It's Pro Day at North Dakota State on Thursday, which means that Bison quarterback Carson Wentz will be putting on a show for NFL scouts and the media. It's a big enough deal that the NFL Network is planning live coverage from Fargo starting at 9 a.m.
Some experts have Wentz being the second player taken overall, which would send him to Cleveland and the vacancy opened up by the spectacular failure of Johnny Manziel.
But there are those who love the Bison who want Wentz to go someplace else -- anyplace else -- ostensibly for his own good. Fargo talk-show host and newspaper columnist Mike McFeely explained on his blog why going anywhere but Cleveland is better in theory than reality.
Fans, McFeely wrote, want Wentz "to go to a solid franchise that has a chance to win, not a franchise that drafted Johnny Manziel and has made one playoff appearance since the mid-1990s. That's the North Dakota Way: Hoping for the best for somebody else (who won a lot of games and two national championships at your favorite college)."
But it's about the money, Or, as McFeely said: "The more Wentz drops in the draft, the more money it costs him."
He used the 2015 draft as an example, pointing out that Marcus Mariota, the No. 2 overall pick, signed for four years and $24.2 million in guaranteed money, including a $15.9 million bonus.
He cited two other examples: The No. 7 overall pick, Kevin White, went to the Bears and got $16.56 million, including a $10.3 million bonus. At No. 15, Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon got $10.67 million with a $6 million bonus from San Diego.
Here's the complete list of 2015 first-round contacts from spotrac.com.
