Hey guys, I'm through three rounds so far. Here's who I have for the JETS: http://cornerblitz.com/2013/Mocks/Post-Combine/NYJ.aspx 9. New York Jets OLB Damontre Moore, Texas A&M He really shouldn't fall this far, but the combine always moves people's stock. Jarvis Jones is another option, as is Warmack, but right now the Jets have nobody to man their pass-rush positions. 39. New York Jets WRf DeAndre Hopkins, Clemson Wow... options abound for the rebuilding Jets here, as they could take a running back in Benard or Lattimore. Eric Reid at safety would fill a big need for them as well. I have Hopkins over Patterson for the Jets. It's a tough decision, as Patterson has terrific YAC ability, but I'm worried about drops and I'm worried if he's going to put in the work to get his routes right in their new West Coast Offense. 72. New York Jets FS Phillip Thomas, Fresno State The Jets will likely be replacing two safeties this offseason, and they would be happy to get last year's FBS leader in interceptions. If you're interested, view the full draft here: http://cornerblitz.com/2013/Mocks/Post-Combine/Default.aspx
I can't say I love it, but the way your three rounds play out you did a good job for the jets hitting needs with the quality available. It was good to see some bold player drops in the three round as a whole and some less hyped guys move up a bit. Fantastic job on explaining the picks over all.
Interesting reading there. This is the toughest draft to slot that I can recall. We're 7 weeks to the draft or so and nobody has separated out to be an obvious 1 or even top 2 pick. A couple of questions: Ezekiel Ansah goes #2 overall with 9 college starts under his belt? I'm not arguing the potential I just think the Jaguars have to honor the actual value of the 2 pick. If they bust on the pick they're going to look absolutely clueless to their fans and the NFL world in general. The argument in favor of the pick is that Khan is a newbie owner and new guys make mistakes all the time. Lane Johnson over Luke Joeckel? I like Johnson a lot but I don't think he's going to go over Joeckel. On a related note I don't see any of the 3 LT's dropping as far as you have Joeckel dropping, to the 11. LT is a premiere position and given the question marks in this draft I think all 3 are going to go in the top 7 or so. I could see all 3 of them going in the top 5. The Lions have 35 year old Jeff Backus at LT. They have last year's 1st rounder Riley Reiff backing him up. They have Gosder Cherilus at RT but the team apparently wants to move on. They have looming issues at RG. They need to fix the right side of the line and the LT is aging out. The franchise is built around a star QB and WR. I think there's a very good chance they take a LT and start solidifying the line. Reiff moves to RT or even RG in that scenario if Backus plays another year or two.
That was a database error... it looks like two of my picks didn't get uploaded correctly. Mingo went 17 to the Steelers Logan Ryan went 69 to the Cardinals. Sorry for the errors, guys, just getting started and running into some problems I didn't anticipate.
Your view of the Lions Oline is good, but keep in mind they have no startign edge rushers returning? (Sound familiar?) Top end pass rushers are as hard s top end oline, but the oline class seems deeper. Going with a DE that has a top end motor makes sense as well. Ansah has the potential to be dominant. He was very effective against the run this year and shows great power and quickness to rush the passer at the next level. Despite how raw he is you can see the awareness for the game and a non stop motor. He needs technique work, but its not a effort issue that will keep him out of a lineup. Idon't se the potential to be a complete bust who is out of the league in a couple year. It's more likely that he will at least become a good starting end with the up side of being a great one. You can argue that Jockel falling is a bit of a reach, but weird things happen every year. I agree that we could very well see all three left tackles gone by pick 8 though.
