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I'm giving you guys a preview of what you will see as a first round mock I'm doing for the Huddle Report, that should be unveiled in the next few days. I'm working on a first round mock involving trades. Of course trades are nearly impossible to predict, but it's fun trying to do it anyway.

But I have due to some wheeling and dealing that goes on in the first round, I think a guy like Florida State's Travis Johnson may fall all the way to #27.

Johnson is a guy that's hard to gauge in this draft. He's a player that had his best year as a senior, and was labeled a bit of an underachiever until this past season.

He's a guy that does have some concerns, the chief being 1) his lack of production until "it counted", something negative since it most teams feel that is the sign of a player that is hard to motivate unless money is an issue. 2) injuries. He's been hurt pretty much each season, although this past year injuries were of little concern. None of his injuries were way to major that he missed time except his freshman year, but still a guy that has durability issues should be a red flag. He's been diagnosed with ADHD, but I'm not sure how that will affect his draft stock.

For those reasons, Johnson could slip some in the first round. Most don't see him as an elite DT, but as a good that could be a Top 15-20 selection.

But for similar reasons, Johnson could go very high. His lack of production before this year, might look like to some teams that's he's ready to make the next step up and he's a guy with a lot of unlocked potential.

Most consider Johnson more of a run stopper than pass rusher, and he has good size and strength. For that reason I think he could be an effective NT, that can compete with Lavalais right away.

I think if Johnson did slip to #27, I think he would definitely be worth a shot. I see him as a guy that could go as high as #15, but could also slip quite a bit in the draft, since there aren't a lot of elite DTs this year, and I think teams aren't as willing as in past years to jump all over DTs in the first round.

We shall see...

I would be pissed if the falcon's drafted johnson as their first round pick.One year a career does not make.I guess you can look at it 2 ways.Maybe Johnson is coming into his own and finally realizing his potential or he has the akilli smith syndrome where one good senior year and he vault's up the draft board because of it becoming a bust.

For me there isn't alot of difference between johnson and say the 3rd or 4th def tackle in lorenzo alexander.I would wait to draft a def tackle and fill another need.

Scout, I definitely understand your skepticism. The same was said about Carson Palmer coming out of school, and in my mind I really thought Palmer was a very gifted QB. But at the same time, he was similar to an ex-Trojans QB named Rob Johnson, that had loads of talent, but the question of whether he can play up to it was always in question. Well from what I saw of Palmer last year, he definitely did go through some struggles, but there's little doubt in my mind that he will not be a top QB in this league.

I think if you consider Johnson a Top 20 talent, and he does happen to fall that far in the draft, then I think it's worth a shot. If the team did go DT in Round 1, I would much rather have Shaun Cody, Luis Castillo, Jon Babineaux, or Mike Patterson.

Just curious - is your listing of S. Cody, Castillo, Babineaux, Patterson in priority order?

I agree that Travis Johnson could be one who slides downward in the first. While I think it's unlikely, it's plausible that Shaun Cody could as well. I would certainly include him in the pool of people I would be evaluating very carefully...

No, it wasn't in any particular order. I think Cody and Patterson are probably the better players amongst that group, but I definitely would not be at all upset if the Falcons drafted Castillo or Babineaux in Round 1.

Those latter two are the types of DTs that usually are overlooked because they don't have enormous size potential nor do they have outstanding workouts, but are those players that generally are better NFL players than their more touted counterparts.