With apologies to my colleague, Ryan Wilson, who has done 14,033 mock drafts since September, it’s time for me to enter into the madness that is Mock Draft Mania.
This my first. It won’t be my last, but don’t grade me on it.
It’s one of four or five I will do leading up to the draft, including my favorite mock, which is the what-I-would-do mock — the mock that is usually closest to what the actual draft looks like.
In this one, I have the Carolina Panthers taking Bryce Young with the No. 1 overall pick. They traded up with Chicago to land the selection, so it’s certainly going to be a quarterback going in that spot. I went with Young in this mock, but I still think it’s wide open as to who goes there. There is a chance it can be any of the top four quarterbacks.
In this mock, I have all four off the board by the fifth pick, which tells you there are a lot of quarterback-needy teams. After Young goes to the Panthers, I have C.J. Stroud going to the Houston Texans in the second spot, Kentucky quarterback Will Levis to the Indianapolis Colts at No. 4 and Florida’s Anthony Richardson to the Seattle Seahawks at No. 5.
The run on quarterbacks will be real, even if it means over-drafting a couple. That’s the way of the NFL. If you don’t have one, you have to do everything in your power to get one.
So that’s the the backdrop for my mock 1.0. It’s still early in the process, so don’t grade me on it, 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 because the Dolphins were stripped of their first-round pick due to tampering.
For more draft content, check out our latest prospect rankings and mock drafts, as well as our new weekly podcast, “With the First Pick,” featuring former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. (Check out the latest episode below.)