Things I Think Might Be Bull****

I love and hate the week leading up to the draft with an equally fiery passion. On the one hand, excitement is peaking. The player your team is going to select will soon be set in concrete. Uniforms will be fitted. Pro Bowls. Playoffs. Anything is possible. I love the hope that this week brings to fans of all 32 NFL franchises.

What I reckon is probably bull**** is what I've dubbed as the Mock Draft Sillies.

Every year, every man and his dog has a mock draft (including this guy!), which has been revised countlessly, heavily scrutinized, and pared back to a point where logical projections are made for each team. Coincidentally, it's around this time of year that a lot of Mock Drafts become symmetrical. You'll note that even on this board, Nick and I both had the exact same top ten projection when we released our respective two-rounders last week.

For some reason, this is a huge problem for a lot of draft pundits. People get worried about having the same projection as somebody else. Mel Kiper, for example, would probably die a sudden and lonely death if he and Todd McShay were to cast a draft in the same light.

It's about this time of year that projections start getting silly.

I'm reading today that Stephon Gilmore is a surefire top-ten pick. As far as we know, he wasn't a week ago. Depending on who you read, all of a sudden, the Jaguars would take him over Claiborne at seven, and the Panthers would jump all over him at nine. Same story for Georgia OT Cordy Glenn, who is suddenly on everybody's radar.

What?

How did this come about?

In my opinion it boils down to beat writers putting on their silly hats. Evan Silva is mocking Poe to the Rams at Pick 6 WITH Claiborne and Blackmon still on the board. I'm not saying that it's not a possibility, it's just that it was a less-than-common projection as little as a week ago.

What changed during that week to alter projections so drastically? What will change during this week to do the same? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

What makes it worse is that somehow, the media boondoggle has a direct bearing on the franchises making the selections. If a franchise has decided, for example, that player X is their guy, but they're hearing left, right, and centre that the team above them is suddenly a hot tip to take said player, they then have to choose whether to pull the strings on a trade to take Player X at a higher draft position than they would have liked. In all likelihood, he probably would have fallen to them anyway. Of course, teams disseminate their own rumours as well for their own benefit. I'm not denying that. I'm saying that the series of willy-nilly draft-board-double-takes that seem to occur during this week specifically are generally unfounded, and to the detriment of the entire league.

I'm not saying it happens with every team and every player. But it's an undeniable factor on draft day, and I think it's a little bit bull****.

Excellent thread bar-bq. Lots of great points in there. The interesting thing is that the league loves it because it generates even more fan interest. Here we are, educated fans, spending our recreational time complaining about the idiocy of others! The NFL hype machine is incredible. Look at all the attention that the game is getting more than four months from the first game of the season.

Think of it in a business sense. With the exception of Apple, Coke, and McDonalds, name a more powerful brand right now than the NFL?

Ramming speed to all

general counsel

Quote:

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Originally Posted by general counsel

Think of it in a business sense. With the exception of Apple, Coke, and McDonalds, name a more powerful brand right now than the NFL?

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Corning. Are YOU going to buy a phone or tablet without Gorilla Glass? Didn't think so...

As for the real post, every team is lying right now or they are telling the truth to make you think that they are lying. They are putting out every bit of deception that they can so that no one will trade up to snatch their guy or that a team will trade up to get someone they don't want.

I believe that Gilmore could be a top 10 guy now, as he's the 2nd best corner. Our Clan draft had him in the middle teens.

Hmmm. I wonder which one of these fairy tales that are out there that we have heard originated from our FO? ;) Borat voice " Sneaky Sneaky"

Shoot!!! Do you smell that? That's my first ever mock draft burning in the waste basket! :D

I think the NFL is a far bigger brand than Corning and whatever "gorilla glass" is. I am not suggesting that the product and the company Corning is not enormously profitable and in massive practical use throughout the usa and the world. But as a brand name, I dont think its even close. There are millions of people buying that product that have no idea that corning makes it. But everyone that watches football, and there are about a hundred million or more worldwide, knows the nfl by its brand name and identifies with it.

ramming speed to all

general counsel