Mallet Keeps it Short and Sweet

Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallet has been appearing on the Dan Patrick show in recent weeks, which is either because he likes the program, or because someone told him that appearing there made Charlie Sheen famous. Maybe not the right kind of famous, but famous nonetheless.

As seen in the short transcript below, Mallet is not acting nuts. In fact, he's doing a nice job of keeping his radio answers short enough to avoid most of the serious problems that befall a potential draft pick making the mistake of talking to the media.

Linking Mallet and the Bengals makes sense from a need perspective, if one believes that Carson Palmer will eventually get his wish to leave the franchise... but doesn't make much sense from a draft position perspective.

As you can see on the Legendary Mock Draft Muncher, Mallet is consistently targeted in the middle of the first round, making him either a trade-up or trade-down candidate for the Bengals, unless he simply falls through the first round. Patrick asks him if he would mind being a second-round pick below.

The Bengals, if they really want a quarterback, have a good chance of being able to take their pick where they currently sit, and the draftniks are clearly saying that Mallet would be a reach at their current draft slot.

Patrick: What do you think the Bengals will ask you?
 
Mallet:  They just want to go through my football IQ and get to know me as a person and how I'd fit in the organization.
 
DP: How concerned are you about what other teams are asking about you?
 
RM: "That's their job to find out everything they can know about you and it's an investment for them. So anything they can find out is what they're going to do."
 
DP: If you're a 2nd round draft pick, you don't care?
 
RM: "No not at all. Obviously I'd like to go in the first but if that happens it happens."
 

- Barry