Mock Draft

I had some time on my hands at lunch and so I tried my hand at a mock draft. It's the first I've ever done so it's probably all wrong...

1 Houston – Teddy Bridgewater, QB
Even with Clowney in the draft the pick for the Texans has to be at QB and despite all the hype pre and post combine, Bridgewater is the best prospect here for me.

2 Atlanta trade with St Louis – Jadaveon Clowney, DE
I’m confident of this trade happening if Clowney stays on the board, and Atlanta upgrade their pass rush instantly.

3 Jacksonville – Johnny Manziel, QB
Hard to know which QB the Jaguars will love most. I’m not sure how well a Manziel type could fit for the Jags but they need a QB in the worst way and he’s better for me than Bortles. He will probably sell a few jerseys too, which will be nice.

4 Cleveland – Sammy Watkins, WR
Rumours are Cleveland don’t want a QB early, and so I have them taking the best offensive playmaker in the class in Watkins. Makes me think that surely no QB can fail with Gordon, Watkins and Cameron to throw to? Then I remember it’s the Browns.

5 Miami trade with Oakland (again…) – Greg Robinson, OT
I’d think the Raiders want to trade down, even with Bortles on the boardles. I can’t believe McKenzie who is the cautious type would blow his job by selecting a raw QB at #5. Miami need an OT because they were mean to all their others.

6 St Louis – Jake Matthews, OT
St Louis aren’t too sad that the Dolphins jumped over them, like dolphins do. They still get their OT here and Roger Saffold can be kicked inside or cut.

7 Tampa Bay – Khalil Mack, DE/LB
Can line up anywhere from DE to OLB to MLB and is a nice difference maker across on an already talent heavy defense.

8 Minnesota – Blake Bortles, QB
Blake doesn’t fall far and any of the top 3 QBs available here is almost certain to wear purple. May be the best fit for Bortles for a while, all he has to do for the most part is 1. take snap, 2. turn around, 3. give to AP. He will have time to develop you’d think.

9 Buffalo – HaHa Clinton Dix, S
Jairus Byrd may not be back and he’s not been slapped with a tag. Either safety prospect could go here and I picked Dix mostly for his great moniker.

10 Detroit – Justin Gilbert, CB
Detroit need a CB and so it can be whichever they liked best here. I picked Gilbert because I’m a Raiders fan at heart, and he’s really, really fast.

11 Tennessee – C.J Mosley, LB
Tennessee need good players most places and to be honest I cheated a bit and read other mocks to make this pick. May also depend on what happens with Verner, and if he gets away they could go CB here.

12 N.Y. Giants – Taylor Lewan, OT
Giants need to protect Eli far better, and although this may be a slight reach here it makes good sense. The only downside is less Manningface opportunities through the season.

13 St. Louis – Darqueze Dennard, CB
They’ve gotten rid of one-man-penalty machine Cortland Finnegan now, so they have a hole to fill. Having already addressed the O Line they can take whichever CB takes their fancy here. Slight chance that they could get even more picks by trading with the Cowboys.

14 Chicago – Aaron Donald, DT
They’re likely to lose Melton and basically need a warm body to anchor their D-line. Donald can be disruptive in the middle of a 43, and they don’t have many pass rushers now Peppers has lost some spice.

15 Pittsburgh – Dee Ford, DE/LB
Pittsburgh are old on defense so I feel sorry for a rookie going in here, he’ll need to study what life was like when mobile phones had black and white screens. Ford can be a contributor in an OLB rotation in place of LaMar Woodley.

16 Dallas – Timmy Jernigan, DT

Dallas need a DT and if Jerry Jones wants Donald enough there is the possibility they try and leapfrog the Bears who also need a DT. I’m saying they stay put and take Jernigan who is a nice consolation prize as the second DT off the board, and the Cowboys are getting pretty used to coming second in things.

17 Baltimore – Mike Evans, WR
Baltimore need  a few things. Mostly they’d probably like a time machine so they could go back and not pay Joe Flacco $120m, but now they have they either have to get someone here to keep him upright (and get the run game going again) or get him someone to throw his classic jump-ball to. Mike Evans will come down with plenty with his size and hands.

18 N.Y. Jets – Eric Ebron, TE
Easily the best TE on the board and the Jets need one who doesn’t masturbate in public. So far, Ebron hasn’t. They may need to lock Rex Ryan in the toilet as they make this pick though, I can imagine he wants to go defense regardless.

