In the days leading up to the N.F.L. draft, the top prospects were unsettled by just how uncertain their futures were. With the presumed No. 1 choice — quarterback Sam Bradford — without a completed contract and trade speculation buzzing from Oakland to Pittsburgh, the players made their way through the pre-draft festivities with tight smiles and crossed fingers.
Tim Tebow, the Florida star who had spent the past few months remaking his throwing motion and trying to convince coaches that he could play quarterback in the N.F.L., avoided the entire scene, staying home in Jacksonville, Fla., with his family.
His fortunes had captivated the run-up to the draft, dividing pundits as few players have before. Would his sterling character and will captivate a coach enough to take on a project in the first round or was Tebow a player begging for a position switch who would tumble down the board?
In the end, neither Bradford nor Tebow had to worry. They both aced their pro days several weeks ago, Bradford proving that his repaired right shoulder was healthy, Tebow that his mechanics were improving.
And on Thursday night, each of them was a first-round pick, Bradford the top selection, as expected, by the St. Louis Rams and Tebow to the Denver Broncos with the 25th pick in the biggest surprise of the first round.
The Broncos were the most active team of the first round, trading four times — two back, and two up — and Coach Josh McDaniels showed a continued brio in his job. Since he became the Broncos’ coach last year, he has traded Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall, and acquired Brady Quinn. And now he has taken on a player who came personally recommended by Florida Coach Urban Meyer, whom McDaniels has known since he was a child.
“I was asked to do something at Florida, I was asked to run a certain style of offense,” Tebow said, according to The Denver Post. “Now, I’m getting asked to do something different. I’m going to do everything possible to do that.”
The quarterback who almost everyone assumed would go second behind Bradford, Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen, had wisely decided to stay away from New York, too, and as team after team passed on him, he drew comparisons only to others who had squirmed through the draft, like Brady Quinn and Aaron Rodgers.
Bradford and Tebow had come at the draft from decidedly different angles. They are Heisman Trophy winners, but almost everyone had wondered if Bradford had forfeited millions of dollars when he opted to remain at Oklahoma after winning the Heisman in 2008 and then injuring his shoulder and requiring season-ending surgery last year.
Tebow was a college phenom, willing to run as often as throw, a dazzling field leader with significant questions about whether he can succeed in the N.F.L., but with such a passionate fan base that in Jacksonville, many fans begged the Jaguars to take him.
Bradford was part of a nostalgic start to the draft, as teams sought players who reminded them of better days. The Rams are hoping to reprise even a sliver of the Greatest Show on Turf. Bradford had wondered why the Rams had not offered a contract before the draft, and on the day of the draft, the buzz was that the Rams were hearing from, among others, the Redskins, the Browns and maybe even the Steelers, interested in trading. (The Steelers, in the end, held on to Ben Roethlisberger.)
But the Rams had indicated they would have to be blown away by a trade offer to pass on Bradford, whose work ethic has been compared to Peyton Manning’s and who put to rest concerns about his shoulder with a pro day performance that some said was the best they had seen in years.
“I’m just looking forward to playing football and getting back out there and doing what I love to do,” Bradford said. “Obviously this year didn’t end up the way I wanted it to be. To get back out there especially with my new receivers and start getting some chemistry, I can’t wait.”
The mammoth Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh went second to Detroit, where Coach Jim Schwartz looks at Suh and sees a more consistently motivated version of Albert Haynesworth, the dominating-when-he-wants-to-be tackle he had as the Tennessee Titans’ defensive coordinator.
And with the third pick, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hope they have finally found a worthy successor to Warren Sapp in Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy, a defensive tackle who can knife through the middle of the line to get to the quarterback. McCoy sobbed when he was selected, and enveloped Commissioner Roger Goodell in a bear hug.
“When there’s a great player beforehand and people feel that you’re worthy of being compared to that person, of course you’re going to be a bit nervous about that,” McCoy said of Sapp. “He’s one of the greatest.”
When the Washington Redskins took the offensive tackle Trent Williams with the fourth pick to give their new quarterback Donovan McNabb some protection, the Oklahoma Sooners were the first team to have three of the first four picks in the draft, remarkable for any college team, but especially one that did not have a particularly good season.
“That’s insane, we can’t play football in the Big 12 and the first four picks went out of the Big 12,” McCoy said.
This was considered an exceptionally strong class of offensive linemen and four of them went in the first round, including to the Seattle Seahawks, who had Coach Pete Carroll tweeting hints for two days about whom they would select. They took Russell Okung of Oklahoma State to replace the expected-to-retire Walter Jones.
The first shock of the night came, not surprisingly, from the Oakland Raiders, who took the linebacker Rolando McClain — one of the players the Giants had hoped would be available at the 15th spot — even though the Raiders needed offensive line help. (The Giants ended up taking South Florida defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.)
Then the Bills, also in desperate need of an offensive tackle, signaled that the troubled running back Marshawn Lynch’s time might be up when they took C. J. Spiller, who ran a 4.32 in the 40-yard dash at the scouting combine.
