Mock Drafts

As my beautiful wife quickly learned, there is no offseason in football. This offseason, or preparation for next season, has a bit of a hurdle with the CBA situation. Typically, the next season starts as soon as the last game ends. The champion might get a couple of days to celebrate, but then it is back to work on a repeat. The same is true for the fans. One of the staples of the "non-offseason" is the mock draft.

I often think that these damn little things were called mock drafts because they mock you. They are mostly pointless. Achieving little but wasting time for those that create them and those that read them. There was a time when they weren't done at all, but there was a time when the draft wasn't televised either. As far as I can recall, Sports Illustrated was the first on the scene with a mock draft. Paul Zimmerman did these, and I greatly looked forward to them. Unlike today when every college football player is surgically displayed to the public, this meager draft coverage revealed many players to me for the first time. As the NFL Draft has evolved into an event, mock drafts have sprouted up everywhere. Some have been updated regularly since August. Now, this is the beginning of where I think that people have gone too far. A mock draft in August is nuts. For one thing, it is impossible to predict where the teams will be drafting, let alone each team's needs. For another, there is no way to accurately determine how college players will perform that season, or which players will even be available for the draft. Mock draft authors go beyond reality when they conjure up drafts 2-3 years early. Pretty soon they are going to take a stab at predicting the draft status of kids yet to be born.

Despite the mock draft insanity, I love them. I have even done some myself. Usually, I just complete it up to the Vikings pick, but if I feel feisty I'll jot down a complete first round. I have had some success predicting the Vikings recent picks, in particular Chad Greenway, Percy Harvin and Tyrell Johnson.
Mostly, I use mock drafts to familiarize myself with college players that I have not seen play and find players that intrigue me. They are often done by people that are less familiar with the Vikings than I am, so I put little weight on their choices for my team.

For pure football giggles, it is tough to beat a good mock draft. They shouldn't be taken too seriously. There is a reason that teams hire people to make those tough draft decisions. Although, with Matt Millen running the show a few years ago, the Detroit Lions should have listened to the mock drafts. Those were sad days for that team. The explosion in the number of mock drafts is shocking, but everyone has an opinion and it has to be thrown into the ring. Plus, it helps pass the time until the real draft takes place. The season never rests.