A fan dealing with a top draft pick

Being a fan of an NFL team with a coveted top 10 pick in the draft is agonizing.

For starters, to get that high in the draft order, your team usually has sucked the previous season.

So after sitting through Sunday after Sunday of receivers running bad routes, kickers missing everything, quarterbacks struggling to understand, let alone master an offensive scheme, the fan is faced with the prospect of drafting a guy who is sure to cost the team a bunch of money and could possibly suck worse than the team did the previous year.

So here I sit, waiting for the Redskins to use the fourth pick on a lineman to protect our new, old quarterback.

The first and second picks went pretty much as expected, with St. Louis taking Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and Detroit electing to bring Ndamukong Suh to their own professional football purgatory with the second pick.

Now is when things should get interesting.

7:50 p.m.: Wait, wait, wait. Tampa Bay is on the clock, probably about to take defensive tackle Gerald McCoy from Oklahoma.

I know this because McCoy is laughing, crying, smiling and frowning all at the same time right after getting a phone call. The commish makes it official a few minutes later and thoughts of adopting the name Mel Kiper III.

7:54 p.m.: Now it gets tough. The Redskins are on the clock and one of a few things could happen. If they don't take the guy I want -- Russell Okung -- the club could trade down a few spots (Cleveland?) and hope to still be able to get one of the big fellas to start filling the massive holes on the offensive line.

The other option is Dan Snyder's typical madness and draft day insanity continues. I'm getting that sick feeling listening to Jon Gruden verbally fellate the Skins. Kiss of death.

7:58 p.m.: Welcome to the nation's capitol, Trent Williams.

I'm sure the list of guys referred to by their nicknames by the commish at the podium on draft day is short, but when Goodell said, "With the fourth pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select Trent ‘Silverback' Williams," I got excited.

Anytime you draft a guy nicknamed after an animal that can and will tear your arms off and beat you to death with them to protect a corpse of a quarterback, it's a good thing.

Holding true to form, the Redskins don't have another pick for a while, so my interest in the primetime festivities isn't that high.

Check back next week to see the tale of how I had to be talked off the ledge of the West Virginia Building upon hearing, "the Washington Redskins select Tim Tebow, quarterback from the University of Florida," tonight.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tim Tebow was drafted 25th overall to the Denver Broncos. Tom is safe in his home and relieved that the Redskins did not draft Tebow.

Tom Bragg can be contacted at tom.bragg@marshall.edu.