MORSE: NFL Draft Round One Draft Projection

It’s finally here, It’s NFL Draft Day! My one and only attempt at predicting the First Round. This is really like throwing a dart at the dart board with a blindfold on. I’m sure a Dart Player could do it from muscle memory, but the average guy would have trouble. Trades, if any, could drastically change the draft selections and usually will. Does some team fall in love with QB Shedeur Sanders and move up into the first round and get that extra year on his contract? Will any team try and jump ahead of Jacksonville and snag RB Ashton Jeanty? It’s a crapshoot and nobody gets all the right answers. This Mock assumes no trades.

Pick	Team	Player	POS	School
1	Tennessee	Cam Ward	QB	Miami
2	Cleveland	Travis Hunter	WR	Colorado
3	NY Giants	Abdul Carter	EDGE	Penn St
4	New England	Will Campbell	LT	LSU
5	Jacksonville	Ashton Jeanty	RB	Boise St
6	Las Vegas	Armand Membou	OT	Missouri
7	NY Jets	Kelvin Banks	OT	Texas
8	Carolina	Jalon Walker	LB	Georgia
9	New Orleans	Tetairoa McMillan	WR	Arizona
10	Chicago	Tyler Warren	TE	Penn St
11	San Francisco	Mykel Williams	DT	Georgia
12	Dallas	Matthew Golden	WR	Texas
13	Miami	Jahdae Barron	CB	Texas
14	Indianapolis	Colston Loveland	TE	Michigan
15	Atlanta	Donovan Ezeiruaku	EDGE	Boston College
16	Arizona	Tyler Booker	OG	Alabama
17	Cincinnati	James Pearce	EDGE	Tennessee
18	Seattle	Grey Zabel	OG	North Dakota St
19	Tampa Bay	Jihaad Campbell	LB	Alabama
20	Denver	Omarion Hampton	RB	North Carolina
21	Pittsburgh	Jaxson Dart	QB	Mississippi
22	LA Chargers	Derrick Harmon	DT	Oregon
23	Green Bay	Shemar Stewart	DT	Texas A&M
24	Minnesota	Josh Simmons	OT	Ohio St
25	Houston	Emeka Egbuka	WR	Ohio St
26	LA Rams	Luther Burden	WR	Missouri
27	Baltimore	Maxwell Hairston	CB	Kentucky
28	Detroit	Will Johnson	CB	Michigan
29	Washington	Josh Conerly	OT	Oregon
30	Buffalo	Keneth Grant	DT	Michigan
31	Kansas City	Aireontae Ersery	OL	Minnesota
32	Philadelphia	Walter Nolen	DT	Mississippi

I have three prominent players dropping out of the 1^st round, EDGE Mike Green, S Malachi Starks and QB Shedeur Sanders.

Green has two separate Sexual Assaults on his record. There was an unsubstantiated report that Green received no 30 Visits by any team in the league. That tells me that he is off a lot of team’s draft boards altogether and will only be picked at a much later round than his talent would dictate. When can a team tolerate the side show that will be brought up by the media before they select him? It may have to be a special team that can handle Green and surround him with veteran players that ultimately make him one of theirs.

Starks had less than stellar final season at Georgia coupled with his poor performance at the combine has dropped him out of the first round.

Sanders and the circus that surrounds him and his father, interviewed very poorly according to reports, turning off a number of teams. Questions have arisen whether he can handle the mental aspect of the Pro game and not just rely on his athleticism. He still might get picked in the 1^st round especially if some team may want to get ahead of their competition and jump back into the 1^st round to get that extra year on his contract. I’m not so sure that Sanders would honor that contract and hold out to void the last year and get paid earlier.

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About Mark Morse

Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.

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