1st Round 

1. Miami Dolphins-OT Jake Long, Michigan
2. St. Louis Rams-DE Chris Long, Virginia
3. Atlanta Falcons-DT Glenn Dorsey, LSU          
4. Oakland Raiders-RB Darren McFadden, Arkansas            
5. Kansas City Chiefs-QB Matt Ryan, Boston College                                                          
6. New York Jets-DE Vernon Gholston, Ohio State              
7. New England Patriots-DT Sederick Ellis, USC  
8. Baltimore Ravens-LB Keith Rivers, USC        
9. Cincinnati Bengals-DE Derrick Harvey, Florida
10. New Orleans Saints-CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Tennessee 
11. Buffalo Bills-WR Devin Thomas, Michigan State 
12. Denver Broncos-LB Jerod Mayo, Tennessee      
13. Carolina Panthers-RB Rashard Mendenhall, Illinois
14. Chicago Bears-OT Jeff Otah, Pittsburgh               
15. Detroit Lions-DE Phillip Merling, Clemson 
16. Arizona Cardinals- CB Leodis McKelvin, Troy
17. Kansas City Chiefs-OT Branden Albert, Virginia 
18. Houston Texans-OT Ryan Clady, Boise State              
19. Philadelphia Eagles-CB Mike Jenkins, South Florida
 20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers-DT Kentwan Balmer, North Carolina 
21. Washington Redskins-S Kenny Phillps, Miami
22. Dallas Cowboys-RB Felix Jones, Arkansas
23. Pittsburgh Steelers-WR James Hardy, Indiana
24. Tennessee Titans-WR Limas Sweed, Texas
25. Seattle Seahawks-TE Dustin Keller, Purdue          
26. Jacksonville Jaguars-DE Calais Campbell, Miami       
27. San Diego Chargers-OT Chris Williams, Vanderbilt       
28. Dallas Cowboys-WR Malcolm Kelly, Oklahoma 
29. San Francisco 49ers-WR DeSean Jackson, California      
30. Green Bay Packers-CB Aqib Talib, Kansas           
31. New York Giants-CB Antoine Cason, Arizona

Most Improved Player

My vote: LaMarcus Aldridge-I know that Hedo Turkoglu improved his scoring by more than six points per game from last season, but he doesn’t exactly play much defense.  Plus, Aldridge in that same stint had his points per game increase by nearly nine points and had a couple more boards on average. 

Rookie of the Year

My vote: Kevin Durant-Durant averages over 20 points per game, and in a sub-par rookie class, he wins the award by default.

Coach of the Year

My vote: Byron Scott-Scott did a masterful job keeping the Hornets in contention in a difficult Western conference.  Nobody would have picked the Hornets to do anything this season, let alone be in first place in the West for a long period of time.

Most Valuable Player

My vote: Chris Paul-Kobe Bryant should have won the MVP multiple times already, but he has yet to be given that award.  However, that is not Chris Paul’s fault, and the fact is, the Hornets would be basement dwellers without Paul.  It also doesn’t hurt that Paul is averaging over 20 points and more than ten assists per game.

The NFL owners met this past week to discuss possible rule changes.  One of the proposals was to re-seed the playoffs.  The idea was to seed the teams based on their record, and not whether or not they won their respective division.  This rule would reward the good teams that finished with an outstanding record, but didn’t win their highly competitive division.  It would also give teams a reason to play in the final week of the season.

I think that rule is worth discussing, but isn’t necessarily the answer.   If a division leader that already clinched their division was 9-6 going into the final week, and a wild card team was 11-4, neither team would have anything to play for in this scenario as the wild card team would have already earned the better seed.

The league really wants to implement a rule that will give the teams something to play for in the final week.  In my opinion, if they would reward the teams that win on the last week of the year with a compensatory draft pick the next season, I believe that would give them a reason to want to win that game.  Perhaps, that would be enough to entice coaches to play their key players, which in turn rewards the fans for paying the price of admission to see a quality game.

Does anyone else have any ideas that might work besides re-seeding the playoffs and offering money rewards for merely trying to win a scheduled game?