By RICHARD ROSENBLATT
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Hanging around for an extra day at the NFL draft turned out well for Coby Fleener and Rueben Randle.
Fleener was reunited with his Stanford teammate — a quarterback named Andrew Luck — when the Indianapolis Colts grabbed the tight end with the second pick of the second round Friday night.
Less than two hours later, Randle was all smiles when the Super Bowl champion New York Giants selected the wide receiver with the final pick of the second round.
Both players got to walk on stage at Radio City Music Hall and receive a hug and handshake from Commissioner Roger Goodell as well as acknowledge the draftniks who were cheering for them. It was a long time coming.
“I was just waiting. There was nothing else I could do. It was all out of my control,” Randle said a day after he was passed over in the first round. “I did everything I was supposed to do, so it was up to the coaches.”
It was the Giants who decided to give the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Randle a chance to replace the departed Mario Manningham. Randle averaged 17.3 yards per catch in helping the Tigers reach the national championship game last season.
“Coming in with a great quarterback (Eli Manning) and a great receiving corps with Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, this will be an opportunity for me to help these guys out,” Randle said. “I am thankful to be here and want to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Randle was the ninth wideout taken, and the Giants felt lucky he was still around.
“He was one of those where at the end of the (first) night you’re saying he’s going to be one of the first few guys taken in the top of the (second) round,” said Giants director of college scouting Mark Ross. “Very surprising that he was still there. Just keep holding your breath, holding your breath. Nah, somebody will pick him. Until you start seeing some of these other receivers go. All right, there’s a chance and he was there.”
Fleener, at 6-6 and 244 pounds, has a very good chance to become a starter — and main target — for Luck.
“I just sent him a text message that had a lot of exclamation points in it,” said Fleener, who had 10 touchdown catches last season and 18 for his career in Stanford’s prodigious offense. “We’re very good friends. I can’t even describe how excited I am right now.”
Indy not only parted with four-time MVP quarterback Peyton Manning this year, but also lost tight end Jacob Tamme to free agency and isn’t expected to bring back injury-ravaged veteran Dallas Clark. Owner Jim Irsay also brought in a new front office team and coaching staff and didn’t bring back many of its players from a 2-14 team.
“I expected to be on a team where I wasn’t familiar with the offense or the quarterback,” Fleener said. “I can’t wait to get started, to be honest with you.”
Neither can Luck, the No. 1 overall pick on Thursday who arrived in Indianapolis on Friday, visited the place that Peyton built, and then held a news conference.
“For me, getting to play with him the past couple of years, it is speed, he is dynamic,” Luck said of Fleener. “Anytime we crossed the 50-yard line it seemed like we just said, ‘Coby, go run. Go run past the safeties.’ Hopefully it continues to work out.”
Among the other notable selections in the second and third rounds were Oregon running back LaMichael James by San Francisco, Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson by Seattle and Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw by Baltimore.
After eight trades in the first round, there were five trades in each of the second and third rounds. The final four rounds of the draft are Saturday.
The Rams opened the second round by selecting Appalachian State wide receiver Brian Quick. A day earlier St. Louis traded down twice, accumulating several extra picks and also taking LSU defensive tackle Michael Brockers 14th overall. In the second-round spot they earned for going 2-14 in 2011, the Rams took a wideout from an FCS powerhouse who excelled in the Senior Bowl, which helped his stock in the draft.
Upshaw of the national champion Crimson Tide was chosen with the Ravens’ first pick of this draft. Baltimore was projected by many to take Upshaw in the first round, but dealt away its pick. Four of Upshaw’s Alabama teammates went in the first round.
Janoris Jenkins, a cornerback at North Alabama who was kicked off the team at Florida, went to the Rams six picks after they took Quick. Jenkins, holding an infant in his arms, had tears in his eyes as he spoke by phone with the Rams.
“I just be honest,” Jenkins said about talking about his past transgressions. “I don’t have nothing to hide. That was my past, that was a year ago. I took my second route to go to UNA for a reason, to show people I wasn’t a bad kid and I wasn’t running from my problems.”
Division II guard Amini Silatolu, a member of the Little All-America team, was the eighth overall selection in the second round by Carolina.
It took 11 picks before Friday’s first trade, with the Jets moving up four slots and surrendering a fifth- and seventh-rounder to Seattle to take Georgia Tech wide receiver Stephen Hill. New York needs a deep threat wideout, and Hill was the fastest player at the NFL combine. But he also comes from a running offense.
“I feel great, especially now that I’m in an offense where I can catch the ball a little bit more,” Hill said. “Catching the ball from Mark Sanchez will be great.”
Two All-Americans defensive linemen were chosen in the second round: Devon Still of Penn State by Cincinnati and Jerel Worthy of Michigan State by Green Bay. Also chosen, by Detroit, was Oklahoma standout receiver Ryan Broyles, who wrecked his left knee in November after setting some NCAA career records.
“We have the luxury of being able to rehab this guy very carefully and let him get healthy,” Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said. “If the guy was healthy now, he would’ve been gone.”
James, the nation’s leading rusher in 2010, went to San Francisco 61st overall. He joins a crowded backfield with Frank Gore and Brandon Jacobs.
Wilson, a standout at North Carolina State who transferred to Wisconsin and led the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, went to Seattle in the third round. Ohio State wide receiver DeVier Posey, who was suspended for five games in 2011 as part of the Buckeyes’ NCAA troubles, was taken by Houston.
New Orleans and Oakland made their first picks in the third round. The Saints, stripped of their second-rounder as punishment for their bounty program — they traded their first-rounder last year — chose a defensive tackle from Canada, Akiem Hicks of Regina.
The Raiders finished the round with Utah guard Tony Bergstrom.
