Road to the Draft – Part 3
February 2, 2021
By Noonefromtampa
One of the major pre-draft events was held this past week, the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. With the Combine and on-site visits cancelled, this was the only pre-draft event where teams could interview players in-person other than their college pro day. The other major event that will impact the draft is the reported trade of Matthew Stafford from the Lions to the Rams. The Lions get a 3rd round pick in 2021 and 1st round picks in 2022 and 2023, along with quarterback Jared Goff.
Senior Bowl
My take on watching the game was that a number of players help themselves with either good practices or good game play. Here are few names to watch in the run up to the draft:
- Kellen Mond, QB, Texas A&M: he will remind people of Dak Prescott
- Michael Carter, RB, North Carolina: good burst of speed, makes people miss tackles
- Keith Taylor, CB, Washington: good plays outnumbered his bad plays, will only improve
- Desmond Fitzpatrick, WR, Louisville: excellent body control and hands
- Baron Browning, LB, Ohio State: just makes plays all over the field
- Shi Smith, WR, South Carolina: slot receiver
- Quinn Meinerz, G, Wisconsin-Whitewater: tough, strong kid from a Division 3 school
- Richie Grant, S, UCF: a true free safety with range
- Janarius Robinson, Edge, FSU: showed some nice pass rushing moves
- Demetric Felton, RB, UCLA: similar skillset as Antonio Gibson
- Jabril Cox, LB, LSU: good filler and tackler
- Amari Rodgers, WR, Clemson: along with Smith, is going to be a slot receiver at the next level
A some of these players moved up a round or two in the 2021 draft.
The Mocks
This week the number of mock drafts published went from 52 to 75 as more publications came out with their first mock of the draft season. The position picked by descending frequency is:
| Position | Picked Count | Picked % |
| QB | 21 | 28.00% |
| OT | 19 | 25.33% |
| WR | 14 | 18.67% |
| LB | 10 | 13.33% |
| IOL | 5 | 6.67% |
| S | 3 | 4.00% |
| TE | 2 | 2.67% |
| CB | 1 | 1.33% |
| Grand Total | 75 | 100.00% |
There was major shift this week from last week where OT was the most picked position. One of the mockers had the Washington Football Team trading their first round pick (19) for Stafford, which I count as a QB pick.
The players mock picked to WFT at nineteen in descending frequency are:
| Player | Position | School | Picked Count | Picked % |
| Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah | LB | Notre Dame | 10 | 13.33% |
| Mac Jones | QB | Alabama | 10 | 13.33% |
| Christian Darrisaw | OT | Virginia Tech | 8 | 10.67% |
| Trey Lance | QB | North Dakota State | 7 | 9.33% |
| Samuel Cosmi | OT | Texas | 5 | 6.67% |
| Alijah Vera-Tucker | IOL | USC | 4 | 5.33% |
| Jaylen Waddle | WR | Alabama | 4 | 5.33% |
| Rashod Bateman | WR | Minnesota | 4 | 5.33% |
| Rashawn Slater | OT | Northwestern | 3 | 4.00% |
| Kyle Pitts | TE | Florida | 2 | 2.67% |
| Rondale Moore | WR | Purdue | 2 | 2.67% |
| Kadarius Toney | WR | Florida | 2 | 2.67% |
| Terrace Marshall Jr | WR | LSU | 2 | 2.67% |
| Alex Leatherwood | OT | Alabama | 2 | 2.67% |
| Kyle Trask | QB | Florida | 2 | 2.67% |
| Andre Cisco | S | Syracuse | 1 | 1.33% |
| Trevon Moehrig-Woodard | S | TCU | 1 | 1.33% |
| Jevon Holland | S | Oregon | 1 | 1.33% |
| Zack Wilson | QB | BYU | 1 | 1.33% |
| Matthew Stafford | QB | (blank) | 1 | 1.33% |
| Caleb Farley | CB | Virginia Tech | 1 | 1.33% |
| Liam Eichenberg | OT | Notre Dame | 1 | 1.33% |
| Wyatt Davis | IOL | Ohio State | 1 | 1.33% |
The top position pick also changed from tackle Christian Darrisaw to a tie between quarterback Mac Jones and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. Owusu-Koramoah is the unanimous pick at linebacker, going 10 out of 10 times. At quarterback, the choices are Jones (10), Trey Lance (7) and Kyle Trask (2) and two trades, Zack Wilson and Stafford. The second most picked position, offensive tackle, saw Darrisaw (8), Samuel Cosmi (5) and Rashawn Slater (3) as the top choices there. Wide receiver, the third most picked position, had Jaylen Waddle and Rashod Bateman as the leaders, getting selected four times each, while Rondale Moore, Kadarius Toney and Terrace Marshall Jr were selected twice each.
Source: nflmockdraftdatabase.com