You wanted it. We didn’t. You won.
We’ve cobbled together a pre-free agency mock draft. With the help of a real NFL scout. Not to be confused with someone who isn’t a real NFL scout but who has picked a Twitter handle that calls himself one.
(That’s one of my favorite things about Twitter. Pick a name, and that’s what you are. For my next Twitter account, I’ll be “SpaceShuttlePilotNinja.”)
The reaction has been predictable. The self-styled draft experts scoff, taking way too seriously a process aimed primarily at framing discussions and thinking creatively. The self-styled draft experts likewise ignore the massive disconnect between the pre-draft obsession and the post-draft reality of football, where most of the names over which the self-styled draft experts have been pouring for months become forgotten. Forgotten even by the self-styled draft experts, who quickly start looking toward the next draft.
That’s the beauty of one of the NFL’s biggest cottage industries. Everyone looks forward. No one looks backward.
Which is good for the self-styled draft experts. Otherwise, those who insisted for example that a fourth-round quarterback wouldn’t slide past No. 7 possibly would be exposed.