| Authored by Jeff Risdon - 16th September, 2009 - 1:33 pm
 This is a very preliminary look at next April’s NFL Draft. Normally, I eschew including underclassmen in these mocks until after bowl season, but this year is different. With the CBA ending and a rookie wage scale almost a certain feature of the next agreement, I anticipate every underclassman with a viable shot at being drafted in the first four rounds to declare early.
Frequent readers will note that I always include the disclaimer “this is what I believe the teams would do in the situation” and not necessarily what I would do. But this early, it’s way too early to have any sort of idea about what the teams are thinking. I watched a college game two weeks ago with scouts from two different teams, and neither team has any sort of draft board or draft need ideas--they only have opinions of players, largely incomplete opinions to boot. So this edition does indeed lean heavily towards what I would do given the situation.
The draft order is based on my projected final regular season record, which is probably going to require major revision as the season progresses. It’s September, people, and this is an exercise in informative fun.
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers--Gerald McCoy, DT, Oklahoma
2. St. Louis Rams--Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
3. Kansas City Chiefs--Taylor Mays, S, USC
4. Detroit Lions--Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska
5. Cleveland Browns--Carlos Dunlap, DE/OLB, Florida
6. Seattle Seahawks (from DEN)--Trent Williams, T, Oklahoma
7. Buffalo Bills--Russell Okung, T, Oklahoma State
8. Cincinnati Bengals--Jonathan Dwyer, RB, Georgia Tech
9. Houston Texans--Eric Berry, S, Tennessee
10. Miami Dolphins--Brandon Spikes, LB, Florida
11. San Francisco 49ers--Dez Bryant, WR, Oklahoma State
12. Denver Broncos (from CHI)--Brandon Graham, DE/OLB, Michigan
13. Arizona Cardinals--Brian Bulaga, T, Iowa
14. Oakland Raiders--Corey Wootton, DE, Northwestern
15. Jacksonville Jaguars--Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
16. San Francisco 49ers (from CAR)--Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
17. New York Jets--Arrelious Benn, WR, Illinois
18. Philadelphia Eagles--Ricky Sapp, OLB/DE, Clemson
19. Dallas Cowboys--Selvish Capers, T, West Virginia
20. Atlanta Falcons--Mike Iupati, G, Idaho
21. Washington Redskins--Tony Washington, T, Abilene Christian
22. Seattle Seahawks--Jevan Snead, QB, Ole Miss
23. Baltimore Ravens--Patrick Robinson, CB, Florida State
24. Tennessee Titans--Sergio Kindle, LB, Texas
25. New England Patriots--C.J. Spiller, RB, Clemson
26. Green Bay Packers--Jahvid Best, RB, California
27. New Orleans Saints--Sean Weatherspoon, LB, Missouri
28. Indianapolis Colts--Darrell Stuckey, S, Kansas
29. New York Giants--Joe Haden, CB, Florida
30. Pittsburgh Steelers--Rob Gronkowski, TE, Arizona
31. San Diego Chargers--Charles Scott, RB, LSU
32. Minnesota Vikings--Rolando McClain, LB, Alabama |
