NFL Draft 2011: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Draft Board Is Mark Dominik's Mystery

Love mock drafts, don't you?

What the heck do those folks know, anyway?

As the NFL draft creeps closer and closer, the mystery that shrouds the draft board at One Buccaneer Place is starting to sound like yet another sequel to The Da Vinci Code.

"I think a lot of people have pigeonholed us about what we're going to do in the draft," general manager Mark Dominik said recently. Sure enough, every mock draft has the Bucs taking a defensive end. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is going to fall into the old adage that "the obvious is obviously wrong."

It was a pretty simple call last year when the Bucs picked third. What threw a lot of guys for a loop was the back-to-back defensive tackles that Dominik went with.

Which brings us to the 2011 NFL selection meeting.

When you drop down to 20th, well, things get tougher to predict, no doubt—especially when you hear Dominik say things like this:

"Any chance you have to keep him (Josh Freeman) healthy in terms of protecting him, or give him more toys or weapons to work with, we're going to do that."

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Is that a smoke screen?

If you are to take Dominik at face value on this one, then perhaps it might shock everyone if he doesn't go defense with that first-round pick.

Offensive lineman?

This all depends on what "The Board" looks like.

Would the Bucs take the fifth-best defensive end or the second-best guard or tackle?

Dominik says the Bucs will "stay true to our board and we take the best player that can help us."

Raheem Morris already weighed in and said teams get in trouble when they put need ahead of the best available player.

All we know is that when you look at the needy side of the football, it's the defense.

When you look on the other side, there's Josh Freeman.

So what do you do? Help Freeman or stop the run?

This 2011 Tampa Bay pick, if you listen to Dominik, "may not be the position that everybody thinks we should take first."

Smoke screen or draft day shocker?

Only the board knows for sure.