#5 - Electronic Arts (via trade with Nintendo; EA acquires Nintendo’s 5th pick plus Super Mario)

With the 5th pick, Electronic Arts selects Soap MacTavish from COD Academy.  He has Army experience and technical training at COD Academy so he’s probably the safest pick at this point even when you consider how hard it’ll be to adapt to a new division.  It was long suspected that EA would go for more strength in its shooter formations but having the COD Academy’s all-time leader fall to #5 was icing on the cake especially with a successful trade earlier.

“Going into the new season, we felt like getting a guy like Soap MacTavish to quarterback our shooter formation would make us hard to beat,” said EA.  “This pick along with making the trade for Super Mario gives us some pretty decent flexibility this year.”

It’s hard to argue with this pick and the trade given the recent direction of the conferences.  Super Mario could provide all kinds of experience to the team and then you have Soap with his veteran leadership to put the shooter formation in focus.

#6 - 2K Games / 2K Sports

With the 6th pick in the draft, 2K Games / 2K Sports select John Madden from the Madden School of Arts.  This is quite the rebound at #6 after losing out on Jack from Rapture State earlier in the draft.  What this pick means is that 2K Games / 2K Sports have a legitimate shot at winning the heated sports races they’ve been involved in over the years.  It’s been a while since they’ve had any big names to sell to their fans but with this pick, those days are now gone.

“Despite the age of John Madden, we feel like he has a connection to fans that we couldn’t pass on getting,” 2K Sports announced.

It’s going to be an interesting year with the signing of John Madden.  There are rumblings around the draft that he may opt to hold out of training camp for more money.  If so, 2K Sports could lose out on what would be a draft day steal.