The Latest: Wheeling and dealing begins

CHICAGO (AP) — 8:47 p.m. (9:47 p.m. EDT)

Finally, some wheeling and dealing.

San Diego traded with San Francisco to move up two spots and pick running back Melvin Gordon of Wisconsin with the 15th selection.

The cost for the Chargers: This year’s first- (17th overall) and fourth-round picks, along with a fifth-round pick next year.

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8:40 p.m. (9:40 p.m. EDT)

Saints use 13th pick on offensive tackle Andrus Peat of Stanford, bypassing higher-rated OL La’el Collins, who is still available but asked to be taken out of the draft earlier in the day.

The NFL denied Collins’ request. Though he’s not a suspect, police want to talk to Collins about the killing of his ex-girlfriend in Louisiana.

Dolphins follow by taking receiver Devante Parker out of Louisville.

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8:26 p.m. (9:26 p.m. EDT)

Danny Shelton did the draft his way.

To celebrate his Samoan heritage, the Browns’ first-round pick dressed in a maroon lava-lava — a skirt — and a white-and-maroon vest and a red lei. He explained it’s the sort of outfit he’d wear to a wedding or funeral.

The 6-2, 339-pound nose tackle walked on stage and hugged Goodell, then lifted him off the ground.

Four years ago, Shelton watched as his brother was shot to death during what is described as a street brawl outside of Seattle.

“I’ve got my brother with me here tonight,” he said.

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8:18 p.m. (9:18 p.m. EDT)

Vikings go with defensive back Trae Waynes of Michigan State, who impressed everyone with a 4.31-second time in the 40-yard dash at the combine.

Cleveland’s up next.

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8:13 p.m. (9:13 p.m. EDT)

OK, now this is getting interesting.

The St. Louis Rams used the 10th pick to take a running back: Todd Gurley out of Georgia.

This has become the least-popular position in a growingly pass-happy league — no running back was picked in the first round of the last two drafts — and the Rams selection is even more intriguing because Gurley is five months removed from a major knee injury.

But doctors say he’s on track and his combination of size (6-1, 222 pounds) and speed has some folks thinking he could be the next Marshawn Lynch. (Except he’ll talk to reporters.)

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8:10 p.m. (9:10 p.m. EDT)

White tux. Red piping. Oh, and you’ve gotta love the gold shoes.

Yes, Dante Fowler Jr. had a stylist design his draft-day outfit.

“I’m a fashion guy,” he said, a few minutes after the Jaguars used the third pick on the pass rusher out of Florida.

Really? You have a fashion stylist?

“Is that a bad thing?” he said, looking at the reporters. “I just want to look like you guys.”

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8:05 p.m. (9:05 p.m. EDT)

The Giants chose offensive lineman Ereck Flowers of Miami with the ninth pick — a selection that was met with a collective yawn inside the auditorium.

New York, which averaged only 3.6 yards per rush last season, was clearly selecting for need. When Scherff went to the Redskins, the Giants looked a bit farther down the list to come up with Flowers. He was ranked in the teens by many of the draft experts.

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8:01 p.m. (9:01 p.m. EDT)

Falcons take pass rusher Vic Beasley out of Clemson.

On stage, Deion Sanders asks him the first thing he’s going to do: “I’m just ready to go out and play football,” Beasley says.

Good thing. Falcons ranked last in total defense and pass defense last season.

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7:53 p.m. (8:53 p.m. EDT)

Touchdown, Bears!

It certainly felt like that at the auditorium when Goodell announced Chicago’s pick: West Virginia receiver Kevin White.

Fans erupted — the complete opposite reaction of Jets fans, who routinely serenaded their pick with boos for all those years the draft was held in Manhattan.

A few minutes after being announced, White came out to the stage. More cheers. And then — what else? — a big Bear hug with Goodell.

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7:53 p.m. (8:53 p.m. EDT)

Titans GM Ruston Webster says it would’ve been difficult to convince the Tennessee brass to trade out of the second spot and pass on quarterback Marcus Mariota.

“Every minute we spent with him, it just felt better and better,” Webster said.

