Welcome back to Mocks in the Media, the bi-weekly series where I search far and wide for the mock drafts of the experts so you don’t have to. In this post-combine edition we’ll tally results of 10 mock drafts from widely respected sports websites and see trends, common positions, and common prospects. We’ll also compare the results to the last edition of Mocks in the Media and see how the public opinion of various prospects has shifted with the NFL combine taking place .
Without further ado let’s get into it.
CBSSPORTS:
Chris Trapasso- Dalton Kincaid, TE, Utah
Ryan Wilson- Michael Mayer, TE, Notre Dame
Much like last edition, the tight end appears to be the popular pick in the Packers spot.
NFL.com:
Lance Zierlein- Michael Mayer, TE, Notre Dame
Bucky Brooks- Michael Mayer, TE, Notre Dame
The NFL.com writers don’t get crazy with it, each going with the talented TE from Notre Dame.
Draftwire (USA Today):
Luke Easterling- Dalton Kincaid, TE, Utah
Natalie Miller- Myles Murphy, EDGE, Clemson
At long last, a non-tight end predicted! Natalie Miller breaks the streak by having the Packers pick the big and fast Murphy, the same selection she had them make in our previous edition.
Pro Football Focus (PFF):
Simulator- Joey Porter Jr, CB, Penn State
Gordon McGuinness- Dalton Kincaid, TE, Utah
The AI gives the Packers a speedy playmaking defensive back out of Penn State in Porter, while McGuinness continues the ever present tight end trend with Kincaid.
The Draft Network:
Ryan Fowler- Bryan Breese, IDL, Clemson
Jaime Eisner- Lukas Van Ness, EDGE, Iowa
The Draft Network gives the Packers athletic versatile defensive players in Van Ness and Bresee, the exact type of player Brian Gutekunst has picked with 6 out of 7 (or 85 percent) of his first round draft picks with Green Bay. The lone exception? New Packers QB1 Jordan Love.
Tying up loose ends:
All in all, six out of 10 mock drafts polled gave the Packers big pass catchers, with three media members going with Notre Dame’s Mayer and three going with Utah’s Kincaid. Not much has changed in this post-combine edition in that regard: 6 out of 10 of last edition’s mock drafts were tight ends. The names, on the other hand, have changed slightly as Lukas Van Ness cracks the list after an impressive combine and Oregon State tight end Luke Musgrave (predicted to the Packers twice last edition) falls off the list after posting solid but not eye-popping numbers at the combine.
The tight end remains the pundits pick of choice. But all of that can change in an instant as free agency begins and continues throughout the next two weeks. The NFL is a week-by-week machine- nothing remains the same for long. Be sure to catch the next edition of Mocks in the Media to find out what changes as the Packers look to move Aaron Rodgers to the Jets and the free agency frenzy continues.
