NFL Draft Info - NFL Mock Draft

MOCK DRAFT!

We are excited to introduce Nationally Unrecognized draft expect Steven Lourie.  Steven runs the Football Fan Spot website, a site that gives amazing draft inf, player break downs and mock drafts.  You can check the site out here http://www.footballfanspot.com/.  You can also follow Steven on twitter.com/stevenlourie

1/4/10

1. St. Louis Rams 1-15

The Rams considered drafting Mark Sanchez last year, but the truth was they had too much money tied up in the quarterback position already with Marc Bulger and his giant contract and cutting Bulger would have been too much of a cap hit. This year, they can cut Bulger and actually save money so this is probably his last year in St. Louis, unless the Rams fail to get anyone better than him. Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen is, with Bradford's injury, the most complete quarterback in this draft class and would be an excellent addition to a Rams team that already has its left tackle and defensive end of the future. Many will argue Ndamukong Suh here, but, as dominant of a prospect he is, he doesn’t have the positional value here. History has shown, if a team needs a left tackle or quarterback early in the draft, they will take that above all else, even the consensus top prospect. Remember Glenn Dorsey? How about Aaron Curry? Right now, other mock drafter seem to be split 50/50 on Clausen and Suh. For more information check out the Sports Jabber Mock Draft Database.

2. Detroit Lions 2-14

The Lions need a franchise left tackle badly, but they have proven that they will take the best available player regardless of need. Left tackle would help them and Matt Stafford majorly, but they are going to take best available player. Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh is the best available player, by far, and it’s not like the Lions don’t need any help at that position. Despite the surprisingly good play of Sammie Lee Hill at defensive tackle, they are still ranked 21st against the run, although they have looked better over the past few weeks. However, left tackle is more of an immediate need for them. I hope, if they don’t take one in the first round, that they take one in the 2^nd round, for their own good. Jeff Backus is not the guy you want protecting Matt Stafford’s blindside during his development. But, you can’t really blame the Lions for taking the best available player, especially when he’s a player that is as dominant at his position as Ndamukong Suh.

3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3-13

The Bucs want to build around their defensive line. Oklahoma DT Gerald McCoy is available. He’s not the dominant defensive tackle Suh is, but he’s a great finesse one gap penetrator at defensive tackle that could flourish if the Bucs decide to switch back to a Tampa 2 defensive system. The Bucs could also trade down if someone like Seattle offers enough to move up here and take a franchise left tackle like Russell Okung because, even though he’ll probably be the guy they’re targeting, they can get McCoy a few picks farther down.

4. Washington Redskins 4-12

Quarterback is going to be a need for them this offseason. If there was any doubt that Jason Campbell would not be resigned by the team, its gone now as he really stunk it up in the last three weeks since they hired new GM Bruce Allen. However, I don’t think they can pass on a franchise left tackle like Oklahoma State OT Russell Okung after all of the problems they have had protecting the quarterback this year. Chris Samuels might not play again anyway.

5. Kansas City Chiefs 4-12

The Chiefs desperately need someone who can get pressure on the quarterback. They had 10 sacks last season and didn’t really do anything to fix that with the exception of moving to a defensive scheme their players don’t fit in. This year, they only had 22 and their defense is being destroyed. However, this draft is really weak on pass rushers so they’ll just go best defensive player here. It’ll be hard for them to pass up Tennessee FS Eric Berry. He’s one of the best safety prospects to come out of college football in a longtime. He should become that Ed Reed type player at the next level, who makes a bad defense passable, a passable defense good, and a good defense great. The Chiefs desperately need that. Their defense gave up the 3^rd most yards of any defense in the league and the 4th most points.

6. Seattle Seahawks 5-11

There’s no question that they need a new quarterback. Matt Hasselbeck looks done back there. He’s got a bad case of Marc Bulgeritis. He’s taken so many hits at an advanced age, in football terms, that he literally is just throwing the ball anywhere to avoid hits and that translated to 9 picks over the last 3 weeks of the season. If they can get him some protection he may have one more good year in him, but that’s it. They desperately need a quarterback of the future. There are a lot of concerns about Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford, not a lot of experience under center, an injured shoulder, but this guy turned in one of the most dominant seasons in college football season last season as a mere redshirt sophomore, which a lot of people are forgetting. Plus, he wasn’t bad his freshman year either. If he gets that redshirt year in Seattle for a year behind Hasselbeck, he should be ready to take the reigns to this team and lead them to great things in 2011 and beyond.

