Hey guys. First time making a mock. Wanted to get one in before the draft! Round 1: Ryan Shazier, LB Ohio State At first I had Roby here. I'm very high on Roby and it's obvious that the Jets are as well. It's very likely that he's our man in the first and his value is certainly worthy of the pick. A Milliner-Roby tandem would be damn solid. However, most mocks I've seen have Shazier going in the mid 20's range. If he falls to our pick he is way to good to pass up. Expect the unexpected; this would be like the Sheldon Richardson pick of last year. Shazier is an amazing athelete and football player. His pro day 40 was a blazing 4.36. He is a tackle machine, hits like a truck, is a disruptive force in the backfield, and he is great in coverage too. He fits perfect in a 3-4, in the NFL he'll probably be an OLB or Safety, but Rex would be in heaven with the options he'd have lining this guy up anywhere on the field. Round 2: Austin-Sefarian Jenkins, TE Washington Trade: the 49th, 115th, and 209th to move into the mid 30's (WAS, OAK, TB are potential partners) I really want to pick Jordan Matthews here. That said, ASJ is a physical giant and has great hands. He will be a difference maker. He's a cut above every other TE in this class but not working out at the combine has dropped him into the second round. This can be good luck for the Jets because he could have been a first round pick otherwise. Round 3: Cody Latimer, WR Indiana Great athlete, amazing hands, and very good route running. He was flying under the radar but now he's shooting up the draft boards, he very well might not last to the third as I'm seeing him getting 2nd round and even some first round grades now. If I'm the GM and I got the sense that Latimer would not last to this round, then I'm taking Jordan Matthews or Latimer in the 2nd and forgetting about ASJ because we really need a top receiver more than another pass catching TE in my opinion. If that was the case then I'd probably look CB here, Stanley Jean-Baptiste from Nebraska or Keith McGill from Utah should still be available. Round 4: QB Tom Savage, QB Pittsburgh Big body. Strong arm. Great pocket passer. Tries to force throws sometimes but not a wild gunslinger. Best pro-style traditional QB prospect in this draft. Was considered a 5th rounder at best a few months ago, but has risen the boards, now there are rumors that he may go as high as an early 2nd. I really have no idea how it will play out, but if he is still around by the 4th I'm jumping on it. QB may seem like a wasted pick with so many holes but I think Savage is top of the class and the value is just too good to pass on. Round 4: Kevin Pierre-Louis, OLB Boston College I wanted a CB here but the value is just not there. This guy, however, is so underrated. He's rated as a 5th to 6th rounder or UDFA by most. The mainstream is completely wrong on him. Great college player and his combine was amazing, he is athletically on the level of a first round pick. This is an absolute steal. Round 5: Michael Campanaro, WR Wake Forest Another very underrated player. I'd easily take him in the 4th (there's lots of good value to be had in that 4th round, I'm almost second guessing that trade up in the 2nd). I've seen him projected from 5th to 7th or UDFA. He's that small and elusive but strong receiver with blazing speed that everyone wants us to get. Cooks is on another level but Campanaro is not that far behind and targeting him in the later rounds makes it easy to bypass Cooks in the first. Round 6: Russell Bodine, OG North Carolina Dude is strong. Tied for 10th all time for most bench press reps at the combine with 42. Described as tenacious. Can play Guard or Center. Projects as a future starter. Round 6: Bennett Jackson, CB Notre Dame 5'11, 195. Long arms, physical. Good vs the run. Good special teams player. Round 6: Tom Hornsey, P Memphis It's between him and Kirby Van Der Kamp. VDK's is the better directional punter but his yards per punt average has gone down every year while Hornsey's has gone up. Round 7: Gregory Ducre, CB Washington Had an impressive pro day that included running a 4.32 40. Only Dri Archer had a faster 40 time.
I hope not. I think my favourite pick out of the bunch is the punter and he's probably not even the best punter. Plus a trade up for a TE? No thanks.
I like most of the picks but not Shazier in the 1st unless they drop down to the late twenties and get more picks. I think he's a reach at 18. Also I think its optimistic to think that Lattimer and Savage last until the 3rd and 4th rounds. At worst I think each goes one round earlier. Bodine is a beast! That dude could probably bench press a Prius!
