As we have for the last several years, Battle Red Blog will again have its own intrasite (is that a word?) mock draft. A member or multiple members from the BRB community will act as general managers for a given team. In other words, no community poll format; we tried that a few years ago and it was a bit of a hassle.
How do we determine which community member gets to represent a given team? Simple--you call dibs on said team before anyone else does in a separate post that will publish at 9 a.m. CDT tomorrow. That rule, and others, for the 2015 BRB Mock Draft are explained in the space below.
1. If you want to throw your hat into the ring to act as GM for a team in this mock draft, you should do so via the Comments in a post that will publish promptly at 9 a.m. CDT tomorrow morning. Any attempts to claim a team in the Comments to any other post (including this one) will not be honored. It'll be first come/first serve tomorrow, so if you want in on this, be ready to stake your claim as soon as the aforementioned post publishes at 9 a.m. CDT.
2. The Texans' pick at No. 16 will be made by the BRB masthead, so they are not eligible for anyone else to claim tomorrow. Thus, you won't get the joy of having to answer why you made such a stupid pick for the good guys. We will.
3. If more than one person says he or she wants to act as GM for a given squad, those folks can form a front office that in turn puts their heads together about who to pick.
4. In addition to making the pick, the fake GM or the fake front office will be responsible for submitting a short write-up explaining why the pick was who it was. Something like this is what we're envisioning, though it doesn't necessarily have to be that detailed. We just want a good explanation for why you're doing what you're doing.
5. There will be a clock/deadline to keep things moving, so you'll need to get your pick in on time. If a team doesn't get its pick in on time, a poll will go up, and the BRB community will make the pick for that team.
6. At this point, we're thinking two picks will be published per weekday, at approximately 10 a.m. CDT and 4 p.m. CDT. The pick that will be published at 10 a.m. CDT will be due to one or two members of the BRB masthead (still working out who that'll be) via e-mail by 7 p.m. the previous night. The pick that will be published at 4 p.m. CDT will be due via e-mail by 12 p.m. CDT.
7. Trades are allowed, but they will not affect the timetable for submitting picks. In other words, if the Titans' pseudo-GM strikes a trade for the second overall pick, the team acquiring that second overall pick is still responsible for submitting that pick before Tennessee's original deadline to submit the pick expires.
8. While trades are permitted, be reasonable. The Titans are not going to part with the second pick in the draft to get Riley Cooper back from the Eagles. Moreover, this is essentially a one-round mock draft, so it's not like you'll get to display your brilliance by utilizing all those third and fourth round picks you acquired for your first-rounder.
9. I'd like to start the draft on Monday, April 6th, with the Bucs'' first pick being published at 10 a.m. CDT that morning. That means Tampa Bay's pick would be due via e-mail no later than 7 p.m. CDT on Sunday, April 5th.
For the sake of completeness, here's the current order of the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft:
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2. Tennessee Titans
3. Jacksonville Jaguars
4. Oakland Raiders
5. Washington Redskins
6. New York Jets
7. Chicago Bears
8. Atlanta Falcons
9. New York Giants
10. St. Louis Rams
11. Minnesota Vikings
12. Cleveland Browns
13. New Orleans Saints
14. Miami Dolphins
15. San Francisco 49ers
16. Houston Texans--BRB Masthead
17. San Diego Chargers
18. Kansas City Chiefs
19. Cleveland Browns (from Buffalo Bills)
20. Philadelphia Eagles
21. Cincinnati Bengals
22. Pittsburgh Steelers
23. Detroit Lions
24. Arizona Cardinals
25. Carolina Panthers
26. Baltimore Ravens
27. Dallas Cowboys
28. Denver Broncos
29. Indianapolis Colts
30. Green Bay Packers
31. New Orleans Saints (from Seattle Seahawks)
32. New England Patriots
Note that this means no one should call dibs on the Bills or Seahawks in tomorrow's post; they don't have a first-round draft pick right now, thanks to the trades involving Sammy Watkins and Jimmy Graham, respectively.
I'm sure I've forgotten something, so fire off any questions in the Comments below. Remember to stake your claim to a team in the post that goes up at 9 a.m. CDT tomorrow.