NFL Films produced a video this month ranking the top 10 drafts in history. Actually, picking drafts two through nine was the real chore because there never has been a better draft than the one the Steelers had in 1974.

Four Hall of Famers were in that class, two more than any other team's draft in history.

There were 26 teams drafting then. The Steelers had to wait until their No. 21 turn to pick.

Much has changed over three decades: The time put into the draft, the time of year it is held, the technology, the money, the number of scouts and media attention paid to it. One thing that has not changed: Good players can be found no matter where a team picks or how anyone assesses the overall quality of the seven rounds of the draft, which will include 255 choices over two days Saturday and Sunday.

"I think it's going to be a solid draft," Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said the other day. "There are some positions of strength, like there is in most drafts, and others not as strong."

Newsome, who has drafted some of the AFC North's biggest impact players of this century, let out a secret about how to find them.

"Do your homework," he said. "The year after the Super Bowl, we drafted Todd Heap."

Heap went to Baltimore on the 31st pick in 2001. To show he could do it again, Newsome chose safety Ed Reed with a 24th pick in 2002.

"There are always good players in the draft," new Giants general manager Jerry Reese said during workouts in Indianapolis. "You hear people say some drafts are not as good as other drafts. All drafts have players you can pick from. You have to find the right ones for your team."

And this draft?

"Overall, this is a good draft," said Tom Donahoe, who drafted for the Steelers and the Bills and now consults for the St. Louis Rams. "I'll give it a B overall. I don't think it's a great draft.

"There are some positions really strong. Wide receiver is a very good position. It has numbers, this draft, size, guys who can run, and it has the best player in the draft at that position, Calvin Johnson."

Georgia Tech's Johnson might be the best player in the draft, but he isn't likely to go first overall because of the presence of two quarterbacks in an otherwise thin group, JaMarcus Russell of LSU and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame. They're the only two whom scouts rate as having star potential in the pros.

But as many as a dozen wide receivers could be selected in the first two rounds, perhaps five in the first round. That's different from last year, when the Steelers drafted the only wide receiver in the first round when they picked Santonio Holmes at No. 25.

Other strengths?

"Wide receiver, offensive linemen and defensive ends would be at the top," Donahoe said. "The linebacker class is not as deep as it has been, but at the top, there are some pretty good guys. It just runs out quick."

Penn State's Paul Posluszny is among the handful of first-rounders.

"The safety class is probably better and deeper than the corners, unusually so," Donahoe said. "Tight end is terrible. Running back wasn't good and then 11 juniors came out, and that made it better. Still, it's not great. There are two guys at the top and then a bunch of guys."

The only two backs likely to go in the first round are juniors, Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson, a probable top-10 pick, and California's Marshawn Lynch.

It might be an overall good year for guards, but the glamour boys of the offensive line will go before them, the left tackles such as Joe Thomas of Wisconsin and Levi Brown of Penn State, both probable top-10 picks.

"He is a big, athletic tackle: Long arms, got some length," Browns coach Romeo Crennell said of Thomas last month at the NFL meetings. "He looks like he's got the kind of ability you'd want playing that position."

Thomas is a senior, but nearly half of the first round draft could be juniors. If it weren't for the 40 juniors who declared for the draft, this would be among the weaker ones.

"That's now true in any draft," Donahoe said. "If they ever change the rules and don't let the juniors out, you'll have the worst draft class ever. They always upgrade the draft and give it quality."

The flip side to those juniors who are drafted on the first round are those who won't be drafted at all.

"You still get juniors who shouldn't come out," Donahoe said. "Some make the right decisions, others are talked into it and there's no way they should leave school early."

That does not include Nigerian-born Amobi Okoye, the top-ranked defensive tackle. He's 19 years old, but he's no underclassman. He played four years at Louisville and enters the draft as a legitimate senior.

"His ability says that he is ready to compete," said James Harris, Jacksonville's player personnel director.

He just won't be able to toast his selection Saturday with a glass of champagne. Not legally, anyway.