2011 NFL Mock Draft

  Assuming there is an NFL season this year, I thought I would try my hand at a mock draft. I based mine on team needs and value, and didn’t attempt to predict any trades. With that said, here we go. I will provide some commentary after the chart.

	Team	Player	Position	School
1	Carolina	Cam Newton	QB	Auburn
2	Denver	Marcell Dareus	DT	Alabama
3	Buffalo	Blaine Gabbert	QB	Missouri
4	Cincinnati	A.J. Green	WR	Alabama
5	Arizona	Von Miller	OLB	Texas A&M
6	Cleveland	Da'Quan Bowers	DE	Clemson
7	San Francisco	Patrick Peterson	CB	LSU
8	Tennessee	Nick Fairley	DT	Auburn
9	Dallas	Prince Amukamara	CB	Nebraska
10	Washington	Robert Quinn	DE	North Carolina
11	Houston	Cameron Jordan	DL	California
12	Minnesota	Tyron Smith	OT	USC
13	Detroit	Aldon Smith	DE	Missouri
14	St. Louis	Julio Jones	WR	Alabama
15	Miami	Mark Ingram	RB	Alabama
16	Jacksonville	J.J. Watt	DE	Wisconsin
17	New England	Anthony Castonzo	OT	Boston College
18	San Diego	Cameron Heyward	DL	Ohio State
19	New York Giants	Gabe Carimi	OT	Wisconsin
20	Tampa Bay	Adrian Clayborn	DE	Iowa
21	Kansas City	Muhammed Wilkerson	DT	Temple
22	Indianapolis	Derek Sherrod	OT	Mississippi State
23	Philadelphia	Nate Solder	OT	Colorado
24	New Orleans	Ryan Kerrigan	DE	Purdue
25	Seattle	Jimmy Smith	CB	Colorado
26	Baltimore	Jon Baldwin	WR	Pitt
27	Atlanta	Torrey Smith	WR	Maryland
28	New England	Mike Pouncey	OG	Florida
29	Chicago	Ben Ijalana	OG	Villanova
30	New York Jets	Akeem Ayers	OLB	UCLA
31	Pittsburgh	Brandon Harris	CB	Miami (FL)
32	Green Bay	Danny Watkins	OG	Baylor

I gave Carolina Newton over Gabbert because I don’t feel there will be a rookie salary cap going forward. That allows teams to swing for the fences on a player like Newton. Newton will be the most polarizing figure in this year’s draft. Carolina may hate him, but they can’t afford to pass on him.

Patrick Peterson is my favorite player in this draft, but have him falling to San Francisco at 7 due to the nature of the draft. The NFL is geared toward three things. Quarterbacks, protecting the quarterback, and rushing the quarterback. Just imagine how far he’d fall if this was a strong OT class…

The Lions will draft a player I don’t like. The only picks I have liked of theirs recently were Suh, Stafford, and Calvin Johnson. Top-2 picks. Whenever they stray outside the top 5, they seem to panic. See; Sims, Ernie and Cherilous, Gosder.

I have 11 defensive linemen and 8 offensive linemen going in the first round. I don’t think there are that many worthy O-linemen, but there will be at least 1 run, causing teams to reach.

Temple and Villanova each have a player drafted. Among the schools that have none are Michigan, Oklahoma, Florida State, Texas, Oregon, and Notre Dame.