And even though the Titans like their current QB, Zach Mettenberger, “There wasn’t enough reason for us not to take him,” Webster said.

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7:46 p.m. (8:46 p.m. EDT)

You didn’t really think they’d cheer, did you?

An annual tradition stayed right on track when the New York Jets selected defensive tackle Leonard Williams with the sixth pick.

Fans booed.

It’s been going on for as long as anyone can remember, only this time, the draft was in Chicago, not the Jets hometown.

Accounting for at least some of the booing may be the fact that the hometown Bears were up next, and their fans, who made up the majority of the crowd at the auditorium, would’ve loved to see Williams drop another spot.

No luck.

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7:39 p.m. (8:39 p.m. EDT)

Redskins select offensive tackle Brandon Scherff out of Iowa, the first senior picked in this draft.

Not that OLs ever bring people jumping out of their seats, but there were some moans and groans when Goodell announced this pick.

He’s the 14th OL selected out of Iowa since 1999.

He hurt his knee five days before last season’s opener, but missed only one practice. No surprise that scouts gave him huge props for his toughness.

“I didn’t want to let my team down, and if I could play, I was going to play,” he explained on stage after being picked.

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7:33 p.m. (8:33 p.m. EDT)

Welcome to the Rai-duhs Amari.

Oakland used the fourth pick to choose Amari Cooper out of Alabama, who immediately becomes the best receiver that beleaguered franchise has had in a while.

On the clock: The Redskins. The team fight song — “Hail to the Redskins” — is playing over the sound system at the auditorium.

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7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. EDT)

When quarterbacks went 1-2 in the draft, Jaguars fans must have breathed a sigh of relief.

Former first-round picks Byron Leftwich, Blaine Gabbert, and Blake Bortles haven’t brought many wins to Jacksonville’s neck of the woods.

With the top QBs out of the mix, the Jaguars picked Florida defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., who was considered by some to be the best player available, even including Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.

Fowler was in the house in Chicago, wearing a white tuxedo with red piping and sparkling gold shoes. After walking onto the stage, he gave Roger Goodell a nice, long bear hug.

He figures to be an instant hit in Jacksonville, which isn’t far from where he played college ball in Gainesville, Florida.

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7:22 p.m. (8:22 p.m. EDT)

Marcus Mariota can bring his lei to Music City, y’all.

Mariota, who wore the flowers while watching the draft from home in Hawaii, is bound for the Tennessee Titans, who used the second pick on the Heisman winner.

Tennessee used all but about 60 seconds of its 10-minute time allotment before sending the pick in to NFL executives.

Most people thought the Titans were open to a trade, but it didn’t come about.

Mariota and Jameis Winston are the sixth pair of QBs to go 1-2 in the draft since 1967, joining the likes of Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning (1971), Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf (1998) and Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III (2012).

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7:11 p.m. (8:11 p.m. EDT)

Whew. The wait is finally over. Thank goodness. Now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get to stress out for the next three or four years to see what really comes of the first pick of the NFL draft — quarterback Jameis Winston of Florida State.

The Bucs put an end to months of speculation by selecting the talented-but-troubled signal caller, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2013.

Winston was not present in Chicago, choosing to watch the draft at home in Alabama.

(Oh, and Commissioner Roger Goodell got booed again when he came out to announce the pick.)

Winston apparently did enough to convince the owners of the first pick that he’s worth the risk.

He’s the first QB to be selected first since Andrew Luck in 2012. Winston is also the first player from Florida State, which produces gobs of NFL talent, to be picked first in the draft.

Tennessee is on the clock.

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7:03 p.m. (8:03 p.m. EDT)

New York. Chicago. Some things just won’t change.

Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking at Grant Park in Chicago, gets booed heartily inside the auditorium while video of him officially opening the draft is played inside the auditorium.

Tampa Bay is on the clock.

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6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. EDT)

Some news in the lead-up to the NFL draft, which starts in about a half-hour:

—The league denies a request from LSU offensive lineman La’el Collins to pull his name out of the draft and be placed in the supplemental draft later this year. Police want to talk to Collins, a projected first-round pick, about the slaying of his ex-girlfriend. He is not considered a suspect.

