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Unusual NFL draft begins three-day run today

Barry Wilner Associated Press

NEW YORK – Sam Bradford chucked footballs to Pop Warner players. Ndamukong Suh posed for dozens of cameras. Gerald McCoy surveyed the Central Park landscape.

While the top prospects enjoyed New York on Wednesday, general managers and personnel directors throughout the NFL pondered the most unique draft in years.

Not only is this year’s crop stocked with players such as Nebraska defensive tackle Suh, Oklahoma quarterback Bradford and Sooners teammate Gerald McCoy, but the three-day setup is new. The draft kicks off tonight in prime time for the first time. The second and third rounds are Friday night, with the final four rounds Saturday.

Bradford, Suh and McCoy figure to go 1-2-3 overall. No wonder they were all smiles during a variety of league-staged events.

“It’s fun and it’s important,” Suh said as he watched dozens of youth players scramble around a makeshift artificial turf field.

The real scramble begins at 4:30 p.m. PDT today, and the All-American considered the best defensive tackle coming out of college in more than a decade has no clue where he will land.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Suh said. “I haven’t had anyone tell me that they want to draft me. There could be a lot of trades. There could be someone a team really wants.”

They pretty much all want Suh. And Bradford. And McCoy.

“I hope so,” McCoy said.

“If I walk into the room having no idea, my heart’s going to be going,” 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Bradford said.

Bradford is projected to go No. 1 to St. Louis, which released incumbent quarterback Marc Bulger and comes off a 1-15 season in which it managed all of 175 points.

“I hope Sam goes one,” McCoy said. “That’s a statement you can write down and pencil it in. I hope Sam goes one. Sam is my boy.”

And then McCoy can sack him when they meet in the pros?

“After he gets picked, then I’m (going to) kill him. That’s how it goes.”

Oklahoma tackle Trent Williams, another likely high pick, also believes Bradford is the wise choice for the Rams.

“Sam? You know, the question is what doesn’t he do well,” Williams said. “I’m his teammate and I’ve really rarely seen a mistake out of Sam.”