Rick Gosselin's 1st of three mock drafts: shocking!!!!!

At least to our leader Bruce Raffel as he has the Ravens picking....you guessed it....Jimmy Smith!  Do I hear wailing and gnashing of teeth? Has Gosselin descended to idiot status? That's your call.

I'll paste Gosselin's picks below but the thing that stands out to me are three things:

1) Just two quarterbacks selected in round 1. Newton and Gabbert.  And with all the talk lately that 5-6-7 QB's might get taken in the first round, Gosselin is bucking the hype. My guess is at this point he is thinking that all that talk is a smokescreen and most QB needy teams will wait their turn in round 2 to select their QB. 

2) Which gets us more to the point of this first mock by Gosselin: its intent is more to show a rough grading order of the players. The better players are picked first-outside of the two QB's. And this is important when he gets to pick 26 as the pick of Smith there makes sense compared to who is picked after: Smith is definitely the BPA on the board at that point. 

3) But perhaps the most important thing I see here is that Gosselin has his mock ordered in what could be called a Classic pattern. For instance normally the best OT's go off the board very early, even sometimes at #1. A great left OT is worth his considerable weight in gold-and that is exactly what they get paid.  DL's are slightly less valued and in addition pass rushers are more of a hit or miss thing-relatively more draft busts are DE's OLB rush guys than say OT's. So you will see some OT's in this mock going higher than most mocks have them taken. But do note that he is not promoting the OT's blindly as he has only 4 going in round 1. No Sherrod is picked here. Or Ijalana. Again, no reaching here. 

The same is true for CB's (three in this mock) and RB's (two taken here). Both are traditionally highly valued positions and Gosselin is treating them as such.  

Expect Gosselin's second and third (last) mock to have some trades and some reach picks as he zeros in on particular teams. Will he stay with just two QB's picked? If not and he adds a few QB's,  we may see some DE's dropping to 26 and providing some competition for Jimmy Smith at 26. 

Okay the picks and some comments by me:

1. Carolina: Cam Newton QB Auburn

2. Denver: Marcel Dareus DT Alabama

3. Buffalo: Von Miller, OLBTexas A&M

4. Cincy: A J. Green WR Georgia Cincy is probably the first wild card team. Do they go QB or not? Gosselin says no.

5. Arizona: Blaine Gabbert QB Misery  First real surprise pick by me as what I've read says Arizona will wait till free agency to pick a vet QB.

6. Cleveland: Patrick Peterson CB LSU. Yes BPA. No, does not fill their huge needs at WR or the DL.  

7. San Francisco Robert Don't Call Me Bob Quinn, DE North Carolina   Best DE in the draft and it is not a close call. 

8. Tennessee Nick Fairley DT Auburn

9. Dallas Tyron Smith OT USC Gosselin expects Dallas to try to trade down however. 

10. Washington Julio Jones WR Alabama Yep, no reaching for QB's here.

11. Houston Prince Amukamara CB Nebraska

12. Minnesota Fat Tony Castonzo OT Boston College

13. Detroit Nate Solder OT Colorado Must like Solder's potential and Detroit must address their OT situation somehow.

See? The top OT's are going earlier than expected because of the value of the position. As you will see though only one OT is picked after Solder-pick #21-so Gosselin is seeing a separation in talent in the OT's that many mocks do not. 

14. St Louis Da'Quan Bowers DE Clemson

15. Miami Mark Ingram RB Oklahoma Gosselin calls Miami's bluff: it just makes too much sense and Ingram is good.

16. Jacksonville JJ Watt DE Wisconsin

17. New England Cameron Jordan DE California  See? After the top OT's go off the board, THEN the not quite top DE prospects go. 

18. San Diego Ryan Kerrigan DE Purdue

19. NY Giants Mike Pouncey C/G Florida

20. Tampa Bay Aldon Smith DE Missouri

21. Kansas City Gabe Carimi OT Wisconsin

22. Indy Corey Liguet DT Illinois

23. Philly Muhammad Wilkerson DE Temple

24. New Orleans Marvin Austin DT North Carolina

25. Seattle Danny Watkins G Baylor

26. Ravens Jimmy Smith CB Colorado Talent will out. None of the players below grade out as high as Smith. None of them. In this mock Smith is the BPA at 26.  Every other player would be a reach by that definition. The question in this mock is do the Ravens try to trade down if they haven't traded up.

27. Atlanta Phil Taylor DT Baylor Four DT's taken in this mock.

28. Ryan Williams RB VPI Gosselin does not buy the notion that RB's are not valued high anymore. 

29. Chicago Jon Baldwin WR Pitt

30. Jets Aaron Williams CB Texas

31. Pittsburgh Cameron Heyward DE Ohio State Seven DE's taken in this mock. Eleven DL's all told. But all but Heyward here and Taylor are gone before the Ravens pick. 

32. Green Bay Brooks Reed OLB Arizona