Anthony Castonzo draft buzz

One week from today will be the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, and I’ll post my final 2011 mock draft round-up. We know that we have one player from Boston College who will almost certainly be selected on Thursday night at Radio City: OT Anthony Castonzo.

The media, some of whom cannot spell his name (note: it’s not spelled Castanzo), have taken note. One article from the Orlando Sentinel broke down Castonzo’s game and compared it to another top tackle in the draft, Tyron Smith of USC. In it, Castonzo was lauded as more of a “sure thing” and one who “made the most of his chance” to succeed in college football.

USA Today goes into more detail about Castonzo’s path to Boston College, and how his hard work at BC has made it possible for him to be a first-round pick. This article misses a few teams that have offensive line needs, however, with one of them being the BC-heavy New York Giants.

Fox Sports Detroit seems to think that the Lions, who have needs in plenty of positions (but let’s face it, when you get a high draft pick year after year, you’re bound to bounce back eventually), would opt for USC’s Smith over Castonzo if given the chance, leaving him open to fall down to the Giants or the hometown favorite New England Patriots, much to the glee of local Eagles fans. An ESPN blog article should make Pats fans even more giddy, by suggesting that Castonzo going to New England at Pick #17 is a strong possibility with one week to go until showtime.

We all know that Castonzo is going to get picked in the first round, unless he suffers some strange and unexplainable plummet on the draft board (which has happened before, but this time I’m confident it won’t). The real question will be who gets him. It’s fun to play this guessing game, however. I know that most of my readers from Boston are, of course, New England fans and would love to see Castonzo on their team. I, however, am from New York, and am a Giants season ticket holder, and would be more than happy to see Castonzo joining all of the other BC folk we have in East Rutherford. Certainly, I’d be more than happy to see a 2011 season at all, but I’ll take what I can get for now.