Daniel Snyder has not yet hired a general manager for the Washington Redskins. Mike Mayock, the draft analyst with a unique gift for football gibberish, was among the possibilities mentioned earlier this month.
Mayock's gushing on the NFL Network over Washington's selections in the first three rounds might be considered as his addendum to a job application with Snyder, except you would then have to say Mayock was also trying to gush his way into a job with any of the remaining 31 teams.
The NFL draft is the greatest and most successful promotional scam in American sports, and nobody plays his part in it with more enthusiasm than Mayock.
I heard him comment on 30 or 40 players during Friday's 75 selections (rounds 2, 3 and supplemental) and Gushing Mike was blown away by the astuteness of every selection.
The Vikings are sitting on a 2016 draft class with the potential to achieve all-time putridness. Yet, I'm guessing if you went back a year to the draft coverage, you didn't hear much emphasis put on Laquon Treadwell's slowness and poor work habits.
I miss the days when Mel Kiper was allowed to get fully agitated over a team making a long reach and would wind up in a heated argument — such as the infamous blowup with Colts GM Bill Tobin in 1994.
The NFL has become so vital to cable television in the two decades since then that criticism is couched and the TV analysts are cheerleaders for most every choice.
The Bears made a sensational blunder Thursday, giving up big assets to move one place to draft QB Mitchell Trubisky when there was no need to do so.
Mayock managed to say, "To me, it was a big risk," but you had to go to websites for the full-blown criticism the Bears deserved.
The NFL draft: Where club executives and television stooges combine to assure fans that every team has been magical in filling its needs and you can wear those souvenir jerseys with pride and optimism for the season ahead.
Even if your team actually has wound up with Laquon Treadwell and Willie Beavers.
PATRICK'S PLUS THREE
Highlights from the Mel Kiper-Bill Tobin blowup during ESPN's 1994 draft coverage:
• Kiper criticized the Colts for taking LB Trev Alberts with the fifth pick, rather than QB Trent Dilfer (who went sixth to Tampa Bay).
• Colts GM Tobin said in a later ESPN interview: "Who in the hell is Mel Kiper … in my knowledge of him, he's never, ever put on a jockstrap."
• Tobin then claimed at a news conference Kiper was anti-Colts because they had moved from Baltimore, Mel's hometown.
Read Patrick Reusse's blog at startribune.com/patrick. E-mail him at preusse@startribune.com.
