ESPN is obviously heavily vested in Todd McShay, but it has come at the expensive of Mel Kiper. Well now ESPN is sending McShay to the Draft, to ultimately steal some of Kiper's thunder, and stage fake fights between the two, ala Salisbury and Clayton. Via USA Today....

Here's how far the notion of the TV NFL draftnik has evolved: Mel Kiper, the category's inventor, will now face off against his Kiper 2.0 — Todd McShay, who this month will be added to ESPN's draft coverage.

Kiper will be in his usual perch at the New York draft site; McShay will be at ESPN's studios in Connecticut. McShay, who last year was on ESPNews' draft coverage, will also be equipped with the same type of video screen CNN used on its election coverage, largely to zoom in on geographic areas. Rothman says: "I hate to call it our John King/CNN board, but it's the same technology. But we're not going to Google Earth the Pop Warner fields these kids played on. We'll use it to show things like best available players."

McShay's take on the board: "It's an enormous iPhone, NFL version."

Heated point-counterpoint segments are now common across TV as a handy way to convert any issue into harrumph-filled theatrics. But McShay says, "One nice thing is I've never felt that pressure, and I think Mel would agree. I don't change my opinion just to be argumentative."

Ummm, I would beg to differ on that point, but all that matters is what he ultimately believes in his heart. I have no idea when on-air fighting became the norm in the world of Sports, and while it has worked to some degree, at some point it becomes too much (i.e.- Clayton and Salisbury). When it gets to the point where it starts distracting the viewer, it's time to change things up. Hopefully that doesn't happen to the Draft.

(Oh and ESPN, I apologize for the above picture. For some reason there are no photos of the two on the media website, and that was all I could find. You have to admit it's pretty funny though.)

ESPN has a counterpart to Kiper (USA Today)

I mentioned before the draft how pointless Mock Drafts are and I think this bit of info from JSF proves that. The heir apparent to ESPN's Draft coverage Todd McShay did worse this year than he did last year. He went from 9.1% correct to 6.7%....seriously.

Out of the first 135 picks, Todd McShay picked nine for an accuracy percentage of 6.67%. In the biggest surprise of the day, McShay actually nailed one in the fourth round - Cody Wallace to the 49ers at pick #107 - no doubt by complete stroke of luck.

Defending champ Mel Kiper picked a whopping eight correct, leaving him at a sterling 5.93% accuracy rate. For all the research Kiper does throughout the year, the last pick he got correct was #22, Felix Jones to the Cowboys. That made him zero for his last 113.

Impressive.

It's even more impressive if you add that draftee Matt Ryan correctly picked the first six picks of the draft. Something that neither Mel or Todd could do. I'm not ragging on them for their horrible mock drafts (it's f'ing hard to predict over 200 picks), but pointing out the stupidity of doing so. Sure Mock Drafts are fun, but there's not a chance in hell you're going to be right.

With that said, let's enjoy Todd's 2009 Mock Draft which came out a day after the 2008 Draft!!!

Update: McShay is already contradicting himself....

An Open Letter To Todd McShay (The Arena)

Mock Draft Results (Joe Sports Fan)
Matt Ryan Correctly Predicts The Top Six (One Droo Hill)
Photo: Via The Sports Hernia