Little-known facts about the 2012 NFL Draft - NFL News

The Denver Broncos won the Peyton Manning sweepstakes last month, which, not surprisingly, made Tim Tebow expendable, resulting in his trade to the New York Jets for fourth- and sixth-round picks in the 2012 NFL Draft.

So who'd the Broncos use those two picks on? Baylor center Philip Blake (fourth) and Kentucky linebacker Danny Trevathan (sixth).

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Worth it? It doesn't matter if it's worth it! Denver won the Manning sweepstakes, which means Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and Co. don't have to deal with passes landing at their feet. That's good enough.

An interesting side note to the trade: With Blake now on the team, that means he'll be gunning for J.D. Walton's job. Why is that interesting? Walton, who has started every game the last two seasons for the Broncos, mentored Blake when they were teammates at Baylor.

The draft can be cruel like that sometimes.

Here are some other interesting factoids coming out of Radio City Music Hall:

Robert Griffin to the Jets
Mark Sanchez already had to worry about Tim Tebow, and now he's got to be concerned with Robert Griffin? No, the Jets didn't draft RG3, though they did add his teammate from Baylor who plays guard.

Jets coach Rex Ryan joked that he was thrown off by the pick when general manager Mike Tannenbaum announced it.

"There's something where everybody thinks there's a quarterback controversy and all that," Ryan said, referring to having both Sanchez and Tebow on the roster. "When Tannenbaum said, `Hey, we just got Robert Griffin from Baylor,' I'm like, `What?"'

Brandon Marshall to the Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars bolstered their receiving corps by trading up to draft Justin Blackmon fifth overall. Later in the draft they added Brandon Marshall.

That's Brandon M. Marshall, linebacker out of Nevada, in the fifth round. Trust us, this isn't the first time he's been mistaken for the Chicago Bears' wide receiver.

"Man, I get the comparison all the time, almost every day, people on Facebook, people on Twitter," he said. "Just the other day, somebody tweeted me, 'Who would you like the Bears to pick with 19th pick?' I tweeted back, I said, 'Brandon Marshall, linebacker from Nevada.' Then he was like, 'It would be kind of crazy to have two people with the same name on the same team.'"

Eagles use Samuel pick on RB
Asante Samuel was only worth a seventh-round pick. The Philadelphia Eagles used that pick acquired from the Atlanta Falcons to select Kansas State running back Bryce Brown.

Samuel is a Pro Bowl corner. We know little to nothing about this Brown kid. Guess that doesn't say much about what Samuel meant to Philly.

Vikings draft childhood friends
The Minnesota Vikings drafted a pair of Arkansas receivers, Jarius Wright and Greg Childs, in the fourth round. Cool thing here is that they've known each other since the third grade.

"We had talked about this one day, what if we end up going to the same NFL team?" Childs said. "It would be crazy because we've been to middle school, elementary, high school together. Same college team. Now we're moving on in life and we're still going to be on the same team together."

Titans draft TE who never played position
Let's just say Taylor Thompson's got a pair on him.

Nevermind that Thompson never caught a single pass during his college career as a defensive end at SMU. He entered the NFL draft as a tight end anyway. And as it turns out, the 6-foot-6, 259-pounder's gamble paid off when the Tennessee Titans traded up 10 spots to draft him in the fifth round.

"Mom, dad and God gave him size, speed and athletic ability," offensive coordinator Chris Palmer said. "For us to get him where we got him, I mean, there's a reason he took 10 visits. It's not like we're the only one that saw the acorn."

Redskins crush on players from Iowa, SMU
Is there something in the water at Iowa and SMU the Washington Redskins know about that the rest of the league doesn't?

The Redskins drafted SMU guard Josh LeRibeus in the third round Friday, then used their seventh-round pick on his teammate, cornerback Richard Crawford. The pattern continued when Washington drafted Iowa guard Adam Gettis in the fifth round, then selected his teammate, defensive back Jordan Bernstine, in the sixth round.

Seriously, what gives?

NFL bloodlines
» Linebacker Jonathan Massaquoi of Troy, drafted in the fifth round by the Falcons, has two cousins in the league: Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi.

» The St. Louis Rams selected running back Daryl Richardson of Abilene Christian with their second pick in the seventh round. Richardson is the brother of Cincinnati Bengals running back Bernard Scott.

» The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Northwestern tight end Drake Dunsmore in the seventh round. His father, Pat, played tight end for the Chicago Bears.

» The Bengals took Ohio State running back Dan "Boom" Herron with their sixth-round pick. His brother, David, played for the Kansas City Chiefs last season and now is with the New Orleans Saints.

» The Cleveland Browns selected Texas linebacker Emmanuel Acho in the sixth round. Acho's brother, Sam, plays for the Arizona Cardinals.

» The Tennessee Titans took Clemson cornerback Coty Sensabaugh in the fourth round. His cousin, Gerald, is a safety for the Dallas Cowboys.

» The New Orleans Saints spent a fourth-round pick (No. 122) on former Wisconsin WR Nick Toon, the son of former Jets speedster Al Toon. The younger Toon tweeted Saturday that he plans to wear jersey No. 88, the same number his father wore.

» The Minnesota Vikings drafted USC tight end/fullback Rhett Ellison with the 128th overall selection. Ellison's father, Riki Ellison, played on two Super Bowl-winning teams with the San Francisco 49ers during a 10-year NFL career as a linebacker.