They Can’t Get Out of the Draft : Pro football: Free agents have been stealing headlines, but college players get back in the picture today. Quarterbacks expected to go 1-2.

For most of the century, the draft has been considered the only dependable way to put together a sound pro football club.

Now there is also free agency. And it may be that the coaches and scouts who have been out there all spring signing the better free agents will win their way into the next Super Bowl.

But this morning, for a few hours at least, the draft will command the attention of the nation’s college and pro fans alike, taking the NFL’s 28 teams on another April trip through dreamland.

The drafting and dreaming will begin at 9 a.m. PDT. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue presides again at a New York hotel, and ESPN will televise it until mid-afternoon.

Although it has been shortened to an eight-round draft, the last four rounds or so will be deferred until 7 a.m. Monday.

Some things to look for:

--Top pick: That will be a quarterback, as it often is, either Drew Bledsoe, a Washington State junior, or Rick Mirer, an unpolished product of Notre Dame, where he labored in Lou Holtz’s option offense. The two are expected to start the day 1-2.

Mirer is probably the better talent. But in the view of some scouts, his intelligence is suspect. They question why Mirer spent his college years learning nothing about NFL passing when he could have studied under creative passing-game coaches at, say, Stanford.

--Top picker: That will be the New England Patriots if they decide against a trade. The Patriots and Seattle Seahawks--who are both desperate for quarterbacks, to hear them tell it--earned the right to draft first and second by finishing 28th and 27th last season.

--Top talent: Probably Marvin Jones. A fast, aggressive linebacker from Florida State, Jones has everything but size. He is only about Mike Singletary’s height, 6-feet-1 or so.

Because quarterbacks and running backs are more dearly prized than linebackers, Georgia tailback Garrison Hearst may be drafted ahead of Jones. But Hearst has a knee problem that makes some scouts wary. Moreover, you wouldn’t be hearing much about Hearst this year if San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk had come out.

--Tops in L.A.: If USC leads in quality with Curtis Conway, who appears to be the most gifted of the wide receivers this year, UCLA leads in depth with cornerback Carlton Gray, running back Kevin Williams, and wide receiver Sean LaChapelle, all projected as high-round choices.

--Junior class: The draft would be rated sub-par if it weren’t for Bledsoe, Jones and the other juniors who have decided to leave school prematurely to start earning NFL salaries.

“The same has been true every year lately,” New York Jet General Manager Dick Steinberg said last week. “The juniors keep saving what would otherwise be mediocre drafts.”

--Scholarly class: Pittsburgh agent Ralph Cindrich, who supervises the Cindrich Survey of college football players each spring, said an old finding was corroborated this year, when there were also two surprise findings.

“As usual, most of the players who will be drafted (today) are from lower-income families,” he said. “They’ve been averaging $16 to $30 a week in spending money.

“The (surprises) are that they mostly come from dual-parent homes, and they’re mostly (academics oriented).”

The survey showed that 93% of the potential draftees favored college plans requiring athletes to maintain certain grade-point averages to maintain eligibility.

“I’m not sure it was that high 10 years ago,” Cindrich said.

--Free-agent problems: This is the first year that the pros will have gone into a draft with roster uncertainties created by the likely defection of some of their best players in the next couple of months.

From Phoenix, agent Bruce Allen predicted, “There will be another wave of free-agent (signings) right after the draft.”

For that reason, it would have been more helpful to the 28 franchises if there had been a free-agent signing deadline at, say, 8 a.m. today. Instead, the deadline, as fixed in the new collective bargaining agreement, will be July 15.

Had an owners’ proposal cleared the bargaining table, this would have been the last week for 1993 free-agent defections. The players, by contrast, opposed any deadline at all. The date chosen is a compromise.

Perhaps speaking for most general managers, George Young of the New York Giants said he doesn’t expect to fill every club need today.

“We’ll probably sign some more free agents,” he said.

--First $2-million draft: Under the league’s new rules, each club will be restricted to an average of $2 million this year for rookie talent, including draft choices and undrafted free agents.

That means there will be considerably less money than usual for drafted players to share. Not long ago, the Dallas Cowboys showered $2 million or so on one pick, Troy Aikman. Those days are over.

