This is the time of year that NFL teams engage in two fundamental activities: evaluating the players they would like to draft, and distributing misinformation in an effort to disguise their true intentions.  Bill Parcells is famous for this and with he and the Dolphins sitting atop the draft, we are likely to hear a wide range of scenarios over the next five weeks. 

A couple of rumors making the rounds over the past couple of weeks have the Dolphins looking at both Matt Ryan, QB, BC and Vernon Gholston, DE, Ohio State.  Most experts and wannabes (myself included) have had them locked into Chris Long for the past two months, but these new names could be the beginning of the cat and mouse game for which Parcells is so well known.  Or it could be legitimate that John Beck is not the answer at QB and Parcells likes what he sees in Ryan, or perhaps the ridiculous numbers Gholston continues to put up has Bill thinking of the original LT circa 1986 all over again.

Parcells has twice held the #1 overall pick, first with the Patriots in '93 when he selected Bledsoe, and then in '96 with the Jets when he traded the pick, which became Orlando Pace, to St. Louis, dropping back to the eighth slot and taking Virgina LB James Farrior.  This time around?  My guess is he would love to throw as many names out there as possible and hope he hits on one that a team is willing to trade up for.  Barring a trade down, I still think it will come down to the safest pick on the board, so I'm still going with Chris Long.

Another good example of the guessing games going on right now is the situation KC's in at five.  The Chiefs showed a real strong interest in Matt Ryan at Tuesday Pro Day.  Is this a legitimate interest, or is it an attempt to get Baltimore to trade up to five to select Ryan, therefore allowing the Chiefs to slide back to the Ravens' eight spot and take the tackle they need at better value while also picking up an extra third round pick?

The smoke screens will be everywhere over the next few weeks, so beware what your favorite team is putting out there.  At this point, I have a pretty good idea of who will be the top seven players drafted (Chris Long, Jake Long, Matt Ryan, Vernon Gholston, Glen Dorsey, Darren McFadden and Sedrick Ellis), but in what order and by which teams?  Not a clue at the moment.

And for anyone out there that thinks they can tell which player their favorite team (Patriots) will draft according to who they spend the most time with, just remember that the top of the Patriots brain trust never spent any time with Laurence Maroney (21st overall, 2006) or Logan Mankins (32nd overall, 2005) prior to making them first round draft choices.

Let the games begin! 

Deceptively Slow is a contributing writer for Boston Sports Buzz.