2022 NFL mock drafts
Was looking through a number of 2022 mock drafts (too early, I know). A few general observations:
QB's are all over the place. Spencer Rattler (OU), JT Daniels (Georgia), Tyler Shough (Oregon), Kedon Slovis (USC), Jayden Daniels (ASU), Sam Howell (UNC), and Malik Willis (Liberty?) all make appearances in various orders.
Top overall athletes right now appear to be Derek Stingley (CB, LSU), Kayvon Thibodeaux (DE, Oregon), and Evan Neal (OL, Alabama).
For OSU: Chris Olave, Garrent Wilson, and Zach Harrison are more or less consensus 1st rounders. Haskell Garrett, Jeremy Ruckert, Sevyn Banks, and Thayer Munford all make appearances.
Rasheed Walker (OL, PSU) and George Karlaftis (DL, Purdue) are consensus 1st rounders.
For UM: Aiden Hutchinson appears on most lists (as high as #2 overall at Walter Football). Chris Hinton made one list as a first rounder (albeit by mentioning a lot of projection).
Personal guesses for UM: Aiden goes in the top 10, Gemon Green is a 2rd rounder, Mike Barrett 4th if he declares, Andrew Steuber 6/7th, and Jake Moody 6/7th as well. Roman Wilson, Erik All, and many OL and DL (including Hinton) start to look like solid picks in 2023 and beyond.
Green in the 2nd round? Barrett in the 4th? Interesting takes. I hope they play well enough this year to be in discussions at those slots.
Feels pretty homer-ish. Projecting a day two pick from a guy I don't think anyone is really expecting to be in the running for 1st or 2nd team All-B1G is a stretch even though I'd love to see it. I find it hard to believe Gemon Green is the best corner to come through Michigan since Leon Hall. Recent corners drafted like Ambry Thomas (3rd), David Long (3rd), and Jourdan Lewis (3rd) were good but not elite prospects and all inspired quite a bit more confidence than any Michigan fan has in Green.
Weird that Green would be predicted a second rounder given last year's performance. Especially against Staee. And two of the players that torched him aren't even at Staee anymore.
2rd round, not second. Big difference.
Interesting you wouldn't find Daxton Hill on that list. He was definitely projected to be declaring after his third year just based on projections alone.
Dax is a future All Pro and 1st round selection.
Enjoy him this season.
Hope you're right, because if that's true that probably means he (and by extension, the defense as a whole) has a very good season in the Fall.
Can Dax play DT?
Based on what exactly? I love Dax as much as the next guy, but since he's been here he hasn't even looked like one of the best players on the team.
Agree 100%. Hill came in with lots of hype.I haven't seen it ......yet.
It would help if Dax had some...you know...position coaching?
As for Gemon Green, he is closer to UDFA than second round.
Same with Hinton. I don't get his draft stock being so high.
Same with Hinton. I don't get his draft stock being so high.
I’m basing it on athletic ability and instinctive plays we have seen. He has the size and speed. He can cover and hit. He can close a hole and stand up a big back. He can track the ball to the sideline
Last years defense was in complete disarray and Dax was a true Sophomore. It was not the type of season to show out when guys a running free everywhere.
He made some plays very few can make.
Da fuck???
I don't even all the players drafted by the Lions just 4 days ago, and now you want me to think about 2022? Let it be, man, leave it alone for a while...
Agreed. I won't think about 2022 until we know who will declare after this upcoming football season ends.
Somewhere out there, someone is likely doing a 2023 mock draft.
I refuse to pay attention to the NFL Draft 365/24/7, but it is a 365/24/7 topic for a lot of folk.
As Virginia Blue so eloquently put it, "Da fuck???"
yes, leave it alone for, like, forever.
mock drafts are a pox on humanity. fire them all into the sun.
Daxton Hill will probably get drafted pretty high. Can't forget about him.
