New Mock Draft 4/30

Pick	Team	Player	College	Position
1	Atlanta Trade w/Houston	Jadevown Clowney	South Carolina	DE
2	St. Louis	Greg Robinson	Auburn	OT
3	Jacksonville	Khalil Mack	Buffalo	OLB
4	Cleveland	Sammy Watkins	Clemson	WR
5	Oakland	Mike Evans	Texas A&M	WR
6	Houston Trade w/Atlanta	Jake Mathews	Texas A&M	OT
7	Arizona Trade w/Tampa Bay	Johnny Manziel	Texas A&M	QB
8	Minnesota	Blake Bortles	USF	QB
9	Buffalo	Taylor Lewtan	Michigan	OT
10	Detroit	Justin Gilbert	Oklahoma State	CB
11	Tennessee	Anthony Barr	UCLA	OLB
12	New York G	Aaron Donald	Pittsburgh	DT
13	St. Louis	Xavier Su’a-Filo	UCLA	OG
14	Chicago	Darqueze Dennard	Michigan State	CB
15	Pittsburgh	Ha Ha Clinton Dix	Alabama	S
16	Dallas	Dee Ford	Auburn	DE
17	Baltimore	CJ Mosley	Alabama	LB
18	New York J	Eric Ebron	UNC	TE
19	Miami	Zach Martin	Notre Dame	OT
20	Tampa Bay Trade w/Arizona	Bradley Roby	Ohio State	CB
21	Green Bay	Kelvim Benjamin	Florida State	WR
22	Philadelphia	Louis Nix	Notre Dame	DT
23	Kansas City	Odell Beckham Jr.	LSU	WR
24	Cincinnati	Calvin Pryor	Louisville	FS
25	San Diego	Jason Verrett	TCU	CB
26	Cleveland	Derek Carr	Fresno State	QB
27	New Orleans	Ryan Shazier	Ohio State	OLB
28	Carolina	Marqise Lee	USC	WR
29	New England	ReShede Hageman	Minnesota	DT
30	San Francisco	Gabe Jackson	Mississippi State	OG
31	Denver	Kyle Van Noy	BYU	OLB
32	Seattle	Carl Bradford	Arizona State	OLB

Story of the first round: Let’s Try This…Arizona trades up for Johnny Manziel

            Ever since my widely popular blog post a week ago (over 1,000 hits last week…thank you Walterfootball.com) there has apparently been a lot of talk about the potential of the Cowboys trading up for Johnny Manziel. My ideas clearly made so much sense that the Cowboys felt it necessarily to publically declare that they will not draft Johnny Manziel next week (http://nfl.si.com/2014/04/29/2014-nfl-draft-dallas-cowboys-not-drafting-johnny-manziel/). So after that gut-shot, I had to alter my thinking a bit.

            I still believe that Tampa Bay would like to trade out of the number 7 spot, I still believe the top seven teams are not a fit for Manziel, and finally somebody will take the gamble in drafting Manziel’s potential play-making/game-changing ability. So after analyzing the board for a good hour, I asked myself one simple question…is there a team that can afford taking the gamble to draft Johnny Manziel?

And let’s be clear on what I mean by that. Nobody is drafting Johnny Manziel to have him manage games, matriculate the football down the field, and/or make third of four progression reads. That is the very reason why Blake Bortles, Zach Mettenberger and other traditional quarterbacks are being considered as “safer” selections. Now there is no doubt that Manziel could learn how to do those things very well, and in time he just may. But the team that drafts Johnny Manziel, is going to draft him with the belief that he could do, what he did, in college. Now that is a gamble.

            So why would Arizona take that gamble? Because they are the one team that can afford to. The Cardinals were only the second team in the past 37 years to finish with 10 wins and not make the playoffs. Despite their stout defense, Arizona was unable to beat out Seattle and San Francisco. Many are predicting the same fate for the Cardinals this up and coming season, because it is very simple, San Francisco has Colin Kaepernick, and Seattle has Russell Wilson. Arizona is able to match any strength the 49ers and Seahawks have, with the exception at quarterback. Carson Palmer played well at times, but he no longer has the big play ability that “Kap” or Russell Wilson have. A few more plays last year was all the Cardinals needed to get into the playoffs. Perhaps Johnny Manziel could provide them.

