If it's only a voice through a telephone, you almost don't know if it 's ESPN's NFL Draft wonk Mel Kiper Jr. or the NFL Network's Mike Mayock bending your ear from the other end.

Both motor mouths have a distinctive vocal edge (Kiper is from Baltimore; Mayock is from Philadelphia), an unquenchable football thirst, and an all-day engine that only fires harder as next weekend's draft approaches.

Both could be seen as acquired tastes, although Mayock doesn't seem quite as fatiguing and might carry a touch more authority, based on his brief NFL career as a defensive back.

"Whoever's listening, I can stay on a while longer," Mayock said Wednesday, agreeably running his hour long media conference call into overtime.

Well, I would have loved to, but I had to yield and get to writing - especially this Mayock tidbit on Brandon Flowers, the hard-hitting Virginia Tech cornerback:

"Flowers is the toughest, most physical corner I've seen in the last five years," Mayock said. "... He's one of my favorite players in the country."

As in most drafts with nearly every player, however, Mayock has run across split opinion on Flowers in his conversations with NFL insiders and talent scouts. Then again, his own praise for Flowers hasn't stopped Mayock from ranking Flowers fifth among draft-eligible cornerbacks.

"If you like him like I

do, you say he's a tough,

instinctive corner with great ball skills," Mayock said. "If you don't like him, you say he's short, slow and a third-round pick. Both of those are flavored throughout the league."

Even if Flowers goes in the first round, Mayock and everybody else expects two of U.Va.'s finest to get there ahead of him: defensive end Chris Long and offensive lineman Branden Albert.

Long, you know about - son of Hall of Famer Howie. Relentless run pursuer and pass rusher. Possible - but more unlikely the longer it gets analyzed - No. 1 pick to the Miami Dolphins.

Long came into the draft season on top. But with impressive game tape and a strong showing at the NFL combine, Albert, a guard, "has thrown his hat into the ring as a tackle and could be a top-10 pick," Mayock said.

Mayock said he really didn't know Albert until recently, when Howie Long told him to " do yourself a favor and put his tape on tonight. He's the most explosive, in-space interior lineman I've seen on the collegiate level. "

Albert's combine workouts wowed people so much that visions of a scarily athletic offensive tackle started dancing in many heads. That's good for Albert's draft potential, of course, and his bottom line.

Mayock grazed on a buffet of questions. Some of his bullet points:

- He compares top-rated Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan's "emotional toughness" to Peyton Manning's. "If he gets beat up a little bit as a rookie, that's just gonna make him better." If those who most need a quarterback - Miami and Atlanta at No. 3 - pass on Ryan, he probably would go to Baltimore at No. 8, Mayock said.

"That's worst-case, which could be best-case for Matt," he said. "Baltimore is closer to being a good team."

- Woe to those who spend first-round millions on wide receivers, a Mayock cardinal sin. "They're hard to pass up because they're so athletic... but unfortunately, few of them produce in Year One," he said. "I'm a big believer at running back and wide receiver that you're better off waiting till the second, third or fourth round and pick a guy that fits your system."

- Watch out for the top dramas inside the draft. As in, who becomes the second quarterback drafted after Ryan? (Probably Delaware's Joe Flacco, but teams should beware of over valuing Flacco's "big arm," Mayock said.) Who becomes the second offensive tackle taken after Michigan's Jake Long? (This is where Albert could fly off the board as a tackle pick, Mayock theorizes.) And what becomes of the draft's "high end" receivers, such as Devin Thomas of Michigan State and Cal's DeSean Jackson? ("I don't have any of them as a first-round grade, personally," Mayock said. "I think how and where those wide receivers fall is gonna be very interesting.")

As for the "rivalry" between Mayock and his old friend Kiper, Mayock admitted he keeps up with his ramblings. "I check out what he does, especially as it relates to differences of opinion," Mayock said.

"(But) the most important thing to me is the respect I get from people in the NFL for being a football guy, not a television guy. They trust me and I trust them. I think that's why I have a pretty good flow of information."

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com