Today's NFL draft hysteria? You can thank Mel Kiper Jr. and Joel Buchsbaum for that Posted Apr 28, 2017 What is now a national obsession and one of the biggest days on the sports calendar was once mocked as a trivial obsession for two devoted — and very different — NFL draft analysts of yore. You can’t tell the story of the draft’s incredible rise from afterthought to prominence without giving the original NFL draftniks their proper due: Mel Kiper Jr. and Joel Buchsbaum. (Yahoo! Sports)