Tom E. Curran • E-mail

NEW YORK - For a little while at least, the experts showed their expertise.

In a change from recent years, mock drafts weren’t worthy of mockery. The first six players selected went in bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang fashion from the green room at Radio City Music Hall to millionaire status on stage. The 2008 NFL Draft was moving crisply and predictably.

Then the dealing began. From the seventh pick through the 30^th, 14 picks were made by teams that didn’t originally hold those selections. And 10 of those deals were made on Saturday.

This draft was fun. The best of the best found homes quickly, giving every woebegone team at the top of the draft a new player to embrace. And then the conversation/talking point portion of the program began.

Even though they got boxed out from trying to move up for Glenn Dorsey, the Saints made a shrewd move by dealing up from No. 10 to No. 8 to get a nearly-as-promising shade tree from USC named Sedrick Ellis for their defensive line. And New England, dealing with the Saints on that pick, slid back and still addressed their most glaring need — linebacker — by selecting Tennessee’s versatile Jerod Mayo.

The Ravens got turned back in their efforts to leapfrog Atlanta for Matt Ryan and got the heck out of the top 10 by making a deal with the forward-thinking Jags, who went all the way from 26 to No. 8 to take a pass-rusher from Florida, Derrick Harvey.

And Baltimore, perennially one of the league’s best teams on draft day, made something happen by going from 26 up to 18 in a deal with Houston so they could acquire Delaware quarterback Joe Flacco. Now you can wonder about the value: Could Baltimore have gotten Flacco later? Was it a panic move? Does Flacco even belong in the first round? But the larger point is that Baltimore had a yawning need to address at quarterback, they targeted two players who they believed were best suited for them and they went and got one of them. Given their track record (Kyle Boller notwithstanding), I’ll defer to Ozzie Newsome, Erik Decosta and the rest of the Ravens draft cognoscenti.

A few moves that didn’t hold true to recent form: Atlanta and Kansas City making apparently shrewd moves to get better in key spots and the Eagles getting out of the first round entirely and not making their first picks until 47 and 49.

If you’re a Chiefs fan, you had a good week. Yeah, you lost a pass-rushing maniac in Jared Allen, but you also picked up what could be the best defensive player in the draft, Dorsey. Then your team came back and got one of the fastest risers in this year’s draft — guard/tackle Branden Albert — and added perhaps the most physical corner, Brandon Flowers from Virginia Tech.

The Falcons began putting the disastrous 2007 season behind them by selecting Ryan, and then new GM Tom Dimitroff and coach Mike Smith stayed on offense by adding a player to protect Ryan into the future with USC offensive tackle Sam Baker.

Special feature NFL draft report card The Raiders took McFadden, but was it a good move? We grade all 32 teams. NBCSports.com

Then there were the Eagles. They are simply not good enough at the wide receiver position — Reggie Brown, Hank Baskett and Kevin Curtis have not laid claim to being No. 1 caliber. They made a deal that will help them down the road, getting out of the first round for the second straight year when they traded their 19^th pick to Carolina in exchange for a second, a fourth and a first-rounder in 2009. But the wideout they wound up adding — DeSean Jackson — is a short, fast gadget guy, not a No. 1.

Another NFC East team, Washington, spent all its first-day currency on offensive skill positions. It’s great for them that Michigan State wideout Devin Thomas slid from a possible top-15 pick all the way to 34 where the Skins grabbed him, but they went back to the same well with the 51^st pick, Malcolm Kelly from Oklahoma. Sandwiched in between those picks was USC tight end Fred Davis. Wasn’t this a Redskins team that lost its best defensive player, Sean Taylor, tragically last year? The same team that allowed about 177 points to New England in the middle of the season? Yikes.

I’m sure the Skins and new coach Jim Zorn can make a strong case for their selections. Everybody can make a plausible argument in April. And that’s what makes the draft the NFL’s most interesting day when nobody gets knocked down. Everything seems possible.

MORE FROM NFL

NFL Section Front

Colts won’t be down for long PFT: Colts favored to win SB 45; Saints, Chargers 2nd   Vote: Who will win Super Bowl XLV in 2011? Offseason priorities for all 32 NFL teams PFT: Shanahan reportedly might draft QB at No. 4 PFT: Steelers or Vikings vs. Saints on opening night PFT: Peppers, Panthers appear headed for divorce PFT: Martz says Cutler not ‘difficult to deal with’   PFT: Stallworth set to work out with Lions PFT: Sapp is getting, and heeding, good legal advice NFL Section Front   Add NFL headlines to your news reader: