Rick Gosselin's first NFL mock draft

[dalemurphy]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

If I remember correctly, Gosselin's mocks are all BS until the final one when he releases the inside stuff the war rooms have been feeding him.

Ayers reminds me of Jarvis Moss - had a short, successful college career based on speed, blossomed at the right time to be drafted high and was never heard from again. I'd take a chance on him in the second, but not in the Top 15.

College careers are pretty darn short and it's also a period of time when players change physically and mentally a dramatic amount. I think eliminating a player from consideration because his last college season was his only good one is a recipe to miss on a lot of good players.

As an NFL organization preparing for the draft, we would certainly need to assess through interviews,etc... why a player wasn't more productive earlier in his college career... could be lots of reasons:

-late bloomer physically
-bad coaching early
-undisciplined early in college career
-injuries
-bad scheme
etc...

I don't know too much about Ayers. Fortunately, I am aware enough of my ignorance not to compare him to another player simply because one small aspect of their college careers had some similarities. To assume Ayers will likely be a failure simply by judging Moss' short career in the NFL seems like a heck of a jump. I'm glad that wasn't the mentality of the Texans when they selected Mario Williams over guys with better college careers like: Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Vince Young, AJ Hawk. Or, remembering 2006, a similar concern was the rate of failure over the previous 15 years when DEs were selected in the top of the first round- other than Peppers, it was a pretty ugly list, headed up by guys like Courtney Brown, and Audrey Bruce.

Anyway, you have to trust your evaluation process and then take the guy. I think it's a serious error to play percentages based on criteria that really have nothing to do with the individual. We aren't selling insurance, after all!