NEW YORK – Two days before the NFL draft, even the players who will be picked at the top are tired of listening to the chatter and reading the gossip.

In other words, just get on with it.

“There’s so much uncertainty I don’t even pay attention to what they’re saying anymore,” Southern Cal quarterback Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, said Thursday during an NFL-sponsored media session for six of the top prospective draftees. Those players have spent the last few days in New York at similar events leading up to Saturday’s lottery at Radio City Music Hall.

“I don’t want to watch television. I don’t want to look at mock drafts. I just want it to happen.”

Of all the top picks – and there’s a general consensus on the top 10 or 12, Leinart seems to be the one sliding in the final days, although no one is sure why. In fact, there are a few people who think he could end up going to Minnesota at No. 17, 16 spots below where he almost surely would have been selected if he had come out a year ago, and 10 spots or more below where he is likely to end up.

That is typical of this draft season, in which everything is murky, in part because of an unusually long period between the end of the college season and the draft. That gives teams all the opportunity in the world to overanalyze everyone, even Reggie Bush, Leinart’s Trojans teammate, his successor as the Heisman winner and the player almost everyone has conceded Houston will take with the top pick.

Even that seems a bit up in the air. But just a bit.

The Texans announced Wednesday they are negotiating with both Bush and Mario Williams, the North Carolina State defensive end who has been described as a cross between Julius Peppers and Lawrence Taylor, who both played at rival North Carolina. Williams’ stock has been soaring and Houston owner Bob McNair, who was at Thursday’s gathering, said there is still discussion about the choice.

McNair said the negotiations are important so the Texans can avoid a holdout.

But he said the indecision is legitimate – it usually is a ruse – because the front office still hasn’t decided which of the two can provide the most help to his team, which finished 2-14 last season.

“We are very serious about this, not nervous,” McNair said. “We will address where we have the greatest needs and where the player can help us the most. It’s not often we have the opportunity to select a player of this caliber. You want to make a pick of a player who will be with you and make a contribution for a long period of time.”