

7 SF Blaine Gabbert, QB, Missouri

8 TEN Nick Fairley, DT, Auburn

9 DAL J.J. Watt, DE, Wisconsin

10 WAS Robert Quinn, DE/OLB, North Carolina

11 HOU Patrick Peterson, CB, LSU

12 MIN Anthony Castonzo, OT, Boston College

13 DET Tyron Smith, OT, USC

14 STL Corey Liuget, DT, Illinois

15 MIA Mike Pouncey, OG/C, Florida

16 JAC Ryan Kerrigan, DE, Purdue

17 NE Cameron Jordan, DE, California

18 SD Muhammad Wilkerson, DE, Temple

19 NYG Mark Ingram, RB, Alabama (holla!)

20 TB Prince Amukamara, CB, Nebraska

21 KC Nate Solder, OT, Colorado

22 IND Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin

23 PHI Jimmy Smith, CB, Colorado

24 NO Phil Taylor, DT, Baylor

25 SEA Danny Watkins, OG, Baylor

26 BAL Adrian Clayborn, DE, Iowa

27 ATL Da’Quan Bowers, DE, Clemson

28 NE Brooks Reed, DE/OLB, Arizona

29 CHI Derek Sherrod, OT, Mississippi State

30 NYJ Akeem Ayers, OLB, UCLA

31 PIT Cameron Heyward, DE, Ohio State

32 GB Aaron Williams, CB, Texas

With all the buzz over who is in the upcoming NFL draft, no one is talking about who isn’t in the draft that should be. The one name that comes to mind is Andrew Luck, quarterback for Stanford. Our beloved San Francisco 49ers have been “rebuilding” since the days of Steve Young, and could certainly use a quarterback, especially one like Luck.

If Luck were in today’s NFL draft, he could very well have been the top pick. (Sorry, Cam Newton.) We all know Luck opted to play out his senior year at Stanford under the belief that he would be playing for his mentor, Coach Jim Harbaugh. Looks like the 49ers took a page out of their old playbook and recruited yet another Stanford football coach (Hall of Famer Bill Walsh was also a Cardinal coach, you’ll recall).        

If Luck had known Harbaugh was going to turn pro, maybe Luck would have, too. And maybe, just maybe, the two could have reunited wearing 49er red and gold this year.

But what’s done is done. If the NFL doesn’t end up working out for Luck in the future, he will always have his Stanford degree.  

— Cindy Chin is events director at the San Francisco–based Pacific Research Institute. 

“Continuity is vital,” legendary San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh once said during the glory days of the mid-1980s. “So many clubs don’t have continuity; as soon as the team has disappointment the coach is fired or his assistants are changed around and the players have to learn yet another system.”

Truer words have seldom been spoken, especially in the City by the Bay, which has suffered an abject absence of continuity since the Hall-of-Famer Walsh’s championship run.  Of the seven head coaches who have succeeded Walsh since his 1989 retirement, only one — George Seifert — has won the whole enchilada.

Almost as bad: since Canton inductee and Super Bowl champ Steve Young — successor to the incomparable Joe Montana — took his final snap in 1999, no fewer than 11 quarterbacks have called signals for the once-but-no-longer-dominant NFC franchise.  (Anybody remember Tim Rattay or Ken Dorsey?)  And don’t get me started on the parade of offensive coordinators and philosophies that marred the team’s last decade.

So now, as the continuity-challenged Niners ponder the upcoming draft, several key questions linger:

(1) Are the 49ers truly ready to compete, game-in, game-out?

The past several seasons, under former head coaches Mike Nolan and, especially, Mike Singletary, the team has swung wildly from emotional highs to despondent lows. Under the new leadership of the steady (but still fiery) Jim Harbaugh (who, like Walsh, arrived from Stanford), can the Niners sustain and harness their emotional energy and return to the balanced approach that won five Super Bowls and made them the perennial best of the West?

(2) Do they have the on-field leadership to thrive?

The Niners are a talented bunch on both sides of the ball (WR Michael Crabtree and RB Frank Gore stand out on offense, LB Patrick Willis on defense), but can this traditionally offensive-minded team marshal its resources effectively moving downfield? Starting QB Alex Smith has been an on-again, off-again partial success after the team drafted him with its first overall choice in 2005. For now, Harbaugh has expressed his confidence in his signal-caller. But there have been rumblings among Niners Nation that GM Trent Baalke will grab a new quarterback — presumably Mizzou’s Blaine Gabbert — with his first-round pick.

Which leads to . . . 

(3)  . . . who should (and will) the Niners draft?

Indeed, it’s possible the team will select Gabbert at No. 7 (the result of another mediocre season). But more likely, the team will shore up its weaknesses in the defensive backfield by grabbing whichever of the superb corners are still standing, either LSU’s Patrick Peterson or Nebraska’s Prince Amukamara. With the aging, expensive ($7.5 million this season) Nate Clements approaching the end of his career, a shrewd choice will present a strong mentorship possibility.

Still, ultimately, the draft itself won’t matter much if the team can’t right itself from an offensive and coaching standpoint.  In this sense, Smith and Harbaugh alone hold the keys to whether the team will, at long last, attain a modicum of the continuity that marked their championship years.