Latimer might be one of the final picks in round 1. He's really teared the past few months up. Not one safety in this mock really hurts as I am not comfortable with the group of safeties we have on this team maybe outside of AA. They just do nothing for me when it comes to coverage, and with our CBs being as big of a ?, I at the very least want one safety taken from round 4(Or round 3). I would take 2, one FS and one SS with the SS being one of the 6 round picks. QB going before a safety or CB just hurts and Savage I never got the hype for. Thought he was lost at Rutgers and was inconsistent with his brief time with the Panthers(Though he had a good game vs Notre Dame, which I think is one of his resume padders for this draft) If Rex is going to be in his final year where Idzik finally gets his own head coach, I just can't imagine he tries to sell to interested coaches that we have our franchise QB in Geno Smith or Tom Savage and expect to get any hot coordinator. Jackson gets beat a lot from what I saw at ND and doesn't have the makeup speed to afford that in the next level but he is a good tackler indeed.
I like the ASJ and Savage pick but please no Shazier at 18. If he was the pick I would curl up in the fetal position and cry. That would ruin Thursday for me. I would want idzik gone from my team if he did this.
My Irish alumni friends say that Jackson is pretty much a Darrin Walls clone with better hands (former WR) and he takes more chances.
Shazier is too good to pass or risk trading down if he's there. I keep seeing him mocked to the Saints at the 27th but If he makes it past the 18th I could see him going as early as 20th to the Cardinals since they have a need there and run a creative 3-4. I expect we are going to pick Roby (or maybe Cooks) but if we are truly going BPA, then Shazier is the BPA. In '13 he led the big 10 in total tackles and solo tackles and was 3rd in the NCAA in tackles and 2nd in the NCAA in tackles for a loss. That's even more impressive because against the cupcakes his stats are actually worse, his tackles more than double against the rest of the schedule. In '12 he was 10th in the big 10 in passes defended, that's sick for a LB. He's a great run stuffer, a great situational blitzer off the edge or through the gap, and solid in coverage as well. The other half of the equation is that he is a total freak of an athelete. Combine the on field performance with his off the chart measureables and that translates to an elite player in the NFL. He is going to be a special player. The bonus is that you could play him anywhere, I see him as being a safety/OLB hybrid menace in our system and that's why I'm not as worried about passing on a top secondary player in the early rounds even though I do really like Roby and Bucannon. Now imagine if we also draft Pierre-Louis later, who is a good cover LB that often plays like a roving free safety too, our defense would be so sick regardless of who gets posted at the CB opposite of Milliner. Yes, I agree. They've both seen their stock rise significantly. I'd have no problem taking either of them a round earlier. I wouldn't even be that surprised if they both went in the late first round. First of all, I don't think Rex gets fired. The team is already better and we haven't even drafted yet. But about Savage, he was a true freshman at Rutgers, earned the starting job, had a 8-3 record, 52% 14TD/7INT. That's really good for a true freshman. The next year he hurt his hand early and lost his starting job, even though the team went 2-7 without him. Then he transferred, had to sit out a season, had to transfer again, ended up at Pitt. 7-6 record, 61% 21TD/9INT. That's basically just decent, not great. The biggest problem with him is that his production is just not on the level that you want for a high end prospect, but the name of the game is predicting future performance. If you break it down you can see marked improvement from the beginning of the season to the end of the season and consider that he hadn't played in a game since 2010. Also, his stats are not padded with tons of short mindless passes like most of the other QB prospects. He's play action, drop back, throw down field. He's not as polished as a Bridgewater but he's still pretty accurate, has a great arm, solid technique, throws well on the run, and is the best pure pocket passer in the class. The foundation is there. Whether you think Geno will bust or become a solid starter, the reality right now is that we have a volatile situation at QB, the most important position in the sport. Given that Rex has shown that his defense can make us legit contenders with just average QB play to support it, I'm definitely willing to invest a 3rd-4th round pick in a QB like Savage and laugh all the way to the bank on it because there are QB's being mocked in the top ten right now that I don't think are any better.
