Paul Sancya / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Will the Dolphins draft offensive tackle Jake Long? Will they take a defensive player? The beauty of the NFL draft, writes Bryan Burwell, is that no one ever knows what's going to happen.

In other words, this is another one of those drafts that can get young GMs fired and send older GMs into retirement. Do you want to be the guy who’s remembered for taking Earl Campbell or Tom Cousineau? Do you want to select Tim Couch when Donovan McNabb was available? Do you want to be the guy who guessed wrong on Ki-Jana Carter, Dan Wilkinson, Jeff George and Aundray Bruce or the genius who guessed right on Troy Aikman?

Go back and look at some of the high picks in past drafts and you’ll see just how much danger lurks when you are in charge of crafting the future of your franchise. Between 1988 and 1998, arguably only three players chosen No. 1 overall have the NFL Hall of Fame in their future — Troy Aikman (1989: already in), Orlando Pace (1997: a lock) and Peyton Manning (1998: a lock).

The rest were a mixed bag that included Keyshawn Johnson, Wilkinson, Drew Bledsoe, Steve Emtman, Russell Maryland, George and Bruce.

Is 2008 going to be another 1994 when the top five picks were Wilkinson (decent, not great), Marshall Faulk (future Hall of Famer), Heath Shuler (bust), Willie McGinest (Pro Bowler and defensive linchpin to the early New England championship dynasty) and Trev Alberts (bust), or another 1989, with two Hall of Famers (Aikman, Barry Sanders), two future hall of famers (Deion Sanders and Derrick Thomas) and only one bust (Tony Mandarich)?

This year's draft is going to test the talent evaluating skills of a lot of men. Will it be remembered like 1995, when so many teams overlooked Warren Sapp (11 teams bypassed him before Tampa Bay grabbed him with the 12^th pick), or the one that undervalued Chris Long or McFadden?

History tells us how tough this job is, because so many folks fail to do it well. But the reality is, if you’re doing this job right, you can restructure the fate of your franchise almost overnight. And that leads us to one more athletic-related ritual in the spring that’s entertaining as heck.

Those pro football wise guys who don’t do their jobs all that well allow fans and sports writers the opportunity to play this same difficult guessing game on NFL Draft Day, and if the pro football guys mess it up, we get to second-guess them.

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