NFL Notes : Draft’s Only Certainty Is No. 1 Pick; Trades May Change Outlook

It’s easy to predict who will be taken with the first half-dozen picks in the April 28 NFL draft. It’s not so easy to predict who will do the picking.

No. 1, of course, is Vinny Testaverde, the Heisman Trophy winner from Miami who has already signed with Tampa Bay.

Next comes Indianapolis, which will choose defensive back Rod Woodson of Purdue or one of two linebackers: Cornelius Bennett of Alabama or Brian Bosworth of Oklahoma.

Or--and this is where the fun starts--the Colts trade with someone like Philadelphia, which wants Bosworth and is reportedly offering wide receiver Kenny Jackson and its own first pick, the ninth in the draft.

Most likely, the Colts will take Bennett, considered by some scouts the second coming of Lawrence Taylor. If they trade down, they’re likely to take one of three running backs--Brent Fullwood of Auburn, Alonzo Highsmith of Miami (Fla.) or D.J. Dozier of Penn State.

Next comes Buffalo, which would take Bennett but may trade down if he is gone, particularly if Bosworth, who must decide by Monday whether to enter the draft, is still around. The Bills think Woodson is more of a safety and they want a cornerback, so if they trade the rights to Bosworth, they’re likely to take one of two linebackers--Shane Conlan of Penn State or Mike Junkin of Duke.

San Francisco, with a history of draft day trades, is a good bet to be active--the 49ers have two first-round choices and two seconds. They are interested in Steve Young, the Tampa Bay quarterback about to be replaced by Testaverde, but they could also use a linebacker like Bennett, Bosworth, Conlan or Junkin.

Washington may also do something, if only because general manager Bobby Beathard finds sitting still on draft day an unpardonable sin. So might Houston and so might the Giants, who added three No. 2s on draft day last year and might move up to get the right wide receiver.

The howls started minutes after the 1987 NFL schedule was released.

“I’m going to need a paper route after the first five games,” moaned Coach Bill Parcells of the Super Bowl champion Giants, are paying the price for winning--a schedule jiggered to give them maximum national television exposure and an opening five weeks of Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, whose combined regular-season record last year was 51-28-1.

“It’s not fair to our fans,” General Manager George Young said, complaining that with four night games and eight 4 p.m. starts, the Giants’ first 1 p.m. home game doesn’t come until Dec. 6.

Washington’s Joe Gibbs, meanwhile, was concerned that his team’s three Monday night games will create short weeks before three key games--with the Jets, Giants and Vikings.

But the Cincinnati Bengals were complaining about the opposite--all Sunday games and nothing on national TV despite a 10-6 record and one of the best offenses in the league.

“I really can’t understand it,” quarterback Boomer Esiason said. “You’re talking about a team that a lot of people thought was the most exciting in the league last year. I think it’s kind of a snub.”

“We’ll use this, no doubt about that,” Coach Sam Wyche said. “If people think we’re not going to be very good, maybe this will make us work just a little harder to show them, they’re wrong.”

A note on the Giants’ schedule:

Their back-to-back games with the 49ers and Redskins Oct. 5-11 represent the third time within 10 months that they play San Francisco and Washington one after the other.

The first time was last December, when they beat the 49ers 21-17 and Redskins 24-14, both on the road. A month later, they met both at Giants Stadium in the playoffs, beating San Francisco 49-3 and Washington 17-0 for the NFC title.

Dallas Coach Tom Landry almost seems to be enjoying life in the pack.

“I haven’t worked so hard in the off-season in a long time,” said Landry, whose 7-9 record last year was his first losing mark since 1964.

Landry’s problem last season may have been his success in 1985, when the Cowboys, picked to finish a distant third in the NFC East, won the title.

Landry said “that (1985) was probably the most rewarding season I’ve had besides 1975,” when he took a team that was rebuilding to the Super Bowl.

“But when you’re successful, sometimes you put off changing players when you really should,” Landry said.

So instead of getting new bodies, the Cowboys played the 1986 season with a disorganized offensive line and an aging defensive line. The age was particularly evident in the second half of the season, when the Cowboys went 1-7.

Now Landry’s looking forward to the development of his younger players, led by Herschel Walker, the first new star the Cowboys have added in a decade. He also speaks highly of wide receiver Mike Sherrard, tight end Thornton Chandler, running back Darryl Clack, all in their second seasons, and third-year guard Crawford Ker, who he hopes can become the leader on the offensive line.

There’s also 340-pound guard Nathaniel Newton, also known as “The Kitchen,” who is very quick in addition to being very big.

“If he gets down to 300 or 305, we may have something there,” Landry said.