The 2001 season is has been over for months, cruiting wrapped up in February and spring practice came to an end on April 6th. The NFL draft is the last major event for Joe football fan until fall two-a-day practices begin in late summer.

Unlike prior drafts the 2002 version may not be very exciting for Florida State fans. Since 1990 the Tribe has had at least four players selected in every draft. That run could come to an end this weekend. In fact, it is possible that only one Seminole may be taken on day one (first the rounds).

"This is not your typical Florida State class," said Chris Landry, a 12 year NFL scout and RivalsPro.com Editor. "This is very, very unusual. The's a corlation. Look whe Miami is and how many they a going to have. It is all about players... With Florida State, when they have eight or nine guys drafted they a usually playing for national championship. They didn't this past year and it's not a coincidence."

At the very least one Seminole will be picked on day one. However, whether Javon Walker will be a first round selection is a subject of much debate. If you go strictly by what's on paper you would think he's a lock to be one of the first wide ceivers selected. The 6'3" wideout absolutely blew up at the pro combine in Indianapolis when he ran a 4.38 40-yard dash and turned in a 39.5" vertical jump. He topped that off at FSU's pro day benching 225 pounds 18 times and catching everything in sight thrown during the pass and catch session.

"He helped himself a gat deal in the workouts at the combine," said Landry. "He did very well. He's a good all-around athlete with good size and he can get deep on the vertical routes and make a big play. He actually plays as fast as he times."

Despite his near perfect numbers in workouts, the a still several factors working against the Seminole wideout. Unlike most of the other top rated ceivers in the draft, Walker had only two years of experience at a major university. After spending his first two seasons at junior college, Walker was forced to nurse a nagging ankle injury in his junior year. Because of that he has only one year of major college experience. Some believe that lack of experience, despite the impssive combine numbers, could hurt come draft day.

"Combine workouts a overrated. He had the gat workout but that's about 10% of a player's evaluation," said Landry "As for weak points he just doesn't have a gat deal of polish, he doesn't run routes as disciplined as he needs too, he doesn't do a good job of side adjustment and ading coverages on the move. He at this point, because he is so good athletically, probably just lies a little too much on that and doesn't do the little things as well at this point."

So whe does Landry believe Walker will land on Saturday? "He's likely to go late second round or early third round... I've got him as my fifth or sixth guy and I think it's a deep year. You've got guys like (Donte) Stallworth, (Ashley) Lelie, (Jabar) Gaffney, Josh Reed, (Reche) Caldwell and (Antonio) Bryant from Pittsburgh, plus (And) Davis from Virginia Tech. So you've got a good group of guys. His weaknesses a that he doesn't have a gat deal of polish and doesn't play as consistently well as some of the other guys but I think in terms of pro potential I think he's as good as most of those guys."

The is very little consensus when it comes to Walker's place in the draft. The Dallas Morning News and CBS Sportsline's Jay Glazer have the All-ACC wideout going in the middle of the first round. However, like Chris Landry of RivalsPro.com, Pro Football Weekly and TFL Report say he won't be selected until round two. Not surprisingly Walker's agent doesn't age with most of the experts.

"He's visited nine NFL teams and is hearing from 14 of them," said agent David Wa. "I would expect that he will be a high first round pick... This is based on what teams say. I don't pay too much attention to experts because none of them work for teams. Teams don't disclose normally what they intend to do."

Wa attributes his client's skyrocketing draft stock to the outstanding combine sults.

"I think that was extmely important because it was the one measuring stick that everybody uses to see how players rate against a scale," said Wa. "It's like taking the Bar exam or doing well on the SAT, it's a scale everybody looks at and every player goes through the same workout so I think it was important for him to do well and he did gat."

Warchant.com's Analysis

This could

be a

situation whe the NFL is playing coy with some of the experts. None of the other ceivers on the board came close to matching Walker's physical testing sults. When you combine his size, speed, stngth and athleticism, with how well he played during the tail end of his senior season, including an MVP performance in the Gator Bowl, it is hard to believe the NFL will let him slip out of round one. Although Donte Stallworth and Ashley Lelie will likely be the first two ceivers picked in the draft, Walker has a good shot to be the third or fourth player selected at this position.

Walker stacks up well when compad to the st of the competition. Florida's Jabar Gaffney could be selected higher than Walker because of his production on the field throughout his caer, but that may not be the case with his teammate Reche Caldwell. The other Gator wideout has comparable stats to Walker but had a Heisman candidate quarterback throwing him the ball. Also, when you consider he is under six-foot and ran a 4.52 in Indianapolis we can't see an NFL team passing on Walker for Caldwell. Another wideout sometimes rated ahead of Walker is LSU's Josh Reed. However, Reed measud in at an unimpssive 5'10" and ran a 4.55 at the pro combine. Virginia Tech's And Davis has above average height (6-1.4) and speed (4.43) but had a medioc senior season with only 623 ceiving yards. Finally, Pittsburgh's Antonio Bryant was mentioned as a Heisman candidate in the pseason but had an extmely disappointing senior year that saw his numbers cut in half. Showing up at the combine overweight and running a 4.6 40-yard dash couldn't have helped his stock either.

Dot Com's Projection for Javon Walker: Gen Bay Packers in round one (No. 28 overall).

Up Next: Chris Hope.

Walker's Combine Results: * 4.38 in the 40-yard dash * 2.54 20-yard dash * 1.53 10-yard dash * 4.05 20-yard shuttle * 6.86 the-cone drill * 39.5-inch vertical jump * 10'6" broad jump * 18 bench psses (225-lbs) * 32 1/2-inch arm length * 9 3/4-inch hands.

Year No. Yds Avg TD Long Avg/G

--------------------------------------

2000 20 313 15.6 3 63 34.8

2001 45 944 21.0 7 63 85.8

Totals 65 1257 19.3 10 63 62.9

Thanks to Chris Landry of RivalsPro.com

Talk about it on the Football Message Board