BOL Round Table

18. San Diego Chargers -- Courtney Upshaw, DE, Alabama

The Chargers are still looking for an explosive pass-rusher. There's some doubt about whether Upshaw can play standing up, but he may be worth the risk.

Doubts on whether he can play standing up? Have they ever seen him play standing up?

I'd much rather see him there than Cleveland. At least Cincy is a franchise with a pulse and a young star QB/WR combo.........having said that, either team would land on my "5 least desired destination for Bama players" list, which I started seconds after Oakland drafted Rolando McClain.

There is no possible way #3 falls to 17

I immediately disregarded the post when I saw that.

That sounds about right. Barron going mid-1st is probably a best-case scenario but his stock is rising. Speaking of players' stock rising, I've noticed that since 2009 our prospects' stock has tended to rise as a group once the post-season evaluations begin in earnest, which of course is always a good sign about the health of our program.

Trent is no doubt one of the top 5 overall prospects as far as skill goes, but the position he plays is what will cause him to fall IF indeed he does fall. It's not through any fault of his, but just where the NFL is in its evolution. Adrian Peterson and Rashard Mendenhall are just the most recent 1st round backs to go down, and note that Jahvid Best, Felix Jones, Darren McFadden, Knowshon Moreno and even Mark Ingram have been very limited due to injuries. Running backs are simply too often severely injured and their careers too short to justify early picks in many cases, and more teams are feeling that they can find perfectly good backs in later rounds (Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, Shady McCoy, Arian Foster and Demarco Murray come to mind), leading them to address other needs with their first selection; but Trent is so great a talent that someone will take him in the first round. Trent will be fine.