Mock Draft Help

MDC started writing about why he thinks we shouldn’t draft certain players in the draft over on his own blog. Long story short, shutting down the best WR’s in the Big 11 is like pwning the most eloquent debaters on the internet.

On a more serious note, we already have 3 very gifted CB’s on our roster. Jacques Reeves has amazing speed. If he could just figure out how to turn his head, and use his hands, he could be amazing. Fred Bennet is a physical freak, but played very poorly last year. Antwaun Molden was a special teams demon, and apparently impressed the coaches in practice before suffering an ankle injury. On top of these 3, we have Dunta, who may or may not be a CB1.

Either way, I don’t think that we need another CB as badly as we need several other positions, and I don’t think that Vontae Davis is good enough to validate picking him at 15.

As for RB, Beanie Wells would probably make for a great tandem, but we can get someone that will still give us a great tandem in the third with someone like Rashad Jennings or Andre Brown. I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that Beanie was injury prone in college as well. On top of that, Wells would be the backup RB, and it doesn’t make much sense to me to draft a backup RB in the first round when there are so many holes on D.

Now, as to why we think (or at least why I think) Clay Matthews should be the pick at 15:
Right now, our biggest needs are OLB, DT, DE, FS and C/RG.

We have a DT that might pan out in Frank Okam, Other than him, the only DT that would fit what we want (a big guy to take pressure of Amobi, Mario and DeMeco) is B.J. Raji in the first, and then maybe Ron Brace in the second or third. If Raji falls to 15, I think we make the pick within 30 seconds. There’s almost no way that happens, so DT probably won’t be our first round pick.

We just signed Antonio Smith, which means that unless one of the elite DE prospects falls to us at 15, we don’t really need to reach at that position. We apparently want a LDE, and Tyson Jackson is really the only 1st round DE that has the size right now to play that position. Based on this, DE doesn’t seem like a probable pick either.

We just re-signed Eugene Wilson at FS, which puts us in pretty much the same boat as with DE. If an elite prospect falls to us at 15, we can take him, but otherwise, we don’t need to reach. Depending on what you think of Malcolm Jenkins, he might be the only FS rated high enough to be worth taking at 15.

At OLB, specifically SLB, we don’t have anyone who should be playing that position, unless you count Chaun Thompson, and none of us do. Zac Diles was our starting SLB last year, but he’s really better suited to WLB. He’s a little small to be starting at SLB in the NFL, and despite leading the team in tackles through the first half of last season, most people around here don’t seem to think that he’s the solution at SLB. Clay Matthews is admittedly a bit of a reach at 15, but he doesn’t have the lower body issues that Cushings has, and I haven’t heard anyone really argue that Cushings is that much better than Matthews.

C/RG is a weak area, but even the very best C/RG isn’t expected to be taken until late in the first round.

So, OLB is the only position that we don’t have competent players at right now, and Matthews is the player that seems to have the least risk and the most upside of the players that will be available at 15.