— Michael M. Rosen is an attorney in San Diego and an occasional NRO contributor.

The Houston Texans will be heading into their ninth season without ever making the playoffs. In what’s become somewhat of a yearly tease for the local fans, they’re frequently picked by experts as being ready to have a breakout season — only to fall short. Houston has posted only one winning record since getting their new expansion franchise. They’ve had a juggernaut passing game for the past few years and finally complemented it with a powerful ground attack last year. Alas, the defense was simply not up to snuff.

Defense, defense, defense. The Houston Texans enter tonight’s draft with huge holes on the defensive side of the ball, as they had one of the league’s most porous pass defenses in 2010. Mario Williams is their only legitimate pass rusher and their secondary was a mess.

Rumors abound that the Texans will try to trade up in the first round to pick one of the draft’s stud defenders, cornerback Patrick Peterson or linebacker Von Miller. With the ongoing lockout, that might be both difficult and unlikely. No matter where they pick, they’re pretty much taking best defender on the board. In their current position (11), it’ll probably be DE Robert Quinn, DE Da’Quan Bowers, CB Prince Amukamara or even DT Nick Fairley heading to Houston. There’s been idle chatter of taking Julio Jones, considered one of the draft’s two can’t-miss WR prospects, if he’s there . . . but that’ll turn out to be just idle chatter.

Outside of the first round, you can expect to see defense all the way (and maybe a fullback to replace their departing All-Pro Vonta Leach). The cows have a young, elite-level offense; It’s their defense that needs improvement to see this team go places.

Anyone who foresees a need to focus on television on Thanksgiving Day in an effort to make the Turkey Spins stop should be interested in the fate of the Detroit Lions, who are probably just a few picks away from being a .500 team (high praise for a franchise just two years removed from an 0-16 campaign.)

The word is that Detroit GM Martin Mayhew is looking for cornerbacks, but at 13 there’s a fat chance the best on the board — LSU’s Patrick Peterson — will still be around. The good news is that Nebraska’s Prince Amukamara just might be, and he is 99.9 percent the player.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Lions most pressing need is to protect their young quarterback. The OT corps in Detroit is either aging, suspect, or both, which is why so many mock drafts have the Lions taking USC’s Tyron Smith. He’s young, just 20 years old, with a solid floor and astronomic upside. A lot of scouts project him as an elite blind-side protector.

The Lions first string ball-carriers are actually pretty good, meaning they’ll probably be looking to draft for depth — a weapon to line up opposite Calvin “Megatron” Johnson and, especially now that Kevin Smith is gone, an insurance policy for Jahvid Best after an iffy (but likely unrepresentative) freshman year. 

QB or not QB? That is the question . . . in Denver.

Josh McDaniels reached for Tim Tebow at No. 25 last year — a pick that, while way too early, made some kind of sense to me. Tebow could buy a house in Colorado Springs, I thought, the Broncos would seal up the evangelical fan base. It fit with the kind of team McDaniels wanted to build. 

Well, John Elway is building the team now. And I suspect he’d like to win more than four football games. And while he says he’s Tim Tebow’s biggest fan, he’s also visited with all the top QB prospects. Tebow is not exactly in the Elway mold, and it’s clear the Hall of Famer would prefer a pocket passer. Does Elway think Tim Tebow can be that guy? We may find out at pick No. 2.

Personally, I think the Broncos have to draft defense in the first even if they think they need a new signal-caller. Elvis Dumervil needs some help. Champ Bailey isn’t getting any younger. Any one of Von Miller, Marcell Dareus, or Patrick Peterson would be acceptable picks at No. 2. But Von Miller looks like the guy.

The Broncos were second-to-last in the league in rushing defense and 25th in passing defense last year. They should add offensive-line help and may add a running back — aside from Knowshon Moreno, the Broncos have has-beens and never-wases like LenDale White, Laurence Maroney, and Corell Buckhalter in their backfield — but I’ll be very surprised if they add a receiver. Defense, defense, defense.

That’s not a typo, folks. This team has no D.

Yes, I know. The Cardinals ranked last in rushing yards and 31st in passing yards last season. They have no offense, either. But they still need to draft defense. They were flat-out awful last year. Like Buffalo Bills bad. They went 1 and 5 in the NFC West. ‘Nuff said.

I know, I know. They have only second-year Fordham alum John Skelton and Browns castoff (!) Derek Anderson at QB. I don’t care. They could have had Red Skelton under center — if your D can’t make some stops, you’re never going to get into an offensive rhythm. 

Obviously, Arizona could use help at QB. I like Skelton, mind you — Go Rams! — but if the Cards don’t sign a veteran or trade for Kevin Kolb, they might as well trade Larry Fitzgerald right now. No rookie is going to step in and be able to overcome this team’s defensive mediocrity — not even in the NFC West.

So they should draft defense in the first. A pass-rusher like Robert Quinn or a line-clogger like Nick Fairley will be there at No. 5. No one would complain if they drafted Patrick Peterson, either, who could easily fall to them. They need big bodies more than they do DBs, but Peterson is the draft’s best player.

