NFL Network's draft guru weighed in last night. Mike Mayock's mock draft contains a few surprises. However, his prediction for the St. Louis Rams will surprise no one.
Mayock's mock draft has the Rams taking Illinois DT Corey Liuget with the 14th overall pick. Here's Mayock:
The Rams have huge needs along the defense line. I love Liuget, who is a prototypical 3-technique and fits immediately into a rotation for Steve Spagnuolo. Liuget is a winner and immediately upgrades the talent along the line for the Rams.
It's getting harder and harder to argue with the Liuget pick. Unlike Mel Kiper's mock draft, it doesn't have the hard decisions for the Rams, except for the slide of Da'Quan Bowers. Price Amukamara gets picked by Washington at #10 in Mayock's mock draft.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the Packers taking QB Andy Dalton. Mayock predicts A.J. Green and Julio Jones being picked at #4 and #6 by the Bengals and the Browns, respectively.
It's worth noting that Mayock predicts "more trades this year than people have seen in the history of the NFL Draft." Some are predicting the opposite, but with last night's ruling from Judge Susan Nelson, teams have to believe that free agency and player trades will happen sooner rather than later, giving them more freedom to move around in the draft. Will the Rams be one of those teams? Perhaps. We should know in a few hours.