That intro sounds like when The (Big Money!) Match Game 1976 would air on Game Show Network. Why did they need to put the year in? When people were watching it live, were they so fucking stoned that they had to be reminded what year it was?
Anyway, I am starting this post a couple days after Selection Sunday. Now I am not an avid college basketball watcher but I know they screwed some of these picks up. And remember, when a conference gets a team in, they get more money. That’s important. The ACC got five teams in and Virginia was one of them and they may be one of the worst at-large choices ever. A few teams that were left out, most notably Oklahoma and Indiana State, were, by most metrics, better choices. But the ACC is THE big basketball brand and only having four teams in would look disastrous. Fully deserved, mind you. But still disastrous. Luckily, I don’t care as much as I do with college football but these tournament committees are fucking terrible in every sport.
Let’s get to the root of this post: the next mock draft. I know…two mock drafts before the end of March? Haven’t done that in quite a while. And, of course, quite a bit changed thanks to the Kreepy Kombine and scouts changing their minds as much as they change their underwear (so about once every four days). Here’s the newest mock draft, now expanded to two rounds for your pleasure.
First Round
| 1 | Chicago | Caleb Williams, QB (USC) |
| 2 | Washington | Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina) |
| 3 | New England | Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU) |
| 4 | Arizona | Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State) |
| 5 | LA Chargers | Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas) |
| 6 | NY Giants | Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama) |
| 7 | Tennessee | Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame) |
| 8 | Atlanta | Malik Nabers, WR (LSU) |
| 9 | Chicago | Rome Odunze, WR (Washington) |
| 10 | NY Jets | Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State) |
| 11 | Minnesota | Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA) |
| 12 | Denver | Jared Verse, DE (Florida State) |
| 13 | Las Vegas | Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo) |
| 14 | New Orleans | Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU) |
| 15 | Indianapolis | Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson) |
| 16 | Seattle | Bo Nix, QB (Oregon) |
| 17 | Jacksonville | Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama) |
| 18 | Cincinnati | Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia) |
| 19 | LA Rams | Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa) |
| 20 | Pittsburgh | Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington) |
| 21 | Miami | Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan) |
| 22 | Philadelphia | Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas) |
| 23 | Houston | Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois) |
| 24 | Dallas | Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon) |
| 25 | Green Bay | Graham Barton, OG (Duke) |
| 26 | Tampa Bay | J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan) |
| 27 | Arizona | Zach Frazier, OG (West Virginia) |
| 28 | Buffalo | Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota) |
| 29 | Detroit | Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota) |
| 30 | Baltimore | Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas) |
| 31 | San Francisco | Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State) |
| 32 | Kansas City | J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama) |
Second Round
| 33 | Carolina | Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State) |
| 34 | New England | Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma) |
| 35 | Arizona | Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama) |
| 36 | Washington | Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina) |
| 37 | LA Chargers | Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia) |
| 38 | Tennessee | Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame) |
| 39 | NY Giants | Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State) |
| 40 | Washington | Payton Wilson, LB (NC State) |
| 41 | Green Bay | Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia) |
| 42 | Minnesota | Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington) |
| 43 | Atlanta | Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri) |
| 44 | Las Vegas | Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona) |
| 45 | New Orleans | Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU) |
| 46 | Indianapolis | Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami) |
| 47 | NY Giants | T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State) |
| 48 | Jacksonville | Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia) |
| 49 | Cincinnati | Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State) |
| 50 | Philadelphia | Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama) |
| 51 | Pittsburgh | Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M) |
| 52 | LA Rams | Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington) |
| 53 | Philadelphia | Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan) |
| 54 | Cleveland | Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State) |
| 55 | Miami | Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon) |
| 56 | Dallas | Paul Patrick, OT (Houston) |
| 57 | Tampa Bay | Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State) |
| 58 | Green Bay | Javon Bullard, S (Georgia) |
| 59 | Houston | Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan) |
| 60 | Buffalo | T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas) |
| 61 | Detroit | Christian Haynes, OG (UConn) |
| 62 | Baltimore | Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson) |
| 63 | San Francisco | Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan) |
| 64 | Kansas City | Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida) |
Are there some changes? Absolutely? Are they Earth-shattering? Not really. Although you can expect at least one of these current second-rounders to rocket up draft boards for reasons that are sometimes, well, unknown or make no sense. By this point teams should know what they see in a player. So unless that player does something negative, they shouldn’t go from a consensus low-second rounder to a mid-first round pick in a matter of a little over a month. But hey, what do I know.
Also, what is with the sudden J.J. McCarthy hype? It has that feel of some people wanting McCarthy to go higher so they are basically willing it to happen. Any team that would consider drafting McCarthy in the Top 10 is obviously fine with extreme risk. Not saying McCarthy won’t end up being good but his college career has shown nothing that says he will be a top-end starter.
OK so years ago (nine to be exact), I used part of a mock draft post to talk about sites I enjoy. And it was definitely also about helping my blog in a way since I was still pretty green at the time (two years in). Let’s look back and see if I still feel the same way about these sites.
Matt’s College Sports Media Blog – Along with Matt’s College Sports on TV is still the premier site for college football and college basketball TV scheduling news and notes. I think he still likes Formula One racing which is great if you like that. He’s also a Bills fan which is pretty damn awesome.
Phil Steele – Still the best college football preview magazine. There are other good ones out there but nothing comes close. And his site fills in the gaps. I am assuming many hardcore college football fans subscribe to his site to get a lot of great stats and gambling info. I tried it for a couple of years and it was almost overwhelming. Still…worth it just to peruse all the free stuff he does put up, which is a lot.
A Rouge Point – This site does not exist anymore. Actually, it ceased to exist not even a year after I published this original post. It’s too bad since it was a great look at sports media coverage in Canada and posted NFL and NHL schedules for Canadian viewers.
Deadspin – Speaking of sites that are no longer around, this site might as well be. At one point it was one of the great sports sites on the net. It wasn’t long after I made the original post that things started to go downhill. A site that used to be brash and willing to take on all comers became a bunch of writers who thought they were the moral compass of a good portion of the Internet (especially sports fans). Even their best writers became insufferable. Then they all got fired/walked out in late 2019 when a company told them to stick to sports which made the site even worse. Now, it looks like they have been bought out, the staff was fired (again) and they look to be getting into the sports gambling industry. Ugh.
Awful Announcing – A site that used to absolutely skewer announcers (and sometimes athletes and sports organizations in general) has gone away from their bread and butter. They still throw up the occasional great article but aren’t as good as they were in their heyday.
LSUfootball.net – The first site I came upon when figuring out the sheer amount of games available for college football viewing…in the United States. Still a very informative site.
Alright another mock draft and post in the books. I assume most of you have March Madness brackets going. Chances of me going perfect ended at the end of the first game and I’ve already lost one of my Final Four picks. Good times. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!