April 20, 2001

Berkeley, CA - In this week's issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, Cal defensive end Andre Carter's draft status is examined by writer John O'Keefe and it presents a puzzling picture for Saturday's NFL draft.

Sports Illustrated surveyed five different draft pronostigators' predictions on the first round and found Carter going anywhere from the No. 1 choice to undrafted in the first round.

Among those sites surveyed, footbalsfuture.com lists Carter as potentially the top pick of the entire draft. Others were nfldraftdigest.-rivals.com, which has Carter being picked ninth by the San Francisco 49ers, gbnreport.com and profootballinsider.net, which projects Carter as the 18th pick by the Detroit Lions. Russ Lande of realnfl.com has Carter going anywhere from the ninth pick to being undrafted in the first round.

Other Cal players who potentially will be drafted or sign as free agents are punter Nick Harris, offensive lineman Reed Diehl, cornerback Chidi Iwuoma, defensive tackle Jacob Waasdorp and defensive end Sean Paga.

Harris has been projected as the first punter to be picked and one prediction has him going in the second round to the Tampa Bay Bucs. He generally is considered to go somewhere between the third and sixth rounds. Diegl, Iwuoma and Waasdorp are all questionable late round picks, but have been drawing a great deal of interest. They certainly will all sign free agent contracts very soon after the draft if their name is not selected. The same goes for Paga, who is seen by some as a tremendous special teams prospect.

Others who could be signed as free agents are Harold Pearson, Brian Surgener and Keala Keanaaina.

Below is a list of the projections by the various websites and other experts on Andre Carter.

Andre Carter Draft Projections

ESPN.com (Mel Kiper) No. 13 pick Jacksonville

Sports Illustrated (Paul Zimmerman) No. 8 pick Chicago

CBSsportsline.com (Len Pasquarelli) No. 8 pick Chicago

CBSsportsline.com (Frank Coyle) No. 17 pick Seattle

Sporting News No. 14 pick Buffalo

Profootballinsider.net No. 18 pick Detroit

Gbnreport.com No. 18 pick Detroit

Nfldraftdigest.-rivals.com No. 9 pick San Franicsco