When the Bucs drafted Roy Miller of Texas in the third round, that made defensive tackle the answer for question #8
As in, who knew that the Bucs would draft Josh Freeman, or that the Vikings would tab Percy Harvin, or that Mr. Irrelevant would be a kicker? If you knew, you were well on your way to winning our draft contest…Winners revealed later this week
Mississippi tackle Michael Oher was the 23rd player selected in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He became a Baltimore Raven on Saturday after Baltimore traded up three spots with the New England Patriots to get him. Oher is 6-5 and 309 pounds and was the fifth offensive lineman off the board. When he was presented with his Baltimore hat on the stage at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Oher was wearing a dark suit and a red tie.
That last piece of information – the red tie – might seem like the least important tidbit in the above list. Certainly it is to the Ravens, who are more concerned with how soon Oher can step into their starting lineup at left tackle. However, if you were a participant in the Buccaneers.com "Twenty Questions" contest during the draft, Oher's wardrobe choice might have made the difference between winning and losing.
During draft weekend, Buccaneers.com covered all of the action in its Draft Central section (which you can still review here.) Visitors to the special section, which launched a little over a week before the actual draft, were given an opportunity to compete in a contest that annually draws hundreds of entries and gives away valuable prizes.
As usual, Twenty Questions proved extremely popular. It's a simple game to play – use pull-down boxes to predict the answers to 20 draft-related questions – but not one that's easy to get right. The winner of the 2008 contest correctly predicted 10 of the 20 answers, which ranks as an outstanding score.
How many correct answers will it take to win this year? The results are being tallied now and the best entries will soon be determined. The winners of the contest will be announced early next week here on Buccaneers.com, after they have been notified and sent back a confirmation.
However, if you filled out one of the 823 entries that were submitted to the contest, we can help you figure out how many you got right. Let's take a look at the 20 questions that were featured in the contest and provide the answers.
Oh, but before we do, here's a look at the bounty at stake. Three entrants will receive prizes for their efforts, including two coveted ticket packages:
Grand Prize: Four (4) tickets to the Bucs regular-season game of winner's choice First Runner-Up: Two (2) tickets to the Bucs regular-season game of winner's choice Second Runner-Up: Official Buccaneers merchandise prize package
Here are the 20 questions and what proved to be the correct answers:
1. Who will the Buccaneers draft with their first overall pick?
A: QB Josh Freeman.
Freeman was one of a handful of players, along with Mississippi DT Peria Jerry and Illinois CB Vontae Davis who were commonly matched up with the Buccaneers on mock drafts across the internet, so it's a good bet that a number of Twenty Questions entrants got this one right.
2. Which player will go one pick before the Bucs' pick?
A: DE Larry English
The Buccaneers' 11th-hour trade from pick 19 up to pick 17 might have thrown some contestants off. In its original spot, Tampa Bay was scheduled to pick right after Denver, and most analysts expected the Broncos to go heavy on defense in the first round. Instead, the Bucs move up two spots put them after San Diego's pick…but it was still a defender, albeit one that went much higher than most pundits expected.
3. Which player will go one pick after the Bucs' pick?
A: DE Robert Ayers
And here's the flip side of that trade-up equation. As it turned out, the Broncos were picking one spot after Tampa Bay, and they did indeed go defense. Had the Bucs stayed put, they would have been picking in front of the Detroit Lions, who used their second first-round pick to take TE Brandon Pettigrew.
4. Which team will be the first to trade down?
This one didn't take long to answer, and it basically set up the most dramatic move of the draft. The Cleveland Browns agreed to trade with the New York Jets, allowing the Jets to take USC quarterback Matt Sanchez with the fifth overall pick. Those who filled out their Twenty Questions ballot late might have suspected a move up by the Jets, but there were several possible trade partners and Cleveland was by no means obvious.
5. Which team will be the first to trade up?
A: New York Jets.
See above.
6. To the nearest 10-minute mark, how long will the first round take to complete (in hours and minutes)?
A: 3:20.
The first round started at 4:03 p.m. ET and took, officially, three hours and 23 minutes, which rounds down to 3:20 for our purposes. That's almost an exact match for last year, when the first round took exactly 3:30.
7. How many offensive linemen (tackles, guards AND centers) will be drafted in the first round?
A: 6.
There's a good chance that some of the contest entrants got this one right even though their reasoning was wrong. Many analysts thought that there would be five offensive tackles taken in the first round: Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe, Andre Smith, Michael Oher and Eben Britton. Combine that with one of the more coveted centers – Alex Mack, Eric Wood and Max Unger – and you've got six O-Lineman going in the first stanza. What actually happened was a slip to the second round by Britton, which was balanced by two centers – Mack and Wood – going in the first round.
8. What position will the Bucs draft in the third round?
Your success on this question probably depended upon your prediction for the Bucs' first-round pick. If you guessed that the Bucs would hit the defensive line in the first round, then you might have gone a different direction with the team's second pick. Instead, after tabbing a franchise QB in the opening round, the Bucs addressed their defensive front in Round Three with DT Roy Miller of Texas.
