Congrats to the New York Giants and their Super Bowl win. As the confetti settles, the 2012 NFL Draft season fires up. to get things started right away we posted our initial big board rankings.

1. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford

Try as people may, there is really no contest here. There is no reason to think that anything will happen other than Luck going first overall.

2. Matt Kalil, OT, USC

Kalil is easily the top offensive lineman at this point in the draft process. He is not the complete OT we usually see at the top of the board, but can prove more in coming months.

3. Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama

There has not been a running back in the Top 5 since 2008 and Reggie bush was the last before that. It looks like Richardson could just bring RB back to the top of the order.

4. Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor

The Heisman winner is not the complete QB that Andrew Luck is, but certainly has the upside. Griffin is the QB that teams in need will be positioning for.

5. Morris Claiborne, CB, LSU

Claiborne is going to make half of the field easier for some defense with his cover skills. He can also help in the return game, enhancing his stock.

The rest of the Big Board…

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We are three weeks out from the NFL Scouting Combine and there is already talk of who will work out. In the NFL.com video Replacing an Icon, Rich Eisen mentions that Andrew Luck told him he doesn’t know if he will throw at the combine. An interesting response from Warren Sapp was, “they don’t want you to do well at the combine.” Who? Elaborating on this, Sapp points out that they want you to stay up all night doing interviews and then get up at five in the morning to work out, not putting the player in the position to do his best. He reflected on how he told someone there that it was comparable to them wanting him to go out all night drinking and then come to work the next day. Interesting how all these years later he appeared to feel strongly about it. But then, he tends to feel strongly about anything he says, which isn’t a bad thing.

Oklahoma State Wide Receiver Justin Blackmon on the other hand says he will “do it all” at the combine.

Robert Griffin III can’t talk bad about Andrew Luck, but he thinks he is the best and intends to prove it. Why wouldn’t he?

Todd McShay has released his Mock Draft 2.0 in the ESPN Insider content. If you don’t have it, the Top Five projections are still visible. There are rumblings around the net already about how Riley Reiff has moved up to the Vikings at the number three position. We don’t think it is a stretch that the vikings take the second tackle on the board (we mentioned yesterday we can see the Rams taking the first). Through the process, there will be another tackle that moves into the top five talk and at the moment, Reiff is the one worthy of that.

In non-news headlines, the Cowboys probably won’t take a QB. An interesting number though is that they have only selected two Quarterbacks since Troy Aikmen left town.

The Senior Bowl is out of the way and we are a few days out from that stretch between the Super Bowl and the 2012 NFL Draft. NFL Draft Net will be providing NFL Draft news updates several times per week from now until the late April selection event.

NFL Draft Net’s initial 2012 NFL Mock Draft is posted. Commentary will come with the next update, so we will add some comments on some of the selections here today.

• 1.2 St. Louis Rams: Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma St.- This is a pick based on need and value with the second overall pick. It is very likely that the Rams will trade out of this spot, but we will not speculate just yet as to who comes in here. We can say that Blackmon is not likely to hold this spot long as it is very likely that if the Rams were to stay here, one of the Offensive Tackle prospects would be the safer route to go, even though they are young at the position with players who were considered top prospects at their time.
• 1.4 Cleveland Browns: Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor – Since there are not trades, nobody moved ahead to get RG3 and the Browns are waiting. At this time in the process, we feel that RG3 will be selected in the Rams spot by whoever decides to pay up. With that extra first round pick, it just may be the Browns who do so.
• 1.24 Pittsburgh Steelers: Melvin Ingram, OLB, South Carolina – This is an example of a player falling because of the way the previous picks fell. It is no indication of a lack of belief in Melvin Ingram. In fact, he lands at #15 in our upcoming Big Board at this time. From the Steelers standpoint, it does not necessarily fit a need, but the Steelers rarely focus on need over value.

Andrew Luck made a trip to Indianapolis to the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. He will be back there for the Combine. He may be back there for the next decade or more. When posed with the question about his future career, Luck says he wants to play right away…as we would expect from a competitor.

In “no news” Jeff Ireland says the Dolphins could trade up or trade back.

Stanford Offensive Guard, David DeCastro, has moved into the Top Ten of Rob Rang’s Big Board at CBS Sports, ahead of Iowa Tackle, Riley Reiff.

This is a week old, but if you have not seen it, Gil Brandt has laid out his Top 100 players. The man has been in the business a long time, and there may be some names on the list you have not heard of.

Indianapolis Colts beat writer, Mike Chappell, has a strong feeling the Colts will use the first over all pick on Stanford QB, Andrew Luck.  Posed with the question from a reader as to whether there was a chance or not on if the Colts may use the pick on Baylor QB, Robert Griffin III, Chappel outlined factors that would contribute to the decision, but ultimately felt the pick would be used on Luck.

We know this is not a new stance for people to take, in fact the odds are in his favor. An interesting thought is that the Colts fans may already be split on who they should use the pick on aside from the whole Peyton Manning factor. Once the NFL Draft train really gets moving, there should be even more hype around RG3 and Luck, causing more of a split if it appears that a new QB of the future will be selected.

Source: Indy Star