The NFL draft is right around the corner. (Quite literally for this editor who can see the fountains and stage from his hotel room.)
Since the end of the 2021 NFL season, and if we are honest before that even, mock drafts have set the stage for fans. A myriad of mock drafts, including our two, published on Monday, are mostly ways to introduce prospects to fans and show how the draft could fall. Far less about the accuracy of which teams are going to draft which players.
Mock draft simulators have also added to the intrigue and, perhaps, a false sense of certainty of where players will fall.
As shared by Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report, there are a lot of variables that fans and media don’t know that teams, generally, do:
Certain aspects of the draft simply can't be accounted for:
– Full medical evals never become available
– Off-field issues aren't always public
– Interviews play a huge role
– Teams never have 32 1st-rnd grades. Usually only 100-150 draftable grades
– System-specific traits vary— Brent Sobleski (@brentsobleski) April 26, 2022
While production on the field and timed performances, at the combine or pro days, are highly valuable, the above information often trumps that but may not be known to the general public. For example, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s heart concern did not surface until he started to fall.
Earlier we shared that DE George Karlaftis could fall for unknown reasons despite him being a player the Cleveland Browns may have had an interest in if they still had a first-round pick.
The unknowns sometimes become known but, quite often, after the fact. If you see a player fall or the Browns pass by someone you’ve seen predicted much earlier, it is likely one of the above reasons is why.
