This Week In Mock Drafts
Another ‘This Week In Mock Drafts’ and another first for this feature.
Today’s installment of the most popular 2012 NFL mock draft feature based on the zero negative feedback I’ve received up to now is taking the ridiculousness of covering 2012 NFL mock drafts to a new high as I cover a 2012 NFL mock draft that was mocked up before the 2011 NFL Draft even took place.
Crazy, right? Crazy, indeed! The name of the site I’ll be featuring says it all: Football Mockery. If you’re going to be mocking the 2012 NFL Draft you might as well start early and there’s nothing earlier than getting ahead of the game and mocking which players will be taken in 2012 before the ones in 2011 were taken.
Okay, so, if you’re still with me and understood everything typed up in those previous paragraphs let’s get a move on to the this week’s installment of ‘This Week In Mock Drafts.’
The 2012 NFL mock draft written up over at FootballMockery.com is an updated version from April 18, 2011. According to the author of the post, Ryan Conley, his draft order is based on a team’s needs as well as taking into account their 2011 NFL draft thinking.
Even though this mock draft was typed up before the 2011 draft they didn’t really need to go out on a limb with the mocking of the first overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. That would be Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck to the Washington Redskins. Who else would it be? The Redskins seem to be pretty much everyone’s team at the top of these 2012 mock drafts. And with good reason since they’re a team full of old, veteran players and add to that years of not drafting well or trading their picks away has finally come to the haunt them. Trading for Donovan McNabb last season but penciling in John Beck as their starter for this upcoming season shows you how messed up the team and their QB situation is. Poor Andrew Luck…
The rest of the NFC East in Conley’s draft has the Eagles taking strong safety Mark Barron out of Alabama at 19th and the Cowboys drafting Knile Davis, running back from Arkansas, who has once been featured in ‘This Week In Mock Drafts’ as a potential Giant pick, at 27th overall in the 2012 NFL first round.
Where does that leave the Giants in Conley’s 2012 mock draft? Picking 16th overall, and out of the next season’s playoff picture in the NFC, which means our streak of people picking the Giants to make the playoffs based on their mock drafts has come to an end. It was a good run while it lasted. Hopefully next week we’ll cover a Giants mock in which they’re playoff bound.
Another trend that has stuck around for this week’s mock draft feature is the trendy mocking of linebacker to the GMEN. We’ve already had three previous prognosticators mock a linebacker to the Giants and this week that total now rises to four as Conley has given the Giants LB Courtney Upshaw from Alabama.
So far each mock draft that has featured a linebacker have given the Giants some pretty good linebackers and this week is no different with the mock selection at 16 by Conley of Upshaw. Upshaw is a 6’2, 265 mountain of man who is speedy with a knack for the football who can play both the outside and inside linebacker positions. During Alabama’s 2010 NCAA college football season, Upshaw racked up 52 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss and 7 sacks. For his career he has a total of 80 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, 8 sacks and 4 forced fumbles.
It’s safe to say that the Giants could use another body in the linebacking corps. There’s not much depth there, there will be at least one starting linebacking position available with the more-than-likely departure of Keith Bulluck in free agency and the Giants front office didn’t do much for the position during the 2011 NFL Draft other than draft a couple of 6th rounders.
Free agency still needs to take place so the Giants could go on a linebacking spending splurge but until then most mock drafts we see now will have linebacker as a need for the Giants.