Teams in a Rush to Draft Top Defensive Linemen

Jeff Ireland, the first-year general manager of the Miami Dolphins who will advise boss Bill Parcells on what to do with the top overall selection in the NFL draft next Saturday, created a mini-stir when he said late last week that the club hopes the player it chooses "is a pillar of your defense for a long time."

Was a team led by Parcells, the Dolphins' new front-office chief, actually tipping its draft hand more than a week in advance? Hadn't the Dolphins just been negotiating a contract with Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long as the prospective top pick?

When it was pointed out to Ireland what he'd said, he called it "a Freudian slip" and amended his statement by saying that the team hoped the player it picks will be a pillar of its offense or defense for a long time. People around the league began debating whether Ireland's comment had been a telling slip of the tongue or a pre-draft smokescreen orchestrated by Parcells.

Whichever it was, it's clear that if the Dolphins do use the top choice on a defensive player, they have their pick of a promising group of defensive linemen that includes tackle Glenn Dorsey of Louisiana State and ends Chris Long of Virginia and Vernon Gholston of Ohio State. Those three and Southern Cal defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis all are likely to be chosen in the top 10 Saturday, and there could be six to eight defensive linemen taken by the time the first round is done.

"Defensive linemen are so unique," Eric DeCosta, the Baltimore Ravens' director of college scouting, said last week. "There are not many of them out there. If you have the chance to take a great one, I think you owe it to yourself to do that."

The crop of defensive ends is particularly strong with Derrick Harvey of Florida, Phillip Merling of Clemson and Calais Campbell of Miami also being mentioned by NFL talent evaluators as possible first-rounders. A top-notch pass-rushing defensive end has become a virtual necessity for defenses in a league in which the rules have made it almost impossible for defenders in the secondary to cover receivers if the quarterback is given time to throw. The talk about pass rushers in this draft begins with Chris Long and Gholston.

Both appear to be in the mix to be the Dolphins' pick. The Dolphins have a premium pass rusher in Jason Taylor, the NFL defensive player of the year in 2006. But there have been rumblings that Taylor might not want to be part of the organization's rebuilding and could be traded.

The pressure of being the top pick in the draft probably wouldn't ruffle Chris Long, who has been in the spotlight throughout his football career as the son of Hall of Famer Howie Long and has gracefully handled the attention that has accompanied that distinction. He said at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in February that he knew from watching the fuss made over the Houston Texans' use of the top choice in the 2006 draft on North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams that being a high pick will produce additional scrutiny on his sack totals once he gets into the league.

"It's tough," Long said. "When you're picked at number one as Mario Williams was, people don't have patience. When you don't touch the ball on a regular basis and you're playing at a position like his, the only number they look at is sacks. This year, Mario Williams started producing more sacks. He was a pretty darn good football player from the start, which people didn't realize, but now his numbers are just better and so people are starting to justify it."

Gholston is a versatile player who could end up as either a defensive end or an outside linebacker in the NFL. The New England Patriots have the seventh overall pick and are said to covet Gholston. But their arch rivals, the New York Jets, have the sixth selection and might not allow Gholston to drop another spot.

Dorsey is regarded as the draft's best available defensive tackle. He's a mobile, disruptive player who will occupy additional blockers and free teammates to make tackles, in addition to making many himself. Questions have been raised about his health during pre-draft evaluations, with reports about some teams being wary of past knee and tibia injuries. But such talk seems to have quieted, and Dorsey has dismissed his injuries as the normal bumps and bruises of a football season and the questions as the typical scrutiny about a potential top pick.

"When you are one of the top players, a lot of people are looking for negatives, even with saying I have injury problems," Dorsey said at the combine. "I played every game at LSU for four years. I don't have injury problems. Who doesn't get hurt during the year?"

Ellis is likely to be the second defensive tackle taken, and North Carolina's Kentwan Balmer perhaps could come off the board in the first round as well.

"I think Ellis is a phenomenal football player. . . . In another draft, I think this would be a guy who would be a top three pick," DeCosta said. "But because of this unique draft where you have Chris Long and Glenn Dorsey and Gholston, those types of players with him, the picks in the latter half of the top 10 are going to have a good chance of getting Sedrick Ellis. I think he is one of the best players at his position to come out of the draft in a long time."