There is no small degree of irony attached to the wide receiver prospects in this year's NFL Draft, a pecking order in which one of the smallest players at the position will be the first to go off the board and the largest candidate suddenly finds himself in a first-round free-fall.

Physical stature hasn't become the only component on which wide receivers are evaluated, as demonstrated by the fact Florida State star Peter Warrick remains the most highly regarded pass catcher in the 2000 draft pool, but it clearly has become more significant over the past decade. And that is part of the reason the plummet of Plaxico Burress, the Michigan State standout who is nearly as large as some NFL tight ends, is so contrary to the new norm.

Make no mistake about it, big is the "in" thing to be in the NFL of this millennium. And at a hair more than 6-feet-5 and weighing in at 231 pounds, Burress is the biggest in a wide receiver fish pond in which prospects who stand less than 5-feet-10 are viewed as little more than guppies.

"He's a monster," said Washington Redskins personnel director Vinny Cerrato when asked about Burress. "His kind of size, that's the direction the game is going, with huge targets who can run through the secondary. You put him out there, and it creates all kinds of matchup nightmares for the defense. I mean, how do you play against the guy? He's like an NBA small forward."

But the enigmatic Burress, whose tardiness for some predraft meetings and absence from others has caused him to slip, has no one but himself to blame for a nosedive that eventually could cost him more than a million dollars. All that Warrick has done wrong, on the other hand, is to turn in some pedestrian clockings in the 40-yard dash.

If you are as electrifying a playmaker as Warrick, however, being late to the 40-yard tape isn't as critical. For a somewhat unrefined and undisciplined talent like Burress, unfortunately, being late to an interview with Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid because you're too busy attending an NBA basketball game is definitely a glaring transgression.

While the Eagles haven't officially removed Burress' name from their draft board, they will not consider him with the sixth overall selection, club officials told SportsLine.com. And those same officials lamented the fact his desperate need for an attitude adjustment will keep the prototype receiver from being a viable alternative for them.

At the same time, the Eagles or any other team seeking to add size to their wideout corps will have plenty of other options as this year's prospects continue the "bigger is better" evolution at the position. Of the 45 wide receivers who attended the predraft combine workouts two months ago in Indianapolis, only four stood under 5-10 and just eight weighed less than 190 pounds. The average height of the wideouts was 6-0¾ and the average weight 197.4 pounds.

Six of the wide receivers were taller than 6-3 and nine weighed more than 210 pounds.

Those numbers are similar to the averages for the wide receiver prospects who attended each of the past three combine sessions.

It has been 27 years since Harold Carmichael posted career bests with 67 receptions and 1,116 yards for the Philadelphia Eagles. But in 1973, the 6-8, 225-pound Carmichael was the NFL equivalent of a circus sideshow. Now the bigger wide receiver is the norm throughout the league. No current NFL wide receiver can approximate the overall size of Carmichael, of course, but the position literally has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade.

"I'm sure there was a time in the league when a coach would have looked at me and said, `Son, you're simply too big (to play wide receiver),' and that would have been the end," said Sylvester Morris, a 6-3, 216-pound wideout from Jackson State who could be selected in the opening round on April 15. "But now I look around (at the combine) and I'm just eyeball-to-eyeball with most of the other wide receivers here. I've read stories about how scouts want the bigger wide receivers, and now I'm seeing it in action."

Indeed, the average starting wide receiver in 1999 was a half-inch taller than his predecessor of a dozen years ago and about 10 pounds heavier. This year's draft will do nothing to reverse a trend that began with the advent of the "West Coast" offense, a passing attack which relies on size and the wide receiver position.

Plaxico Burress' bad attitude is effecting his worth in the NFL Draft.(Allsport)

In addition to Burress, who still figures to be a top 10 pick, and Morris, the pool includes bigger wide receivers such as Travis Taylor (Florida), Jerry Porter (West Virginia), Dez White (Georgia Tech) and Danny Farmer (UCLA). All but Farmer, who is also a volleyball star for the Bruins, are first-round possibilities. Ten or 15 years ago, all of them might have been forced to change positions simply to get on the field.

San Francisco general manager Bill Walsh, the man who popularized the West Coast attack, always has favored bigger wide receivers and generally is credited for beginning the trend. He noted at the recent league meetings that the pursuit of pass-catchers who fit the new mold now has been accelerated by the bigger cornerbacks being deployed by NFL defenses.

Said Walsh: "I guess it's kind of a 'chicken and the egg' sort of thing. I think to play a certain style of passing game, the one most teams in the league are using now, you must have bigger and more physical receivers. And so the defenses all went out and got bigger cover people. And then receivers had to get even bigger to counteract being jammed at the line of scrimmage. For years, you had that kind of 'action and reaction' thing going at other positions. Now you're seeing it at the skill positions as well."

It has helped that the run-and-shoot offenses and their various spinoffs, popular earlier in the '90s, are passé now. Those passing games accentuated the quickness prerequisite and allowed the smaller receivers to flourish and put up huge statistics. But the leftover wide receivers from the run-and-shoot offenses have had to reshape their games, and those who could not adjust are out of the league now, replaced by bigger and more aggressive players.

The twist there is that, at a time when so many defenses are playing eight men close to the line of scrimmage, it might actually be easier for receivers to cut through the trash in the secondary once they disengage from the initial jam. But the bigger wideouts also provide better downfield blocks for the running game, and that is a component of the size evolution.

But that evolution aside, it is Warrick, 5-10 5/8 and 194 pounds, who is the most dynamic wide receiver in this draft and arguably the most exciting offensive player overall. The Seminoles star will lead a first-round parade of four or five wide receivers and probably will have the most immediate impact at the professional level of all the prospects. Much has been made about his slow 40-yard times, and scouts are now convinced that Warrick won't ever run much under 4.5 no matter the surface, but there is no denying his big-play mentality.

Funny thing, but 15 years ago, Warrick would have been among the bigger wide receivers in the NFL. In any era, though, he would have been a playmaker.

The team that gets Warrick, probably the Cincinnati Bengals with the fourth overall selection, is going to get a guy who is magic when he has the ball in his hands. Unless the Bengals trade wide receiver Carl Pickens, they will be able to align Warrick in the slot, with Darnay Scott on the other side. That will permit Warrick to work almost exclusively against single coverage. And that, in the minds of most people, is a mismatch.

"He may not be the biggest guy," said Reid. "But you get him in a situation like that and he's going to make more big plays than anyone else. When he's standing in the end zone, no one is going to ask him about his height or his weight, believe me."

Coming Friday: The tight end prospects.