And then draft defense in the second and third, too. OK, they need help on the offensive line, too. But this is a bad defense, folks. Have I mentioned that before?

If the Cards sign the aging Matt Hasselbeck rather than trading for Kolb (is there another team that’s been hurt more than the Cards by the uncertainty surrounding the NFL labor dispute?), they might take a QB in this draft. It just can’t be at No. 5 — or whatever later first-round pick they acquire when trading out of the five spot. Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick should be there when the Cards pick fifth in the third. He doesn’t mind playing in the desert.

If Manning is doing this, I have to assume so is just about everyone else in the league:

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning admitted Wednesday that he intentionally tries to underperform on the NFL’s preseason baseline concussion test so he can remain off the injury report if he suffers a head injury during the season.

“They have these new (brain) tests we have to take,” he said. “Before the season, you have to look at 20 pictures and turn the paper over and then try to draw those 20 pictures. And they do it with words, too. Twenty words, you flip it over, and try to write those 20 words.

The four-time league MVP made the revelation in an ESPN.com article when he was asked for his opinion about recent research into the long-term effects of concussions during a joint interview with his father, Archie, and brother, Eli.

As an aside in the ESPN.com article, Archie Manning slapped his forehead in disapproval.

Last week, former NFL safety Matt Bowen also admitted to hiding concussions, responding to a FOXSports.com piece by writing: “Every offseason I would miss questions on the concussion test. Bad move looking back.”

The rest here.

Can you draft a muzzle for the coach? Rex Ryan’s kid-like enthusiasm, his outsize appetites (gastronomic and otherwise) and his world-historic reputation as a blusterer account for why he is beloved by his players and his soundbites are coveted by beat reporters. But in addition to his penchant for funky, eight-in-the-box zone blitzes, Rex seems to have inherited from his father Buddy the ability to rub people the wrong way, from last year’s postseason boasts to claims like this from his new book:

“Some people like to say the Giants are the big brother team and the Jets are the little brother team. … I have news for you: We are the better team. We are the big brother.” …

“When people ask me what it’s like to share New York with the Giants, my response is always I am not sharing it with them – they are sharing it with me. … It seems clear that right now we are the better team and we are going to remain the better team for the next 10 years. Whether you like it or not, those are the facts and that’s what is going to happen.”

Yeeesh. The Jets have, of course, a proud history of bluffing their way toward greatness. But when Joe Namath called Super Bowl III for Gang Green over the heavily favored Colts, his boast was good for one game, not “the next ten 10 years.” Not to mention that Broadway Joe went out and beat Johnny Unitas. Rex hasn’t even won an AFC title.

Is this year’s draft going to change that? Maybe. It’s a defense-heavy class, and that’s where the Jets most pressing needs are, foremost among them an elite edge rusher at defensive end. In the Jets’ 3-4 scheme, D-ends are supposed to both clog the outer lanes and occupy the tackles so that the outside linebackers can swoop in and get the sacks, and generate pass pressure on their own. Most mock drafts have as many as seven DEs going in the first round, so the talent is there. If a guy like Ryan Kerrigan out of Purdue is still around at pick 30 (a big if) he’s an obvious choice: a high-floor end who could be ready to contribute week one, and whose college career included 33 sacks and 14 forced fumbles. Bonus: he could probably play outside linebacker. More realistic is Adrian Clayborn out of Iowa, a guy with big upside who has the talent of a first round pick but who’s rap as a long-term health risk might see him fall into the second round. Could be a steal at 30.

Many analysts are saying the best player who’ll be left when the Jets’ number is called won’t be a defensive end, but a defensive tackle: namely Baylor DT Phil Taylor. If that’s how it shakes out, the Jets could do worse than drafting a twinkle-toed 330-plus-pounder to play the nose. Pouha and Dixon obviously did reasonably well when Kris Jenkins went down several minutes into the regular season last year, but it would be great to get some injury-free young Jenkins clone to clog the middle effectively in 2011.

Without a big nose tackle, the Jets linebacker corps was exposed as mediocre at best, which makes it the obvious group to target when the Jets next pick at 94. There won’t be any superstars there, so it’s a good spot to take a risk. There is of course a case to be made for drafting an LB first, and it has become trendy in the last week or so for analysts to predict the Jets will take the 6′ 4″, 255-pound Akeem Ayers from UCLA. Ayers came up in a 4-3 and is a better fit for the Giants, but he’s probably the second best linebacker in the class, and we tend to look at linebackers as the football equivalent of shortstops: you can’t have a really good team without a really good one. For the last two years, the Jets defense has been deceptive: good, but not as good as its numbers, and often unable to get stops when the game is on the line. And not just scoring stops either: think of how a tier-one OLB with good instincts could have changed the outcome of the clinching third-and-eight play against the Steelers in the AFC championship game.

The Jets’ picks at 126, 161, 194, and 208 should all be fliers on offensive players. They have a good receiving corps, but something is missing: a Chrebet type who has hands of glue and who always knows where the third down marker is (our kingdom for Danny Woodhead!)

At the end of the day, this is a long-winded defense of the Jets front office’s avowed draft strategy: flexibility. When its your turn, you take the best player.