“The clubs are investing in veterans now, not untested rookies,” said Doug Allen, the NFL Players Assn. assistant director.

That is one of the major changes resulting from the new player-owner settlement.

In a sport that each four years generates more than $1 billion on TV and at the gate, high draft choices used to be among the NFL’s highest paid players. Starting this year, the league’s veterans are nudging them out.

And in that context, heavy payoffs have been going to offensive linemen. Of the NFL free agents who moved to new teams at princely new salaries this spring, three of the first four were offensive tackles, six of the first nine were offensive linemen, and 17 of the first 35 were veterans of five years or more in NFL offensive lines.

Also for the first time this year, league rules require all rookies to sign before Aug. 5 or lose a full season of pro football.

From New York, Steinberg said, “Traditionally, rookie (holdouts) aren’t drafted as high the second time around.”

--Seven next: After the 12-round drafts of recent years, this will be the NFL’s first, and last, lottery with eight rounds. There will be seven rounds next year and in subsequent Aprils.

“The (cream) is in the first five rounds,” Green Bay General Manager Ron Wolf said.

Even so, some of the NFL’s leading players were drafted in rounds that have been discontinued. Karl Mecklenburg of Denver was a 12th-round pick, Clyde Simmons of Philadelphia a ninth-rounder, Curtis Duncan of Houston was drafted 10th, and Earnest Byner of Washington 10th.

--Irish parade: Validating Holtz’s skills as a recruiter, five Notre Dame players and possibly six will be drafted in the first round. After Mirer, the pros will pick off fullback Jerome Bettis, tight end Irv Smith, cornerback Tom Carter, linebacker Demetrius DuBose, and, shortly, running back Reggie Brooks.

--Tide parade: The most talented two defensive players in the draft are believed to be Alabama teammates Eric Curry and John Copeland. They helped wheel Coach Gene Stallings to the 1992 national championship.

Fritz Shurmur, the Phoenix defensive coordinator, when asked to sum up the class of 1993, said it’s a defensive linemen’s draft, with Curry and Copeland as the leaders.

“An awful lot of them (have) redeeming qualities,” Shurmur said. “They go pretty deep in this draft, and that’s unusual.”

It’s also the final irony. The best draftees in several years will share the least money.

Cream of the Crop

A look at some of the top prospects at each position in today’s NFL draft:

OFFENSE QUARTERBACKS Rick Mirer Notre Dame Drew Bledsoe Washington St. Billy Joe Hobert Washington HALFBACKS Garrison Hearst Georgia Natrone Means North Carolina Reggie Brooks Notre Dame Robert Smith Ohio State Terry Kirby Virginia FULLBACKS Jerome Bettis Notre Dame Roosevelt Potts NE Louisiana WIDE RECEIVERS Curtis Conway USC Sean Dawkins California O.J. McDuffie Penn State Qadry Ismail Syracuse TIGHT ENDS Irv Smith Notre Dame Troy Dayton Penn State Tony McGee Michigan TACKLES Willie Roaf Louisiana Tech Lincoln Kennedy Washington Brad Hopkins Illinois GUARDS Lester Holmes Jackson State Everett Lindsay Mississippi John Gerak Penn State CENTERS Steve Everitt Michigan Mike Compton West Virginia Greg Huntington Penn State

DEFENSE ENDS Eric Curry Alabama Dan Williams Toledo Todd Kelly Tennessee TACKLES John Copeland Alabama Dana Stubblefield Kansas Leonard Renfro Colorado INSIDE LINEBACKERS Marvin Jones Florida State Demetrius DuBose Notre Dame Steve Tovar Ohio State OUTSIDE LINEBACKERS Chris Slade Virginia Wayne Simmons Clemson Darrin Smith Miami CORNERBACKS Tom Carter Notre Dame Carlton Gray UCLA Deon Figures Colorado SAFETIES Patrick Bates Texas A&M; Roger Harper Ohio State Othello Henderson UCLA PUNTERS Harold Alexander Appalachian St. Craig Hentrich Notre Dame Mike Stigge Nebraska KICKERS Jason Elam Hawaii Doug Pelfrey Kentucky Daron Alcom Akron