            Best case scenario, the Cardinals gamble pays off and the Cardinals go to the playoffs, possibly farther, and Manziel becomes the franchise’s first ever, truly marketable player. Worst-case scenario, Manziel flops, but the Cardinals are still left with a playoff caliber team, searching for a new quarterback one again. But it’s the Cardinals, that’s what they do. Maybe this time, they can flip the script.

           

2^nd Round

Pick	Team	Player	College	Position
1	Houston	Zach Mettenberger	LSU	QB
2	Washington	DeVante Adams	Fresno State	WR
3	Jacksonville	Jimmy Garoppolo	Eastern Illinois	QB
4	Cleveland	Carlos Hyde	Ohio State	RB
5	Oakland	Jordan Mathews	Vanderbilt	WR
6	Houston	Stephon Tuitt	Notre Dame	DT
7	Tampa Bay	Jace Amaro	Texas Tech	TE
8	Minnesota	Brandin Cooks	Oregon State	WR
9	Buffalo	Troy Niklas	Notre Dame	WR
10	Detroit	Craig Lotson	LSU	FS
11	Tennessee	Tom Savage	Pittsburgh	QB
12	New York G	Chris Borland	Wisconsin	ILB
13	St. Louis	Kadeem Carey	Arizona	RB
14	Chicago	Kony Ealy	Missouri	DE
15	Pittsburgh	Kyle Fuller	Virginia Tech	CB
16	Dallas	Dion Baily	USC	S
17	Baltimore	Lache Seastrunk	Baylor	RB
18	New York J	Austin Seferian-Jenkins	Washington	TE
19	Miami	Joel Bitino	Nevada	OT
20	Arizona	Allen Robinson	Penn State	WR
21	Green Bay	Marcus Robinson	Florida	CB
22	Philadelphia	Timmy Jernigan	Florida State	DT
23	Cincinnati	Christian Jones	Florida State	ILB
24	Kansas City	Donte Moncrief	Ole Miss	WR
25	San Diego	Antonio Richardson	Tennessee	OT
26	Indianapolis	Jeremiah Attaochu	Georgia Tech	LB
27	New Orleans	Dominique Easly	Florida	DT
28	Carolina	Bishop Sankey	Washington	RB
29	New England	AJ McCarron	Alabama	QB
30	San Francisco	Trent Murphy	Stanford	LB
31	Denver	Cyril Richardson	Baylor	OG
32	Seattle	Jeremy Hill	LSU	RB

Story of the second round: Teddy Bridgewater falls out of the 2^nd Round

            It just seems now there is nothing positive to say about Teddy Bridgewater’s draft stock anymore. While the 2^nd tier quarterbacks like Mettenberger, Garoppolo, and even Tom Savage draft stock continues to go up, Bridgewater will find himself without a home for quite some time. His inaccuracy, small hands, and ability to throw on the run are all physical traits, which warrant concern, the consistent talk about whether or not he can handle the spotlight of being an NFL starting quarterback. Only starting quarterbacks get drafted in the first two rounds, and if Teddy Bridgewater is no longer being consider a starter, then using what I believe is the transitive property (I don’t know, Math was never my thing) Teddy Bridgewater is not being drafted in the first two rounds.

            The other harsh reality that Bridgewater may face is that there are not many teams in the NFL this year that are looking for starting quarterbacks in 2014. You look at the bottom half of the league, many of them have young quarterback prospects (Bills-EJ Manuel, Rams-Sam Bradford, Titans-Jake Locker) who are routinely saying they are committed to their young signal callers. Bridgewater still has a lot of talent, and he has some traits that could make him into a productive quarterback in the future, but the best thing for him may be to get on a team where he may be able to challenge for a job one day.