Dallas Morning News draft guru Rick Gosselin's mock draft is out, his last one before the big show tonight, and it is packed with surprises. Most notable is a run on quarterbacks. As for the St. Louis Rams, Gosselin has them going offense, picking Alabama RB Mark Ingram.
It's a little shocking. Quite frankly, it's more surprising to me than Notre Dame TE Kyle Rudolph would be. Here's Gosselin on the pick:
The Rams would love to draft a wide receiver for Sam Bradford, but there are none worthy of this selection. St. Louis will continue to give Bradford weapons, though - the best running back in this draft.
Like it or not, here's the thing to remember with Gosselin: he's frighteningly accurate with his mock drafts. In fact, his final mock is known as sort of a Delphi of mock drafts. Which makes some of his other picks that much more interesting, like the QB run.
1. Carolina - Cam Newton
2. Denver - Von Miller
3. Buffalo - Marcell Dareus
4. Cincy - A.J. Green
5. Arizona - Patrick Peterson
6. Cleveland - Julio Jones
7. San Fran - Blaine Gabbert
8. Tennessee - Jake Locker
9. Dallas - Tyron Smith
10. Washington - Christian Ponder
11. Houston - Aldon Smith
12. Minnesota - Andy Dalton
13. Detroit - Nick Fairley
14. St. Louis - Mark Ingram
15. Miami - Mike Pouncey
16. Jacksonville - Ryan Kerrigan
17. New England - Cam Jordan
18. San Diego - Corey Liuget
19. New York Giants - Nate Solder
20. Tampa Bay - Robert Quinn
21. KC - Gabe Carimi
22. Indy - Anthony Castonzo
23. Philly - Jimmy Smith
24. New Orleans - Adrian Clayborn
25. Seattle - Prince Amukamara
26. Baltimore - JJ Watt
27. Atlanta - Phil Taylor
28. New England - Danny Watkins
29. Chicago - Marvin Austin
30. New York Jets - Derrick Sherrod
31. Pittsburgh - Cameron Heyward
32. Green Bay - Aaron Williams
Some bullet points.
- Lots of experts, including Mike Mayock, are predicting a record number of trades, throw in the confusion of the league year and it's tough to predict a draft. If the QB run holds true, that could call for some big trades by team in the back of the round wanting a QB and had previously been banking on Dalton, Ponder, etc. being available there.
- New England picking Watkins would mean Logan Mankins is available, I would think.
- That's a big fall for Amukamara. I'd want the Rams to give him some strong consideration. Ditto Robert Quinn.
- There's Marvin Austin in the first round. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if he went higher, like we talked about on TSR last night.
- I'm still not buying the Rams picking Mark Ingram. Partly I'm biased because I think they can get better value further down in the draft. Also, with Julio off the board and no trade, why pass up on one of those defensive linemen? Spagnuolo loves to stockpile those guys, and this would be a good opportunity to get a top talent.