A mock draft at its core is an educated guess, and there is no time of the NFL offseason in which we are more uneducated about the plans of teams than we are in mid-February. That makes putting together an accurate mock difficult, but this year the challenge moves to another level for a simple reason, at least for me.
I don’t think this draft class is very good. That’s not to say there won’t be good players available. It’s more that I don’t look through the class and see an elite class of player. My two favorite players in this draft, the guys I feel best about, play the wrong positions. They are Ohio State safety Caleb Downs and Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love.
The toughest question I faced heading into my first mock of the year was how teams will view them. Safety and running back aren’t two positions teams have been eager to use top 10 picks on in recent drafts, but with the overall lack of star power at the top of this class, could this be the year we see teams take shots on those positions early?
That’s the story of this year’s class.
It makes for ranking the players for my Top 100 free agent list tough to do. I don’t like putting older players near the top, although I will make some exceptions.
The top-ranked player on my list is Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum. He is one of the best in the league and recent Super Bowls once again have taught us the value of good line play — and the value of a center who can make calls to identify the funky looks that have infiltrated the NFL.
I usually skew younger when I put together my list. So, for example, Green Bay Packers quarterback Malik Willis is higher on here than Aaron Rodgers, even though he isn’t a better player. Why? For free agency, he would make more sense. You could get him for three years and Rodgers might — and it’s might — play one more.