9. When ranked in descending order by most players picked from each college in the 2009 draft, which college will finish third on the list?
A. Ohio State -OR- Oregon State -OR- South Carolina.
You had three chances to get this question right. Southern Cal easily took the top prize in this category by having 11 players drafted. After that, three universities tied for the next three spots, so we will accept any answer. The Buckeyes, Beavers and Gamecocks had seven players drafted each. The contest designer had felt it obvious that USC would have the most players taken and it looked as if Ohio State was a probable call for second, which was why contestants were asked to pick the third team on the list. As it turned out, South Carolina and Oregon State caught the Buckeyes, thus making this answer a little bit easier.
10. Which team will draft Florida WR/RB Percy Harvin?
A: Minnesota.
Harvin was one of the few polarizing figures in this year's draft, given his off-field issues. That didn't stop the Vikings from adding a much-needed playmaker to their offense.
11. Which team will be the first to draft a safety?
A: Detroit.
As is often the case, the safety position was ignored in the first round. It didn't stay out of the spotlight long, however. With the first pick of the second round, the Detroit Lions selected Western Michigan safety Louis Delmas.
12. Other than offensive tackle, which will be the first position to have three players drafted?
A. Defensive end.
We excluded the offensive line position because we felt it was fairly obvious that Monroe and the two Smiths would go on or about the top 10. In fact, three tackles were off the board by pick eight, when the Jaguars landed Virginia's Monroe.
The ends got a boost when the Kansas City Chiefs took LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson third overall, a move that had only begun to show up in draft predictions over the last few days before the weekend. Aaron Maybin (Buffalo, #11) and Brian Orakpo (Washington, #13) made it three and the ends even got a fourth pick – Larry English to San Diego at #16 – before wide receivers got their third with Jeremy Maclin at pick 19.
13. In which round will West Virginia QB/WR Pat White be drafted?
A. 2.
The Dolphins jumped on the versatile White just 12 picks into the second round, with a selection they had gained from the Washington Redskins. As every pundit instantly noted, it seemed like a perfect fit for White, as thoughts of the former Mountaineer running the Dolphins' popular "Wildcat" attack occurred to everyone simultaneously.
14. Who will the Atlanta Falcons select with their first overall pick?
A. DT Peria Jerry.
The Falcons were one of the few teams between picks 17 and 28 who did not trade up or down, staying put and taking the Mississippi defensive tackle.
15. Who will the New Orleans Saints select with their first overall pick?
A. CB Malcolm Jenkins.
There's a chance that a good percentage of the contest entrants will get this one right, as many mock drafters had predicted this exact pick.
16. Without a first-round pick (barring trades), what position will the Carolina Panthers draft with their first overall selection?
A. Defensive end.
Carolina wasn't scheduled to pick until the 59th overall spot, as they had previously traded away their first-round choice. The Panthers did indeed make that 59th pick, using it to nab Troy safety Sherrod Martin. However, Carolina's first pick in the draft came at #43 overall after the Panthers traded away their 2010 first-round choice in order to get the 11th pick in the seventh round. That pick was spent on Florida State defensive end Everette Brown.
17. How many college underclassmen will be selected in the first round of the draft?
A. 15.
That's almost exactly half of the first round, which was not surprising. The very first pick, Georgia QB Matthew Stafford, was an underclassmen, as were selections #5 (QB Mark Sanchez), #6 (T Andre Smith), #7 (WR Darrius Heyward-Bey) and #10 (WR Michael Crabtree). In all 41 underclassmen were drafted over the weekend.
18. What position will "Mr. Irrelevant" play?
A. Kicker/Punter.
Specifically, it was a kicker, South Carolina's Ryan Succop (so that's how the Gamecocks got to seven picks – a kicker!). The only advantage a contest entrant could have had with this question is that the pick was going to belong to Kansas City no matter what. The Chiefs held pick #256 as a compensatory selection, and compensatory picks cannot be traded.
19. Using their last published mock drafts as of noon on Wednesday, April 22, which of the listed analysts will have the most correct predictions in the first round?
A. Don Banks, SI.com -OR- Nolan Nawrocki, Pro Football Weekly.
There wasn't a huge difference between the performances of the various choices on the list, most of them finishing around seven. Banks and Nawrocki got eight right each to take the top spot. In most cases, the correct picks were shared across the board – for instance, most analysts got Stafford and Jason Smith right with the first two picks and a lot of them had B.J. Raji going to Green Bay.
20. And, finally, our annual "just for the fun of it" question: What will be the primary color of the tie worn by the last player drafted from among the nine players invited to draft headquarters in New York?
A. Red.
And that brings us full circle. Oher's classic choice of a red tie surely satisfied any contest entrants who went that safe route…and could possibly make the difference in our final winner. Check back next week for the results.
