Google it: Draft's later rounds make difference

It was a slow morning, so why not Google "2008-NFL-mock-draft" and see what pops up?

In a mere .29 seconds, there were 1,390,000 entries to choose from. Mel Kiper Jr. was in there, of course. A guy calling himself "Draft King" jumped out. And we'll assume somewhere in this particular pile were handfuls of teenage authors who had achieved expert draftnik status by Googling "2008-NFL-mock-draft" on Mom and Dad's basement computer.

Time wouldn't permit scanning all 1,390,000 entries, but let's go out on a limb and predict that few if any had a suggestion for whom the Vikings should take with the sixth-round pick they got from Jacksonville for Troy Williamson. Or the seventh-rounder they got from St. Louis for Adam Goldberg.

The bottom of the draft always gets overlooked at this time of year. The Day 2 selections, which this year will include rounds 3-7, are lost in the insane hype surrounding the top of the draft and free agency, which fans don't seem to understand gets weaker every year as teams have more salary cap space to keep players worth keeping.

The Vikings, for example, probably improved themselves by adding free agents Bernard Berrian, Thomas Tapeh and Madieu Williams. But it seems like an awful lot is being made of giving $81 million -- $31 million of it guaranteed -- to three guys with a combined Pro Bowl tally of zero.

Throwing around Zygi Wilf's money is admirable, but Vikings vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman will be far more impressive if he makes the right decisions toward the tail end of the draft, particularly when it comes time to use the pick he shrewdly took from the Jaguars for a receiver who can't catch and would have been released out of utter frustration eventually.

Will Spielman unearth the next Derek Anderson, like the Ravens did in the sixth round in 2005? Or will he do what he did with the Dolphins in 2000 when he passed on Adalius Thomas and Tom Brady to take a guy named Ernest Grant in the sixth round?

Let's just say the pressure is on to find players late in the draft who can contribute and even stand out on game day. After all, the Giants just won a Super Bowl using eight rookie draft picks that were chosen by a then-rookie general manager, Jerry Reese.

"On the back side of your draft, we always talk about, 'This is where we really make our money. We have to get some diamonds out of the rough on the back side,'" Reese said at the scouting combine last month. "And we were able to do that. It's really a testament that there's probably more diamonds in the rough than you would expect."

The Giants didn't make headlines during the 2007 free-agent signing period. And all they've done this year is sign a 32-year-old safety (Sammy Knight), a journeyman linebacker (Danny Clark) and an underachieving backup quarterback (David Carr).

But the Giants are comfortable taking a back seat in free agency. And why not? After all, this is a team that saw something in Western Oregon tight end Kevin Boss in the fifth round and found running back Ahmad Bradshaw five picks from the end of the entire draft.

"If you think you can get the thing done through free agency, you try to get it done," Reese said. "If not, you know you're going to get draft picks."

There's still time to correct that mistake. After all, the Cowboys took receiver Patrick Crayton (50 catches, seven TDs last year) with the 216th pick in 2004. And, better yet, the Saints took receiver Marques Colston (98 catches, 1,202 yards, 11 TDs last year) with the 252nd pick in 2006.

The guess here is Colston was overlooked about 1,390,000 times amid the hype leading up to the 2006 draft.