With the 25th pick, the Chargers select Louis Nix, from Notre Dame. And the crowd goes wild.

Anyone else ready for the NFL draft?  Talk about interminable waits.  Let's not do this late date draft again next season, okay Commissioner Goodell?

I thought I'd have to juggle watching Game 1 of the Canadiens-Bruins series with the first round of the draft on Thursday night, I thought the schedule was decided already.  I was wondering how the heck I was going to set my PVR to watch the game plus TSN/ESPN and NFL Network.  Now I don't have to worry, apparently the earliest Game 1 can go is Friday.

As far as the draft itself, as long as the Chargers don't draft a cornerback in the first round, I'll be happy.  I'm having Mossy Cade flashbacks.  It rarely goes well when we pick a cornerback in the first round.  Antoine Cason anyone?  Sammy Davis?  Antonio Cromartie?

Aside from Gil Byrd in 1983 and Quentin Jammer, we come up snake eyes going cornerback early.  If we need DB's, let's find some athletic diamonds in the rough later in the draft this year.

Let's grab a big lineman in the first round to shore up the defensive line instead, that'll help the defensive backfield, hit the proverbial two birds with one stone.  Whatever cast of characters we have back there, missing assignments and whiffing on tackles, if we have a good nose tackle to help out Kendall Reyes and Corey Liuget, if we can cave in the offensive line and stop running backs at the line of scrimmage instead of having them hit third gear running through it, we'll manage.  The defensive backs won't have to cover anyone quite so long, the passes from opposing QB's will be rushed and won't be so accurate, and our DB's won't have to play so close to the line if they're not frantic about stopping the run, if the linemen and linebackers are taking care of that.

So I'm crossing my fingers for a defensive tackle/nose tackle, someone we can slot in for the next ten years.  I have a soft spot for Louis Nix from Notre Dame, love that big boy, and it looks like the other conceivable candidate, Aaron Donald of Pittsburgh, will be long gone by the time our pick comes around.

And it would be great if the Raiders drafted Johnny Manziel and that whole thing imploded over a few seasons, like the JaMarcus Russel saga, that was an entertaining train wreck.