19 Oakland from Miami – Derek Carr, QB
Raiders drop back and snag Carr here. Cleveland may try and hijack this by leaping up but who knows; Raiders need a QB and it’s more palatable to take one later than the #5 pick.

20 Arizona – Zack Martin, OT
Carson Palmer had a decent year, and the Cards could do with protecting him in a division with epic defenses. It probably won’t work, but they are triers.

21 Green Bay – Calvin Pryor, S
Green Bay are happy to see Pryor here and they get an upgrade to their defense that just needs to give up less points than they do. Especially now they have a running game to suck up some clock and let Rodgers rest his arm.

22 Philadelphia – Bradley Roby, CB
Philly are pretty stacked on offense aren’t they? I think they upgrade in the secondary; Roby will be delighted to be in a division with Romo and Manning, because he can really fill up that stat sheet with all the picks he could muster.

23 Kansas City – Brandin Cooks, WR
Kansas need more playmakers at WR and there are probably better overall receivers on the board. But I go for Cooks because I can imagine Smith dropping him the ball behind the line and letting him create after the catch.

24 Cincinnati – Kyle Fuller, CB
Cincy are also stacked on offense, but maybe they think briefly of a WR. They have so many pass catchers that Dalton can underthrow already that I think maybe they target a better CB than Pacman Jones.

25 San Diego  - Marquise Lee, WR
Philip Rivers had a great year with few weapons barring the emerging Allen, so they can add a receiver here to give him someone else to lose his sh!t at when they drop a bad throw.

26 Cleveland – Carlos Hyde, RB
Cleveland would love a QB here. I have Carr going to the Raiders earlier though, so they are screwed on that front.  They made out like bandits to get this pick from Indy for a RB so why not use it on another one? It will help take some pressure off whichever tortured soul they draft in the 2nd at QB.

27 New Orleans – Ra’Shede Hageman, DT/DE
Big enough to fit in the 3-4 system and add to Rob Ryan’s improving defense.

28 Carolina – Kelvin Benjamin, WR
Rumours that they are cutting Mr Angry, and the fact their #2 receiver is probably a reliable return man at best means they take their highest rated WR on the board here. Deep class so you can’t miss really. Or not too badly.

29 New England – Louis Nix, DT
Vince Wilfork is coming off an injury and not getting any younger. Tommy Kelly is coming off an injury and not getting any younger. They could go WR here and help Tom Brady out, but why give him more people to not get high fives from? They need a younger anchor and Nix is a good size DT that could be scheme versatile for when Belichick cooks up another weird gameplan.

30 San Francisco – Odell Beckham, WR
They’ve been reliant on Crabtree and it showed when he wasn’t in the line up because Kaepernick effectively threw solely to Boldin and Davis. Boldin has been renewed but they need another youngster to come in when he goes and operate along with Crabtree. Seattle’s DBs will be dreaming up trash talk for whoever they take here already.

31 Denver – Kony Ealy, DE/LB
Denver need defensive pieces and he is both of those things. He’s probably a bit low here but this is my first proper mock, so it’s probably all crap anyway. He can be a pass rusher in Denvers 4-3 and taking an offensive player 1st would stink of Elway not knowing when to push himself away from the table.

32 Seattle – Jace Amaro, TE
Hard to see what else they need, so I think they may well take the 2nd rated TE on the board. That may be Sefarian-Jenkins to some, but I’m plumping for Amaro to make the offense scarier than a Richard Sherman post-game interview.

Anyone else got the time or inclination to do a full mock? It's the offseason after all, it might help you pass the time!

Pretty good picks. Only one that stands out is Mike Evans, I'm pretty sure he will go top 10, can definitely see the Rams taking him if Robinson isn't an option like in your draft.

I might have a go at a mock closer to the time, depends how bored I get at work

I'm not sure we'll go DT in all honesty, certainly not first round. Yes Wilfork and Kelly are injury old men, but the young guys like Silica and Chris Jones did well last year, and with Armstead coming back as well I kinda think were happy with what we have (Chris Jones effective as a pass rushing DT, Siliga a run stuffer, both should be better with lightened workloads)

Can't see us not going TE in the first round

That's assuming we don't trade back, which we probably will do

I usually do a mock draft every Tuesday afternoon. The Dolphins and Raiders trade is interesting. I much prefer the Raiders taking a QB back there than at #5 and the Dolphins certainly need help at OT. I do like Brandin Cooks and think he would be a good pick up for the Chiefs.