—The Titans, who hold the second pick, will entertain offers for that pick but those offers probably won’t be coming from the Chargers. A report out of San Diego says quarterback Philip Rivers, in search of a contract extension, has been told he won’t be traded.

—The Randy Gregory watch is on. The Nebraska pass rusher’s stock has taken a hit since news hit that he tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine. Gregory was thought to be a top-10 pick, though some reports today speculate he has fallen completely off several teams’ draft boards.

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5:56 p.m. (6:56 p.m. EDT)

Are these clues? Or is he just trying to drive all those 12th men crazy?

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is trying to generate some buzz over Seattle’s draft, even though the Seahawks don’t (currently) have a pick until the end of the second round – a selection that won’t be made until tomorrow night.

Carroll is tweeting out #SeahawksDraftClues that, so far, involve a few skits from comedian Dave Chappelle’s old — and very funny — TV show.

The draft starts in about an hour. The Auditorium Building at Roosevelt University in Chicago is starting to fill up.

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3:51 p.m. (4:51 EDT)

Let’s boil it down to the basics: A group of executives at 32 multimillion-dollar companies are about to spend several of those millions, and risk their company’s future, on a 21-year-old college kid.

Welcome to the NFL draft.

Character issues are always on the front burner this time of year — and that’s never more true than tonight, where NFL executives will take all their data and make life-changing decisions about a number of players who are flawed in different ways that have nothing to do with throwing, running or catching.

Scott Minto, director of the San Diego State Sports Business MBA program, says no amount of vetting, psychological profiling and background checking can ensure a team of making the right pick.

“You see these players who have transgressions in their past and how do you decide if this player’s going to be a good employee or not?” Minto asks. “It’s a lot of money to invest into someone who’s 22 or 23 years old.”

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1:05 p.m. (2:05 p.m. EDT)

Well, it’s not exactly March Madness. Then again, it wouldn’t be a true sporting event if you didn’t have a chance to win something based on the outcome, right?

As part of its never-ending and generally successful quest to make every date on its calendar an Event, the NFL has created a contest challenging fans to predict the top 32 picks in this year’s draft. Winner gets an all-expense-paid trip to the season-opening game, Steelers at Patriots, on September 10th.

Much like the gazillions of bracket-filling contests that make the NCAA Tournament what it is, this contest offers chances to form leagues with your buddies, play against strangers and, of course, compete for the grand prize valued at around $4,800. This way, your future and your happiness as an NFL fan can hinge on every pick during tonight’s four-hour extravaganza, not simply the one your favorite team makes.

Need help? Vegas is here for ya. The over-under on Alabama receiver Amari Cooper’s draft position has been set at 4 1/2, per the Bovada website. Bovada has also set 1 1/2 as the over-under for number of running backs — an increasingly unpopular position in NFL-land — to be selected in the first round.

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11:50 a.m. (12:50 p.m. EDT)

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on the clock. The Tennessee Titans are under the microscope.

With the hours ticking down until the start of the NFL draft in Chicago, the Bucs will surprise everyone if they don’t use the top pick to take Jameis Winston, the troubled, talented quarterback out of Florida State. That surprise will turn to shock if they pass on both Winston and this year’s other top quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota of Oregon.

What the Titans will do is less certain. The smart money says they’ll take Mariota (or Winston if Tampa Bay unexpectedly passes), but Tennessee likes its current QB, Zach Mettenberger, and if the price is right, the Titans could trade that pick away.

Those potentially in the market for the Heisman winner: San Diego, which can’t get an extension done with Philip Rivers; Philadelphia, whose coach, Chip Kelly, worked with Mariota at Oregon; and, yes, the Cleveland Browns, who have two first-round picks and aren’t quite sure what they’ve got with last year’s glamour pick, quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Only a little more than seven hours to go.

And, by the way, neither Winston nor Mariota will be on hand to shake Commissioner Roger Goodell’s hand after they’re selected. Winston will be watching from Alabama and Mariota is in Hawaii.

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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL