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Four Teams to Watch

By Timothy Braun, April 15, 2010, 4:20pm, The Score

The NFL draft is changing format this year. Round 1 will take place on Thursday April 22, shortly after 6:30pm. Rounds 2 and 3 will take place that Friday starting at 5:30pm. Rounds 4-7 will take place on Saturday beginning at 9am. With one of the most talented drafts in years, here are four teams to keep an eye on.

1) New England: With four selections in the first 56 picks, the Patriots can reload on an aging team and have enough trade-bait to dictate what weekend selections will be like for the other 31 teams. Rumor has it Tim Tebow could be one of those four picks.

2) Detroit Lions: St. Louis takes QB Sam Bradford (I think) with the top pick. Then the Lions at No. 2 might take Ndamukong Suh, who is the best college defensive lineman I've seen since Warren Sapp was at Miami. Although different in playing styles, do you recall what Sapp did for a perpetually losing Tampa Bay team? He was the linchpin in what would become a Super Bowl winner. Could Suh be the start of something special for the Lions?

3) San Francisco: The 49ers have three picks in the first 50 selections. San Fran has been good for four years, but not great. The 49ers are one or two key players away from making the playoffs and dominating a rather weak division.

4) Philadelphia: After trading Donovan McNabb, Philly now has 11 picks. They can't sign all those players. The Eagles have five of the top 87 draft selections – which means they could trade all over this deep and talented draft to add to what has quickly become a young and growing squad.

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