Quarterbacks Take a Hit in the N.F.L. Draft If the three massive offensive tackles taken in the top four spots of Thursday night's N.F.L. draft really wanted to display their quarterback-protecting skills, they should have gone back into the greenroom and blocked the television cameras from filming every heartbeat of Geno Smith's angst-a-thon. Eric Fisher, Luke Joeckel and Lane Johnson should have teamed up midway through the round, when it became painfully clear that the N.F.L. was trying to go cold turkey on its quarterback addiction, leaving poor Smith writhing in a chair fighting an existential battle with his ego. Because by the time Buffalo stunned everyone by snagging Florida State's E. J. Manuel as the only quarterback in the first round, even Smith's biggest critics wanted to give him a hug. As it turned out, no one had done Smith any favors projecting him as high as No. 2, so he was left to field "hang in there" messages from none other than Aaron Rodgers, a previous draft plummetee turned Super Bowl champion. Clearly, some team will be very happy to take Smith, who had made his name as West Virginia's quarterback, in the second round, and he may even use it as motivational fuel for a successful career, as Mike Freeman writes on CBSSports.com. In fact, Jen Floyd Engel writes on Foxsports.com, it might be the best thing to happen to Smith, whose story line now pivots from overrated first-round pick to reality-hardened underdog. But where were those massive offensive linemen when he needed them most? So many of them had been parading to the stage early in the first round that fans might have thought they stumbled into a Fashion Week Big and Tall show. This turned into the antiglamour draft, as John Clayton writes on ESPN.com, with not only quarterbacks being ignored but running backs too. Kansas City started the parade by choosing Fisher, who at 6 feet 7 inches and 306 pounds could block out a few suns. Eric Adelson of Yahoo.com tells the story of how Central Michigan's coaches built him into this mountain, one sandwich at a time, and Sam Mellinger of The Kansas City Star relates the story of the single mother who raised him. For the Chiefs, he is the rock on which they will anchor their comeback from the depths of football, Jeffri Chadiha writes on ESPN.com. The first round revealed that a lot of general managers had decided to play it safe, Don Banks writes on SI.com, until you got to Miami and Buffalo, who went for the big gambles. It was Buffalo's that transfixed everyone: it traded down to No. 16 to get the quarterback it needed, but then jolted everyone when it was Manuel and not Smith or Coach Doug Marrone's pupil at Syracuse, Ryan Nassib, as Jason Cole writes on Yahoo.com. It was a crafty bit of maneuvering, writes Clark Judge on CBSSports.com, and Jerry Sullivan of The Buffalo News gives the Bills a nod for being bold. The Jets got mixed reviews for their two first-round picks, both predictably on defense. And cornerback Dee Milliner was vaulted into the nearly impossible spot of replacing the departed Darrelle Revis, Gary Myers writes in The Daily News. The only team with more picks in the first round, Minnesota, was largely hailed for its haul of players, the third pick thanks to a late-first-round deal with New England. The other name that was not called in the first round was Manti Te'o"s, although this surprised almost no one thanks to a less-than-scintillating combine performance and that whole fake-girlfriend gullibility factor. He is, however, the only draft prospect to be featured in a Vanity Fair article, and he was smart enough to stay in Hawaii for the festivities, so he did not share Smith's overly televised fate. By the end of the night it was hard to tell what was more painful, watching Smith squirm or watching the Chicago Bulls play their particular form of basketball. The Bulls, however, can at least claim some success in their unwatchability, as they took a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series with the Nets. They are winning by embracing their ugliness, Michael Wilbon writes on ESPN.com, because they know they probably should not even be here, Rick Morrissey writes in The Chicago Sun-Times, after spending the season without Derrick Rose. Memphis's victory over the Clippers was not exactly a thing of beauty, either, although the Grizzlies deserve credit for milking everything they can out of Zach Randolph, as Gary Parrish writes on CBSSports.com. If you were looking for pretty basketball, you could turn over to the Heat's latest unsuspenseful victory over the Bucks, but Milwaukee has stood less of a chance in that series than Geno Smith did of escaping his televised agony. Where are those blockers when you need them?