Thanks for the comments. Ansah I have at number two because of his positional flexibility. I've been talking to Jags fans on their board and they want to run a sort of hybrid defense where the LE (which they call a LEO) switches off between a traditional left defensive end and a stand-up player. I think Jordan, Mingo, and Jones would get run over in that position, and while I still like Moore the chatter about him has been so overwhelmingly negative that it's hard for me to picture him going 2. I'm trying to make this mock meet in the middle between the popular opinions and my personal rankings... I think some guys are way overhyped and some guys way underpublicized (Chris Jones and Joe Vellano as examples in my Under the Radar feature.) I'm trying to put my picks somewhere in the middle. Werner is a good choice I think as he only has occasional effort issues, but he's a traditional defensive end only. That's kind of how I ended up with Ansah. He's got elite movement skills and tons of athletic ability. The main point, though, is that there are no pass rushers in what is considered the top of the draft, and I don't feel great about a specific guy going number 2, but I think Ansah could fit in well with what the Jags are trying to do on D. As far as Lane Johnson over Joeckel, Johnson has an unbelieveable first step. You are not going to beat him around the edge. Joeckel, as Mayock pointed out during the combine, had a tendency to get beaten inside only to have Manziel bail him out. The Cardinals, IMO, need to focus on pass protection and don't have a mobile enough QB to cover up mistakes on the line. That was my thinking with Joeckel. Fisher I had as the number one tackle taken because of the situation I explained with Philly. If Jason Peters can go, great... but they still need to improve the right side of the line. If he can't then they'd better have someone on the right side. I suppose you could switch Joeckel and Fisher... to me it's kind of a toss-up between those two guys at number 4. I see what you're saying about the Lions, certainly. You could also argue corner, as they've needed one forever, but with both Avril and Vanden Bosch gone, they need two starters at DE. In fact, they have zero DEs under contract right now. Like you said, though, they drafted Reiff last year number one and Backus is still under contract... and if they ignore the DE spot it will put more pressure on their already weak secondary. Remember what Houston did a couple years back... Everyone said their secondary (especially cornerback) was the weak point that needed to be upgraded. Amukamara was the consensus mock pick to them. Instead, the took Watt in the first round and Brooks Reed in the second, which upgraded their pass rush a a ton. Then they took the corner Harris from Miami and Rock Carmichael the late 2nd and 4th IIRC. Even thought those two corners didn't pan out as hoped, it greatly improved their defense because they had a serious pass rush. I see Detroit with big deficiencies both at DE and CB and with room to improve on the OL, that's why I went how I did, sending them DEs in the first and third rounds.
Moore had an awful combine and suddenly everyone discovers that his tape isn't really that super impressive... Still, he's just 20 years old, had great production in SEC and has 35" arms. I think he will be a fine pick at #9. Might not bring that speed Rex and Pettine were looking for last year, but he should be solid.
Thanks, Sir. I'm actually liking my own Browns' draft the least so far lol. Anyway, 4th round is up! http://cornerblitz.com/2013/Mocks/Post-Combine/R4.aspx
I couldn't be happier with that 4th Round pick. I've been banging the table about Ellington for months now.
I would be pretty ecstatic with this draft, although I personally would rather see us draft Bjoern Werner, Dion Jordan, Ezekial Ansah, or Jarvis Jones over Damontre Moore, he played well this season, but he almost ran a 5.0 in the 40! Overall though I love the Hopkins, Ellington, and Thomas picks a ton
I can see preferring other candidates to Moore, but if you see the link above, all those guys except for Jones are gone at 9. I think Jarvis Jones would be a much better 4-3 OLB than 3-4, as he's 15 pounds or so lighter than the successful 3-4 OLBs in the NFL today.
Suggestions for 5th round pick: Michael Buchanan, 3-4 OLB, ILL 6'5" / 255lbs / 4.78 40yd / 22 reps / 33" vertical Cornelius Washington, 3-4 OLB, Georgia 6'4" / 265lbs / 4.55 40yd / 36 reps / 39" vertical
Thanks for the interest. I actually have Washington already taken at 126 to Tampa. I'm not a big fan of Buchanan. I did give the jets another OLB, though. I have the fifth round done, just haven't been able to upload it yet.
Hey guys, I got Round 5 published at a much more reasonable time today. http://cornerblitz.com/2013/Mocks/Post-Combine/R5.aspx
Happens all the time. So many people look at the combine results then rewatch the game tape with a newly acquired built-in bias. All of a sudden, the same game tape now leads them to a new conclusion on how good/bad a prospect is. I'm glad Moore bombed the combines. Hopefully, everybody in front of the Jets is foolish enough to over value the underwear olympics. He'd be a very solid pick in first round.
