Draft yak never really dies. Saturday, ESPN's Mel Kiper offered this tip as you fill in your "2012" mock draft: Incoming Southern California freshman quarterback Matt Barkley "will be the No. 1 pick in the draft three years from now."

While on-air reporting and analysis of the draft seems more over the top each year, so are the ratings: The made-for-TV event's viewership climbed 62 percent over the past six years.

But with ESPN and NFL Network pushing each other on what had been exclusively ESPN's turf, the viewer hardly needs NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to go to the podium to formally announce picks and produce a sound bite for each team's local TV news. Thanks to reporting as well as cameras pointed at players wherever they are - ESPN alone had 19 remotes Saturday - viewers saw draftees with cellphones celebrating before getting official word. Said ESPN's Chris Berman, after a shot of Alabama's Andre Smith showed he already knew the Cincinnati Bengals would make him their first-round pick: "These guys can't keep a secret. And why should they?" (Assume by next year, Twitter will make Goodell's proclamations even more ceremonial.)

This year's big first-round flare-up came with the Oakland Raiders taking Maryland receiver Derrius Heyward-Bey, who's speedy but didn't have a lot of catches, with the No. 7 pick. NFL Network draftnik Mike Mayock had him there in his mock draft. But Kiper, along with ESPN's Todd McShay, had Heyward-Bey projected as the 17th pick. Kiper said he was "shocked." And dismayed: "I've "got" to give it an F."

Promising NFL Network rookie Jon Gruden helped his TV prospects with his draft, noting early Saturday he'd covered all the angles by getting an $84 haircut. But when it came to the Heyward-Bey hubbub, he missed the big picture of TV draft yak by saying, "(Raiders owner) Al Davis could care less what we're all saying about this."

ESPN rookie Herm Edwards showed he can avoid coachspeak with this novel take on Minnesota Vikings first-round draftee Percy Harvin: "This is one of those guys, whether he's driving a Ferrari, Cadillac or Volkswagen - even if he goes to Disneyland and drives the little cars that run on rails - he's going to have a wreck. So, you better have a good body-and-fender man."

(Harvin tested positive for marijuana at the NFL combine, according to two league executives who saw Harvin's name on the report released to NFL teams but are not authorized to discuss the subject and spoke on the condition of anonymity).

There was the usual draftspeak, but the clichÈs seemed to face better blocking schemes this year. There also were light moments, such as NFL Network's Steve Mariucci on the risks of short defensive backs - "Those guys that are short and have never seen a parade, they make me nervous" - and NFL Network's Rich Eisen on Pittsburgh Steelers third-round pick Mike Wallace - "Does this make Hines Ward the Morley Safer of that receiving crew?" Said NFL Network's Charley Casserly: "I have new respect for Jerry Lewis."

And viewers won't have to go cold turkey. Today, NFL Network will announce, spokesman Dennis Johnson said, that it will air "Draft Journey" (8 p.m. ET Tuesday), which shows how top players prepared "before" being picked Saturday.

Spice rack: Chuck Todd, the first managing editor of the industry newsletter "SportsBusiness Daily" and now NBC News' White House correspondent and political director, quoted at realclearsports.com about TV sports today: "ESPN, on television, has always seemed to be ahead in dealing with society's ADD issue. We're an ADD society now. We're entering an age in which there's no more context."

Speaking of context: Charles Barkley, on TNT's NBA coverage, talked about Somali pirates. He asked CNN's Anderson Cooper, appearing on TNT's NBA coverage in a cross-promotion between channels that are corporate cousins, "Why don't they shoot those damn pirates?" Cooper's response: "It's a good question; a lot of people have asked that." ... Mike Tyson in "Tyson", a documentary just out in theaters, on why he bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear in a 1997 bout: "I was totally "insane" at that moment." Not hard to believe.