No sure Hall of Famers in NFL draft

The Detroit Lions still can't catch a break.

Fresh off a historic 0-16 season, the Lions will get their reward for being terrible and select the first pick in the NFL draft today. But unfortunately for Detroit, there are no Peyton Mannings, Troy Aikmans or Bruce Smiths — former No. 1 overall picks who are in the Hall of Fame, or certain to be there in Manning's case — waiting to be picked.

Instead, there's Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has a more realistic shot of being the next Jeff George, Tim Couch or David Carr — other No. 1 picks who failed miserably to live up to enormous expectations as pro signal-callers.

"(There's a) consensus that there's really no franchise players in this draft," Seahawks president Tim Ruskell told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. "There's not this elite six or elite three guys that everybody knows this guy is probably going to the Hall of Fame."

That isn't great news for Ruskell's team, which picks fourth in the first round of today's draft. It's even worse for the Lions, who have so many holes and no John Elway available to fill at least one of them.

Time will tell if Stafford turns out to be an Elway or a Couch, but he is expected to go to Detroit with the first pick in the draft. After Stafford is taken off the board, it's anyone's guess how the rest of the draft will shake out.

The Rams are next and in bad need of some offensive line help. St. Louis' offensive line could have gone to jail last season for how bad the Rams' quarterbacks were assaulted. The Chiefs pick at No. 3, and that's where things will start to get interesting.

The Seahawks pick at No. 4, and many people expect them to pick a quarterback who will be the heir apparent to Matt Hasselbeck. If that's what Seattle wants, then the obvious pick for the team will be USC quarterback Mark Sanchez.

So if a team such as the Redskins, Broncos or Jets feels it must have Sanchez, then it will likely have to deal with the Chiefs to get him. Or take its chances that the Seahawks will pass on him — a realistic possibility considering Seattle is in serious need of an offensive tackle — and try to deal with another team and give up less.

"The whole Sanchez scenario is intriguing to me," NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock told reporters in a conference call last week. "Seattle's got to make a decision at four. Hasselbeck's 33 (years old), had an injury last year, they are rebuilding a bit and he (Sanchez) makes sense. He's a very similar style quarterback to Hasselbeck.