Do I have time to do this? No. So why am I doing it? I honestly don’t know. I think I just feel I should put a bit more into the offseason portion of my blog. I mean it is half the year and there have been times I have gone dark for like a month. What will people read? The newspaper? Get the fuck outta here.
Honestly, I feel that even though this blog will turn 11 in a few months, I haven’t tried enough to take it to the next level, so to speak. Maybe not more posts but better posts. More informative stuff. It almost feels like this may be a make-or-break twelve months for me. With all the shit I have to do to get my career to the next step, it means there will be less and less time to do stuff I enjoy, like this blog. I always have to remind myself why I started this in the first place: to organize my own college football viewing. It allowed me to watch more college football than ever before and be efficient with it as well, while still making time for my kids. Then again, I ended up separated four months after the blog started so…..yeah.
So let’s just get on with the first mock draft of who knows how many leading up to the draft and hey how about that, look who’s going first overall.
| 1 | Chicago | Caleb Williams, QB (USC) |
| 2 | Washington | Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU) |
| 3 | New England | Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina) |
| 4 | Arizona | Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State) |
| 5 | LA Chargers | Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia) |
| 6 | NY Giants | Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas) |
| 7 | Tennessee | Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame) |
| 8 | Atlanta | Malik Nabers, WR (LSU) |
| 9 | Chicago | Rome Odunze, WR (Washington) |
| 10 | NY Jets | Olumuyiwa Fashanu, OT (Penn State) |
| 11 | Minnesota | Dallas Turner, OLB (Alabama) |
| 12 | Denver | Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA) |
| 13 | Las Vegas | Bo Nix, QB (Oregon) |
| 14 | New Orleans | J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama) |
| 15 | Indianapolis | Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson) |
| 16 | Seattle | Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan) |
| 17 | Jacksonville | Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo) |
| 18 | Cincinnati | Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State) |
| 19 | LA Rams | Kamren Kitchens, S (Miami) |
| 20 | Pittsburgh | Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona) |
| 21 | Miami | Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington) |
| 22 | Philadelphia | Jared Verse, DE (Florida State) |
| 23 | Houston | Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia) |
| 24 | Dallas | Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU) |
| 25 | Green Bay | Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa) |
| 26 | Tampa Bay | Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina) |
| 27 | Arizona | Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama) |
| 28 | Buffalo | Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama) |
| 29 | Detroit | Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame) |
| 30 | Baltimore | Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas) |
| 31 | San Francisco | Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma) |
| 32 | Kansas City | Tallies Fuaga, OT (Oregon State) |
I am firmly in the camp that says that the Bears will trade Justin Fields. Whether it’s before the draft, during the draft, or after the draft, I don’t know. I just can’t see them passing up on Williams when they could get him AND a really good receiver for their first two picks. On top of that, they could get more picks that will help them later in the draft or in the following year’s event. Not quite a win-win but damn near close. The Commanders and Patriots also need quarterbacks desperately so they will be watching what the Bears do very closely…and possibly even calling them to inquire about how much it would take to trade for that top pick of theirs. Other interesting notes from this first kick at the can:
- The first team that doesn’t need a quarterback is the Cardinals and they are very much hoping the Bears take Caleb Williams since it will mean that Marvin Harrison Jr. will fall into their lap. Pairing him with Kyler Murray could be quite something for a moribund Cards’ offense.
- The Chargers need almost everything that isn’t the quarterback position. If I am them, I nab Bowers, pick another receiver up later on, and bulk up the offense. Win games in true Big XII fashion this coming season. It may be their only hope at getting close to a playoff spot.
- Any potential steals here? Not really but the Saints nabbing Latham at #14 would be good value as would the Eagles picking up Jared Verse at #22.
Will I do more mock drafts? Of course. When? I have no clue.
Now let’s look at the changes coming to conferences and broadcast networks in the Fall. There really is only one major change but it does have a domino effect. The SEC is now fully on ABC/ESPN/SEC Network/ESPN2/ESPNU (if they absolutely have to be) and ESPN+ because they are contractually obligated to be once a season (at least that’s the way the previous SEC contract played out). With the SEC on ABC, they will easily get the majority of the Saturday night games. Not all, but with 14 weeks worth of games, the SEC will get no less than ten of those.
So that domino effect…SEC had every evening ESPN game last year. I can’t see that being the case since that would compete directly with the game on ABC. So they should get a lot less of those and they should get filled with the ACC and Big XII. The American might end up actually getting more games on ESPN with this new arrangement which seems crazy but with the ACC and, to a lesser extent, the Big XII getting hurt by this from a Disney/ESPN perspective, the American Conference is ready to pick up a few pieces here and there.
The Big XII won’t cry about this though. For everything they will end up losing from ESPN/ABC, they will gain more than that quite possibly from the FOX side of things. Sure, the Big Ten will get many of the Big Noon Kickoff games. But beyond that? Remember, the Big Ten has a game a week on CBS, a game a week on NBC and eight games on Peacock. Also, you might see a couple of late night Big Ten affairs on the Big Ten Network. So there will be plenty of spots on FOX and FOX Sports One for the Big XII to fill in since there is no more Pac-12. The other conference that wins here? The Mountain West. They should get a lot more FS1 games with how things are shaking out.
So even though the SEC and Big Ten will start to dominate the landscape of college football, we might get more chances than ever to watch other conferences. Now if they can just figure out how to get FS1 games up here legally and Canadians won’t have any reason to complain about access to CFB games in the future ever again (other than the one Notre Dame game a season on Peacock and weird stuff like the Hawaii Tests).
Alright more posts to come but no football for over a month. The UFL starts in late March and I’m…honestly not that excited about it but it’s football so I am sure will watch some at some point since it’s football and I love football. Better than watching the news, right? Have a good weekend everyone!