NFL Draft Shaping Up to Be Wacky Event

NEW YORK (AP) _ Eli Manning doesn't want to play in San Diego. The Cleveland Browns could make that moot by allowing the Chargers to get out of the top spot. <br><br>Just more intrigue in the 2004

Friday, April 23rd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Eli Manning doesn't want to play in San Diego. The Cleveland Browns could make that moot by allowing the Chargers to get out of the top spot.

Just more intrigue in the 2004 NFL draft, one of the more interesting of recent years. It already has involved the U.S. Supreme Court, which on Thursday declined to allow Maurice Clarett and Mike Williams in.

Cleveland, which desperately wants offensive tackle Robert Gallery of Iowa, was talking to the Chargers on Thursday about moving up from seventh to take the first pick in Saturday's draft. That would leave Manning for Oakland, which picks second, or the New York Giants, who have the fourth pick.

Manning was in New York with his star quarterback brother and father on Thursday. He confirmed that he'd prefer to be chosen by a team other than the Chargers. He didn't say he wanted that team to be the Giants, but that seemed to be the consensus among general managers, scouts and several agents.

Eli's father, Archie, said Eli's desire not to play for the Chargers was communicated to San Diego general manager A.J. Smith by Tom Condon, agent for both Eli and brother Peyton, the NFL's co-MVP last season. Archie's experience had to play a part _ he was the second overall pick in the 1971 draft and was forced to spend nearly his entire career with the dismal New Orleans Saints.

``It was a family decision that we preferred that the Chargers not take Eli,'' Archie said, acknowledging that the squeaky clean Manning family image could be tarnished in the process.

``I'm going to get hammered and I'm sure Eli will,'' he said.

The Mannings wouldn't be the first family with a potential franchise quarterback to decline to be drafted with the first pick.

In 1983, John Elway announced before the draft that he would not play for Baltimore, which had the first choice. He subsequently was drafted by the Colts, who had worked out a deal with Denver and traded him there.

Elway, whose father was a football coach, had the added option of playing baseball _ he spent a year in the New York Yankees farm system.

In a strange coincidence, the rookie general manager of the Colts that year was Ernie Accorsi, now GM of the Giants, with whom Eli could end up. After drafting him, the Colts traded Elway to Denver for offensive lineman Chris Hinton, the Broncos' choice with the fourth overall pick, plus a first-round pick in 1984 and quarterback Mark Herrmann.

Elway ended up in the Hall of Fame. Hinton was a perennial Pro Bowl selection, but as a lineman, never had the same impact.

``That baseball career was a real threat, at least to play a year and to go back into the draft,'' Accorsi said last week. ``I got tremendous pressure from everyone in this league, including the league office, to trade him, to keep him in football.''

Just more developments in what truly is a wacky draft.

In most years, the first half-dozen or so picks are pretty well set the week before the draft. And, a quarterback with Manning's accomplishments at Mississippi and a family pedigree normally is a no-brainer as the first pick, as his brother was in 1998 by the Colts.

But this is an unusually deep draft with as many as a dozen players who could have an impact on NFL teams for a decade. San Diego, for example, would be willing to drop to seventh because it thinks it could use that pick to get North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers, perhaps the fastest-rising player in the draft.

The Browns would probably have to give up next year's No. 1 and possibly unhappy wide receiver Dennis Northcutt.

Manning, meanwhile, could be taken second overall by Oakland or fourth by the Giants. Arizona, which has the third pick, seems the only predictable team. The Cardinals almost surely will take wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald of Pitt, who was a ball boy for coach Dennis Green when he was the coach at Minnesota.

Beyond that?

``My 30 years of doing this have convinced me that anything is possible in the process,'' says Leigh Steinberg, the agent for Ben Roethlisberger, the quarterback from Miami of Ohio who could go anywhere from fourth to the Giants to 13th to Buffalo.

Manning, Gallery and Fitzgerald have been considered the class of this draft, with Roethlisberger and Rivers also prime catches.

But there plenty of potential stars, especially at wide receiver, where the depth extends well into the second round.

In fact, there are perhaps 45 players rated high enough to be first-round choices in years with less talent. Three others could be the first pick overall in other seasons: wide receiver Roy Williams of Texas, and tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. and safety Sean Taylor, both of Miami.

Williams is considered by some teams to be as good or better than Fitzgerald and could be chosen second by the Raiders _ if they pass on Manning and can't entice the Giants to move up. New York now seems content to sit at No. 4.

Winslow and Taylor could go in the top six.

They aren't No. 1 material, only because most teams don't think a tight end or safety is worthy of that high a pick. They are expected to be the first two of a record six players from Miami chosen in the first round _ the others are defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, guard Vernon Carey and linebackers Jonathan Vilma and D.J. Williams.