My apologies to my colleague Ryan Wilson, who has created 14,033 mock drafts since September, but it’s time I jumped into the madness called mock draft mania.
This is my first It won’t be my last, but don’t judge me for it.
It’s one of four or five I’ll do leading up to the draft, including my favorite mock, which is the “What I Would Do” mock – the mock that usually comes closest to the actual draft.
In this one I have the Carolina Panthers taking Bryce Young with the #1 pick overall. They traded with Chicago to make the pick, so it’s bound to be a quarterback going at this point. I was in that mock with Young, but I still think it’s totally open as to who goes there. There’s a chance it’s one of the top four quarterbacks.
In this mock, I’ve got all four off the board on the fifth pick, which tells you there are a lot of teams that need quarterbacks. After Young went to the Panthers, I have CJ Stroud in second place to the Houston Texans, Kentucky quarterback Will Levis to the Indianapolis Colts at number 4, and Florida’s Anthony Richardson to the Seattle Seahawks at number 5.
The quarterback run is getting real, even if it means overtraining a few. That’s the way of the NFL. If you don’t have one, you must do everything in your power to get one.
So this is the background for my mock 1.0. It’s still early in the process so don’t grade me, but this is a good start and I only need 14,032 more to catch Wilson.
NOTE: There are only 31 picks in this mock draft as the Dolphins were stripped of their first-round pick due to manipulation.
For more draft content, check out our latest candidate rankings and mock drafts, as well as our new weekly podcast, With the First Pick, featuring former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. (Watch the latest episode below.)