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Answers by John DeMarchi, has answered over 900 NFL questions on Quora and has attended 11 NFL Drafts, on Quora.
A: No. All of them stay back in the team's city in the team's "war room." Usually, the person handing in the card is someone who has been with the organization for a while. It's sort of an honorary thing. Just so people know, the team tells the NFL who it is taking. So a draft card person can't "change the pick" on the way to handing the physical card into the commish. What, you think you'd run something as important as the NFL Draft the way delegates operate at a political convention? This is far too important.
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A: Oh, sooooo many. Any "draft expert" who hasn't had a few colossal misses is a liar.
Vernon Gholston: I absolutely loved him at Ohio State, and thought he would be a monster 4-3 weakside end. He was 266 pounds and ran 4.7 and repped 37 x 225 at the combine; just a rare performance. But he busted, after being taked 6th overall by the Rex Ryan Jets.
David Carr: I thought he was going to be a superstar QB. Then the Texans (who took him #1 overall) put him behind a line that saw him get sacked 76 times as a rookie. He never made it.
JaMarcus Russell: You really have to watch the way he destroyed a good Notre Dame team, 41-14, in his final college game. Then watch him throw a football; he had, arguably, the best arm since Elway-Favre-George.
Tim Couch: Not so much his fault, but he never got untracked on terrible Cleveland teams.
Trent Richardson: I remember when HOFer Jim Brown called him an average back, right after he was the third pick in the entire draft. Jim Brown was right.
I liked LB Aaron Curry (4th overall) in 2009; Glenn Dorsey (5th overall) in 2008; I could go for a while here.
Humility is a key thing in following the draft.
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A: Absolutely so. The long-term liabilities for the league are significant and the "settled" concussion suit may be expanded or thrown out. What's interesting is that we now know CTE comes from concussions, but comes more so from repeated blows to the head. What's unclear is whether colleges and high schools knew this (or helmet manufacturers knew this) and if so, what those liabilities might be. What happens when former high school players with CTE start suing their alma mater? We're going to find out over the next decade. Is CTE an existential threat to pro football (and boxing, and contact sports)? It could be.
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