Manti Te'o and Geno Smith provided the sizzle previously missing from the NFL draft.
Te'o is headed to San Diego, Smith is a Jet, and Radio City Music Hall in New York shook with the kind of noise usually heard in stadiums when they were selected.
The theater rocked with two picks within minutes of each other Friday night.
Te'o, the Notre Dame All-America linebacker, was chosen sixth in the second round (38th overall) by the Chargers. One spot later, the Jets took the West Virginia quarterback.
Te'o, who led the Fighting Irish to the national championship game, was projected as a first-rounder last year. But his poor performance in a rout at the hands of Alabama, some slow workouts, and a tabloid-ready hoax involving a fake girlfriend that became a national soap opera dropped his stock.
"I did expect to go in the first round," Te'o said. "But things happened, and all it did was give me more motivation."
The Chargers traded up with Arizona to grab Te'o, the Heisman Trophy runner-up. Te'o ran a 4.82-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, slow for a linebacker. He did better at Notre Dame's pro day, but NFL teams already had plenty of football reasons to doubt his worthiness as a first-round pick.
Two officials, each with a different team, said their clubs passed on Te'o in the first round partly because of his off-field issues. He was the third linebacker chosen in this draft.
"It's a perfect scenario.
My parents can come and watch, I can go home, it's San Diego," said Te'o, a native of Hawaii. "We're all excited. I can't be any happier."With the very next pick, the Jets sent their QB situation spiraling into further chaos. They already have Mark Sanchez, who struggled last season but was brought back in great part because of a prohibitive contract. They still have Tim Tebow, who almost certainly soon will be cut. They signed David Garrard, who hasn't played in the NFL since 2010.
And now there is Smith, who waited futilely throughout the first round, returned to the theater Friday and was rewarded.
"It's extremely relieving. I withstood the test of time," he said. "It felt like forever in there."
The Green Bay Packers picked Alabama running back Eddie Lacy with the 61st overall selection, landing a prospect widely pegged as a possibility for their first-round slot. Green Bay swapped second-round spots with the 49ers, moving down six places in exchange for a sixth-round pick (No. 173).
The Arizona Cardinals added some spice to the third round by selecting former LSU cornerback-kick returner Tyrann Mathieu with the 69th pick. The Honey Badger was a 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist whom LSU dismissed from the team in August for failing a drug test. He was arrested in late October after police said they found marijuana at Mathieu's apartment.
"He impressed me so much in my office one on one, knowing at this point in time what he needs to do in his life," Cardinals first-year coach Bruce Arians said. "I was really taken aback a little bit. He knows what his problems are, he knows what he has done to himself, but he also knows that someone will give him a chance, that he knows what he needs to make sure he succeeds."
Browns: Cleveland acquired veteran wide receiver Davone Bess (Skyline High-Oakland) in a trade from the Miami Dolphins. To get Bess, the Browns traded their fourth- (No. 104) and fifth-round picks (No. 164) to the Dolphins for Miami's fourth-round pick (No. 111) and a seventh-rounder (No. 217).
Bess spent five seasons with Miami, catching at least 50 passes each season. He had 61 receptions for 778 yards and one touchdown in 13 games last season.
Bengals: Cincinnati reached agreement with right tackle Andre Smith on a new contract, the final step toward bringing back its offense intact from last season. Smith had been an unrestricted free agent.
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