Tom E. Curran • E-mail

Memorable draft. Forgettable players.

That’s the skinny on the 2009 NFL draft.

It was a capital event. It had it’s breathless final 48 hours of foreplay leading in. There was the seminal moment when the New York Jets leapt up to No. 5 to take the darling of the draft Mark Sanchez and the place erupted.

There were plenty of subplots — Crabtree, Michael; the plight of the USC linebackers to name two — but the simple fact is, this influx of 256 players is not going to radically change the face of the NFL.

Think about it. When the lasting moment includes a team trading OUT of the top five, it speaks volumes about the number of impact players. There weren't any. Instead, teams tried to stockpile players in an effort to add depth.

And while the cost of picking in the top 10 has something to do with teams wanting out, don’t think for a second that so many of them would have been looking to trade out if they thought there was traditional top 10 talent to be had.

Hey, it’s not the players’ fault. And there will be stars and Pro Bowlers and — who knows — a Hall of Famer, perhaps out of this class. Sometimes this just happens.

Want an example?

Try 1988. Aundray Bruce, Neil Smith, Bennie Blades, Paul Gruber and Rickey Dixon were your top five. That’s linebacker, defensive end, corner, tackle, corner. Yawn.

And then the next year? Perhaps the greatest top five of all time. Troy Aikman, Tony Mandarich, Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders and Derrick Thomas. That’s four Hall of Famers and one monumental bust for the ages. Think anyone was trying to parachute out of the first round that year?

That’s the indictment of this draft. Too often, teams didn’t want to pick.

Special feature NFL draft busts — by school We put the spotlight on the big-time college football programs and the guys who stunk it up in the NFL. NBCSports.com

The Patriots traded down twice and took themselves completely out of the first round. The Browns traded out of the fifth, 17th, and 19th spots before finally seeing someone they wanted. The Browns preferred to have additional sixth-round picks rather than taking the best player on the board in the top 20 of the first round? Cleveland needs players at nearly every position, but that's ridiculous.

Even more of an indictment on the perceived talent in this draft were the actions of the Bears and Cowboys. Neither team had a first-round pick. And what happened when their turns came at Nos. 49 and 51 respectively? Traded out and didn't do anything on Day 1.

More often in this draft you saw teams drafting for need as opposed to taking the best player available. Why? Because, in many instances, the best player available hadn’t shown enough in his college career and workouts to have a reasonable shot at beating out the competition at his position. So instead, teams picked players where they had gaps. The Bills taking defensive end Aaron Maybin at No. 11 would be an example of that. Straight need pick.

Given the talent level this year, you have to wonder: Are the players taken at the top still held to the same standards that players in a “good” draft are? There’s no scientific answer to it, but, yeah.

Alex Smith was taken first overall in 2005 in what was a mediocre draft and, now that his career is on the ropes in San Francisco, that doesn’t make him any less of a bust.

The same will most definitely go for Stafford. He is a “could be” franchise quarterback. He is the No. 1 pick by default.

But putting pen to paper on a contract that has more guaranteed money in it than any other contract signed by any other player in the history of the game, he’s on the hook to perform like a franchise messiah.

The year 2009 won’t have an asterisk that says *Weak Draft Class. Every player taken — especially those in the first round — are now NFL first rounders and with that comes the high expectations. Even if, when it came time to make those calls, a lot of teams were scratching at the glass to get away from them.

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