The Redskins were the second team to orchestrate a trade down in the first round, dealing the 10th overall pick to the Jaguars to acquire the 16th selection and the No. 49 choice, in the second round.

The first big shock of the draft didn’t last long. It went precisely four picks, from the time the Titans took Jake Locker eighth overall until the Vikings made Christian Ponder the 12th pick overall and the fourth quarterback selected in the draft.

Jake Locker, and not Blaine Gabbert, was the second quarterback taken in the 2011 NFL Draft, as the Titans provided the first true surprise pick at eighth overall.

The Cardinals, one of many top-10 teams believed to need a quarterback, passed on the opportunity to select Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert with the fifth overall pick in the draft.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the media rounds inside Radio City Music Hall before the opening of Thursday night’s draft and sat down for a conversation with NFL Network’s Rich Eisen.

The chants of “We want football!” followed a chorus of boos after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was introduced on the stage Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall before the start of the 2011 NFL Draft.

It’s a longstanding strategy among teams to avoid drafting interior offensive linemen too early, based on their value in relation to other positions. But we know this draft is setting up to be unlike any other.

Radio City Music Hall prepares for the 2011 NFL Draft.

Some scouts and analysts will tell you Patrick Peterson is as talented as any prospect in the 2011 NFL Draft. Some will even go as far as to say that he might very well be the best player in the draft.

With the strong bond of a long-standing friendship, the top two receivers in the 2011 NFL Draft are taking a buddy-system mentality into Thursday night’s first round.

NEW YORK –- In the days leading up to the NFL Draft, much of what prognosticators see playing out is a matter of educated guessing. But some names continue to emerge as players who could slide in the first round Thursday night — a topic that was discussed among NFL Network’s analysts during their Tuesday production meeting.

NEW YORK – It’s not the most formal of mock drafts, but the NFL Network’s third annual roundtable mock draft is one of our last looks at how the analysts see the first round of the NFL Draft unfolding.

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock spent 90 minutes Wednesday on a conference call talking with reporters about the 2011 NFL Draft. Those 90 minutes proved to be a gold mine of pre-draft knowledge, with Mayock sharing his thoughts on many of the prospects and what NFL teams are thinking.

There are 21 days until the 2011 NFL Draft festivities get under way at Radio City Music Hall.

Until then, we looked into the relevance “21″ has to April’s big weekend.

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock discusses the quarterbacks of the 2011 draft class, including why to keep an eye on seniors Jake Locker and Andy Dalton.