By the time April hits, I could sit around and listen to NFL Network's Mike Mayock talk all day long. I'm not even kidding. By that point, I have a much better idea of the prospects than I do now and I can follow where he's going with a lot of what he says. He's pretty much the man (sorta like Brandon Flowers, also the man).
The NFL Combine is next week and NFL Network will have a million live hours of coverage (or something like that) so they had Mayock on a conference call with NFL reporters this week gearing up for that and the draft in April.
One of the interesting things Mayock had to say was that this is one of the best years for interior offensive linemen -- your centers and guards.
"[David] DeCastro to me is a first round interior offensive lineman," Mayock said. "Peter Konz, the center from Wisconsin is a late one to mid two. I think Zeitler from Wisconsin is also in that same range, and you might be able to get a guy like Ben Jones from Georgia late in the second round. I think, depending on how it plays out, I think there is a lot of flexibility with that interior offensive lineman draft. I think for the first three rounds, you can get a lot of quality at center or either guard."
Interesting. The Chiefs are pretty well set at two of the three interior offensive line positions with Jon Asamoah and Rodney Hudson. There's a little less certainty with Ryan Lilja. He's 30 years old and entering the final year of his contract.
With Mayock emphasizing the depth of the interior offensive line this year, it makes you wonder if the Chiefs will pick up another guard to replace Lilja, or another center and move Hudson to guard. They picked up Asamoah in 2010 and he didn't start until 2011, which is a scenario I could see the Chiefs utilizing with a rookie and Lilja.