The Mystery of the Mock Draft

It’s just amazing how popular the NFL Draft has become. There is even a listing in Wikipedia for Draftnik and a gentleman from the New York Observer wrote an interesting article last year named The Rise of the Mini Kipers about the subject. Last year’s NFL Draft got TV ratings better than the NBA playoffs and this year, this blog and my web site are getting better traffic than ever, in fact this blog (The NFL Draft Site) was just voted as one of the Top 100 NFL Blogs.

Inside of this marvel is another delightful fact, and that is how popular Mock Draft’s have become. There are web sites that have become very popular that are nothing more than Mock Draft Databases that only list other people’s mock drafts. By far, my 2009 Mock Draft at NFL Draft Dog is my most popular page and I even completed a 2010 Mock Draft that is starting to get a lot of traffic. I will be the first one to tell you that a Mock Draft for 2010 at this point isn’t going to be very accurate, heck we don’t even know which underclassmen are going to declare for the 2009 NFL Draft yet, but it’s fun.

So why have they become so popular, well I think it’s similar to the gaining popularity of Fantasy Football, fans can get involved, they can comment of the mock draft in hopes of influencing who their team is going to draft, it makes for good debate around the water cooler and it gives the fans of struggling teams some glimmer of hope for the future. For example, Detroit being the worst team in the NFL and having two first round picks this year, comments and posts about mock drafts on the numerous Lion’s message boards have become red hot topics.

To be honest with you, most NFL Draft Site owners and webmasters don’t really like to do the mock drafts, we got a lot of hate mail from rabid fans and they take a heck of a lot of work to keep them updated. Not only do you have to identify the top college players, but you have to identify NFL Team Needs and then speculate about where they will finish for the season as far as wins and losses.

One of the problems is that fans and general managers aren’t on the same page; I am not saying the fans are always wrong, sometimes they seem to know more about the draft than the General managers, but the bottom line is they usually have a completely different mindset. For example, at one point last year I had in my 2008 NFL Mock Draft the Steelers taking a running back, I received a lot of hate mail from Steeler fans because they said, “that was stupid they already had Fast Willy Parker” I eventually changed the pick to OT Jeff Otah, but the Steelers went on to pick RB Rashad Mendenhall.

There are a ton of examples of NFL Teams drafting players that seem illogical to the fans, sometimes the NFL is proven wrong and sometimes they are proven right, in 2007 The Bills already had RB Willis McGahee, but they drafted RB Marshawn Lynch with the 12th overall pick and don’t tell me you knew McGahee wasn’t going to be resigned, because at that point I don’t think the Bills were even sure. And in the same year the Cowboys drafted LB Anthony Spencer, which means they drafted a linebacker with their first round selection in three consecutive years. Plus in that same year the Eagles drafted QB Kevin Kolb with their first pick (#36) when they already had QB Donavan McNabb. Or take a look at the Charger’s decision to take Phillip Rivers when they already had Drew Brees. So those are just a few examples of seemingly numerous strange picks, some work out and some don’t.

So why do we bother, well they are fun to read and debate, they are gratifying when you can make some good predictions. Then being a Dallas Cowboys fan, there is the thought that maybe, just maybe, Jerry Jones might read my Mock Draft and my Dallas Cowboys Column this year and draft some offensive lineman. Ok I have got some updates to do; I have to raise Florida’s WR Percy Harvin and Alabama safety Rashad Johnson, they had fantastic weekends. Hmm…who needs a ball hawking safety?