7. Cleveland Browns 5-11

Assuming Eric Mangini is still the coach next season, which I believe he will be because he has won four straight games and the only guy they have really had any interest in bringing in to replace him is now in the front office of the Browns, the Browns will go best available regardless of position. Last season, when they needed a face of the franchise quarterback, they traded down from the 5^th slot where they could have drafted Mark Sanchez. After that, instead of drafting a rush linebacker or a running back, both of which the desperately needed, they went with Alex Mack, a center. Yes, Mack was the best player available in terms of how dominant he could be at his respective position and already he is one of the top 5 centers in the league, but still, he was a center and it was the first round. I don’t know who Mangini sees as the best players available, but there’s a good chance it is Alabama MLB Rolando McClain who would be a great fit in the center of their 3-4 defense. Very few 3-4 middle linebacker prospects have more upside than him. I could see them taking a quarterback with Mike Holmgren now in the front office which technically qualifies as a new regime, plus Eric Mangini never did get a chance to draft his own guy last season, but I think they want to see more of Brady Quinn (353 career throws is not enough to call him a bust). They are also a candidate to trade down, as they did last year.

8. Oakland Raiders 5-11

JaMarcus Russell was benched earlier in the season for Bruce Gradkowski. As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough that he was benched for the Browns 2008 4^th string quarterback, after Gradkowski got hurt, Russell still wasn’t given his job back, instead the job went to Charlie Frye, who, in his only full season as starter, threw 17 picks to 10 touchdowns with the Browns in 2006. As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, after Charlie Frye suffered a concussion in his first start back, Russell, who somehow may have accidentally led the Raiders to a win in relief of Frye, still didn’t start. The Raiders would rather start Frye with a concussion in a meaningless game over JaMarcus Russell. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they liked recently signed JP Losman over Russell. Tom Cable clearly does not like Russell and, even though Cable enjoys beating people up, Cable is likely going to be back as coach next year because for some reason, over all the other coaches that have been decent that he has had, Al Davis seems to trust Tom Cable. Or maybe Al Davis died up there in the owner’s box and no one noticed, but whatever the reason, Davis isn’t objecting to Cable being the coach and benching Russell repeatedly, so its safe to say this team is going to be looking for a new quarterback. Regardless of whether or not Al Davis is alive during the season, he always comes back to life on draft day to screw over the Raiders so if they draft a quarterback it will be one of his trademark amazing physical specimens. Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett will probably throw the ball the longest straight down field at the combine and since we all know that is the only thing a good quarterback has to be able to do, Mallett is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and a huge steal here at 8.

9. Buffalo Bills 6-10

The Bills gave Trent Edwards a bunch of weapons to work with but they lacked that true pass blocking left tackle and thus Edwards struggled this season and was benched and the Bills sit here at 6-10 drafting in the top ten yet again. Langston Walker was supposed to start at left tackle this year, but he was cut right before the season. That’s a very bad sign. Demetrius Bell, their new starting left tackle, leads the league in penalties and their offensive line as a whole had 9 false starts earlier this season in a loss to the Browns. Rutgers OT Anthony Davis has really jumped onto the national stage as an elite franchise left tackle in past weeks so he could very well be the 2^nd offensive tackle off the board. He’ll also remind the Bills a bit of Jason Peters, who worked out well for them as a left tackle for a few years before they traded him last year. Both Davis and Peters are big over powering left tackles that are overrated pass blockers and dominant run blockers.

10. Denver Broncos 8-8 (via CHI)

Remember week 6 when the Broncos were 6-0 and had a 3.5 game lead on the division and they were giving up 3.3 YPC. Those days are long gone. The Broncos finished 8-8 and 5 games behind in the division and gave up 4.5 YPC for the season, a number that would be a lot higher if you took out their somewhat fluky run stopping days of weeks 1-6. It makes sense that they can’t stop the run. They couldn’t last year and all new coach Josh McDaniels did to fix that is change to a more complicated defensive system and make a front 7 out of 2 starters from last year’s miserable run stopping bunch, a 2009 1^st round pick playing out of position, and cast offs from the Niners and Browns. They will take the best 3-4 front 7 player available here. Ohio State DE Cameron Heyward is an underclassman who has not officially declared yet, but if he does, he could be regarded as the best pure 3-4 defensive end and that could shoot him up into the top 10 like it did with Tyson Jackson last season. Scouts will also like Heyward versatility as he can play 4-3 left end, cover 2 defensive tackle, and 3-4 defensive end. His size/speed combination, a projected 4.89 at 287 pounds, will also turn some heads. He proved in the Rose Bowl that he is worth a top ten pick.