Mock draft exercise starts hitting headlines – NFL feature
With the National Football League (NFL) regular season halfway through, some information around next season’s draft potentials has started hitting some media sections as a part of mock exercise.
The exercise leads up to actual draft to be held in the end of April next year, and opinions, reviews and ratings determined based on college league’s performance of each player by media, analysts and punters matter the most in final selection of the players.
Mock phase builds up the momentum and has throws days and scouting days to help the owners and managers select prospective pro players on the actual day of the draft, which is governed under strict rules of the NFL.
It is pertinent to note that the draft is the only major source of recruitment of players into the professional league and all players are sourced from the college league. Some of them are picked up undrafted free agents but their share is too insignificant
to compare with the draft selections.
Also, there is a mini draft exercise but most often it goes without selections of many players given the actual draft provides substantial amount of time to teams for selection of the players. All players qualified for selection as per rules of the leagues.
The principle is that the team who finishes the season at bottom of the league’s 32 teams’ rating chart qualifies for the top player coming out of the college league.
For example, the Indianapolis Colts who ended the 2011 season with only two wins (2-14) out of 16 games qualified for top draft selection who was a quarterback from Stanford college. Andrew Luck – the top draft selection of the 2012 draft – is now playing
with the Colts under a four-year deal.
This year it emerged that Johnny Manziel from A&M is being rated as top draft quarterback for the next season, although it is too early to determine him as final selection and another player can take the top spot. For example, in 2012 now Miami Dolphins’
Ryan Tannehill was also being analysed as top QB along with Andrew Luck, but Luck happened to be top-notch quarterback out of the season.
It is not clear so far which team is going to qualify for the top quarterback or any other player. A player from any other position can also be at top but normally offence is the most wanted department from the teams.
So far, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and a couple of other teams are staying behind others but still the season has a few more games to go and who knows if the teams like them are able to come back with few successive wins.
Nevertheless, the rule is simple that the team that ends up as the most miserable becomes eligible for top draft players. The teams’ owners, managers and agents then get a chance to see each player performing in front of them on their respective pro days
that contribute to final hiring of the players.
It is not mandatory as some players refrain from performing on the pro day just to leave potential recruiters guessing about their potential, talent, skills and physical strengths. For example, if a quarterback opts out of throwing ball at pro day, prospective
teams cannot assess his power, arm length, velocity and accuracy of his throws.
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