Mock Draft, First Try

Every year I say I’m going to do a mock draft in like January, and every year I don’t. So, at least I’m consistent. I will say, that for the most part, the mock drafts that come out prior to free agency are fairly worthless and just serve to drive clicks and pageviews; but that’s how it goes.

I HATE doing mocks with trades in them, but considering the smoke/fire surrounding the Vikings and J.J. McCarthy, I think I’d be doing the world a disservice by not putting something together there. I don’t want to do big old explanations for each pick, so I won’t. Starting the same as every other mock draft: quarterback, quarterback, quarterback.

1. Chicago – Caleb Williams, QB, USC
2. Washington – Drake Maye, QB, UNC
3. New England – Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
4. Arizona – Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State
5. Minnesota – J.J. McCarthy, QB, Michigan -TRADE- The Vikes are likely competing with at least two other teams to get the fourth QB on the board with Denver, Las Vegas and maybe even the Giants looking at this spot. I have no idea what it takes to pry this away from the Chargers, especially considering the new GM/Coach, but we’ll mock it anyway. Minnesota decides that it’s going to try to win in ‘25.
6. NY Giants – Malik Nabers, WR, LSU. Not a bad consolation prize, but it’s a tough year to be in this spot with all five teams in front of you taking positions you have needs at.
7. Tennesse – Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame. no-brainer
8. Atlanta – Dallas Turner, Edge, Bama. You’d think this is the first defensive player off the board considering their makeup, but you do never know with Atlanta. The whole world has Turner as their top defender prospect, so he’s another placeholder like Alt until I hear differently.
9. Chicago – Rome Odunze, WR, Washington. This is another spot where the draft could get weird. Bears could go WR, offensive line, or defense and I wouldn’t be mad at any of it.
10. NY Jets – Taliese Fuaga, OT, Oregon State. Tough one after they backfilled their two biggest needs (OT and WR) with really good players. Really good players who can’t seem to stay healthy. If the Bears do something goofy, I don’t care if you just signed a WR, I think you still add Rome.
11. LA Chargers – Terrion Arnold, CB, Bama. They got the extra picks, but now missed out on the first three WRs, so I’ll just have them waiting to fill that with volume later on and reaching a bit for the top corner on my big board.
12. Denver – Jared Verse, Edge, Florida State. Maybe in a month, we’re talking about a 5th quarterback going to one of these two AFC West teams, but I’m just not there yet on Nix or Penix. With Arnold going right ahead of them in my mock it creates a tough choice between the 2nd best CB or the 2nd best edge player.
13. Las Vegas – Troy Fautanu, OT, Washington. Another team that needs a quarterback, but is drafting too far from the top. They added to the defense already by signing Christian Wilkins and have a star WR on board. Could use another tackle to go along with Kolton Miller.
14. New Orleans – Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia. I have no idea what this team is doing from a roster construction standpoint. They probably should take a corner or OT here, but Bowers may be too tempting at this point.
15. Indianapolis – Quinyon Mitchell, CB Toledo
16. Seattle – Olumuyiwa Fashanu, OT, Penn State
17. Jacksonville – Brian Thomas Jr., WR, LSU
18. Cincinnati – JC Latham, OT, Alabama
19. LA Rams – Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson
20. Pittsburgh – Jackson Powers-Johnson, C, Oregon. With Fautanu off the board, this is a great option to help fill some needs at IOL, more specifically, the center. Sidebar: this is the point in the mock where I stop thinking so hard. A million things can happen up until this point, I’m basically going to go off of team needs, best available, and what I think makes sense; in that order.
21. Miami – Byron Murphy II, DL, Texas
22. Philadelphia – Kamari Lassiter, CB, Georgia. It’s a need, plus it’s funny that it’s another Georgia player
23. LA Chargers – Keon Coleman, WR, FSU. (Gave ‘em this one in the Minnesota trade too)
24. Dallas – Amarius Mims, OT, Georgia
25. Green Bay – Graham Barton, OL, Duke. One of my favorite fits
26. Tampa Bay – Laiatu Latu, Edge, UCLA
27. Arizona – Cooper DeJean, CB, Iowa
28. Buffalo – Adonai Mitchell, WR, Texas
29. Detroit – Chop Robinson, Edge, Penn State
30. Baltimore – Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas. Building Miami’s offense up north
31. San Francisco – Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma
32. Kansas City – Jer’Zhan Newton, DL, Illinois

New Mock Drafts will be updated first in the Deep Dive Newsletter each Tuesday leading up to the draft, you can also check out Matt‘s mock.