Gemon Green is a RS Junior this year....with 2 more eligible playing years after this coming season (because of the COVID extra year). While I'm optimistic about his potential (he showed talent, just lack of experience last season), I think he'd have to show some amazing things to go to the draft next year. I'll never say never, but him going in the 2022 draft seems unlikely....simply because of lack of experience and exposure, more than anything.
I do appreciate the fun post though. Thanks, man. ?
I think we all saw Gemon show potential last year. He looked like a more natural and instinctive CB than Grey.
I am looking forward to seeing his growth this year. I’m guessing he is in the discussions by seasons end.
4th-6th year seniors:
Day 1 - Hutch
Day 2 - Bell
Day 3 - Jeter, Upshaw, Hayes, Schoonmaker, Haskins, Barrett, Green
UFA - Stueber, Filiaga, Vastardis, Hawkins, Ross, Gray
Underclassman that could leave early: Hill, Smith, Hinton, Barnhart, Hayes. These are just purely projection and only if they have good years, obviously.
Jeter day 3? Dudes who spend 4 years getting blown off the ball don't get drafted.
It's obviously a projection, not set in stone. But I'm willing to give a guy that's (supposedly) 6'3", 320 with some athleticism a break when the scheme and personnel have not be designed to help DTs the past few years. We have gotten literally nothing from DTs since 2017. I'm hoping that's more on the previous defensive coaching staff than it is on just the players.
I wish the best for all the players, but there are already some amazing projections in some of these posts (guys who've barely played, etc.).
Speaking as a Lions fan, Malik Willis is far and away the most interesting QB prospect to me. Originally enrolled at Auburn, he transferred to Liberty after Bo Nix was named the starter. Willis helped Liberty beat two ACC schools (Virginia Tech, Syracuse) and a Coastal Carolina team that had just knocked off an undefeated BYU.
While not quite a Lamar Jackson-level athlete, Willis is probably the most athletic-gifted QB to enter the draft prospect since LJ, but he also has the arm talent to back it up.
Michael Vick or a pre-injury RGIII is probably a close stylistic comparison:
Most athletic since Jackson? He's fast but that that fast.... got caught from behind a bunch in his highlights. That run at 220, the defender took a horrible angle then just made up for it and caught him. There is also Trey Lance and Justin Fields this year who I am guessing are both faster and have good to great arms so let's not over extrapolate on the kid just yet.
I stand by it. There's more to athleticism than straight-line speed; and the FIU football program might lack for a lot of things, but speed isn't one of them. I do believe that he is clearly a better runner than Fields or Lance, even if he is a lesser QB prospect.
Willis ran for 944 yards in 10 games last season. For comparison, Justin Fields ran for a total of 867 yards during his 22-game tenure at Ohio State and, while Trey Lance did run for 1100 yards in 2019, it took him 16 games to do so. In fact, Willis' 944 yards projected out to 12 games puts him in Denard-territory, statistically speaking.
I do think Lance and Fields are better NFL prospects due to their larger frames and passing ability, but Willis isn't small or slight like Kyler Murray or Spencer Rattler, and if my team is looking for a difference-making QB at the next level, someone like Willis is much more intriguing than what Kedon Slovis (and his beat-up arm/shoulder), Rattler (with his slight frame and decision-making), or Tyler Shough (who just transferred because he lost the Oregon job) offer.
This is why I hate the NFL's push to be relevant all year long.
Pre-season -> season -> post-season. Please, just be done here. Leave some oxygen in the room. Nope. All NFL all the time. You can't miss out on:
pre-draft, pre-mock-draft-season -> combine season -> pre-draft, mock-draft season -> draft -> preview of next season's pre-draft, pre-mock-draft-season -> pre-pre-season contract-signing season -> pre-pre-season rankings -> pre-season training camp season -> preseason.
Dude, you really don't have to participate. I agree with you, but I just don't go looking for draft stuff, or combine info, or even care about the "schedule announcement".
Agreed, I don't have to participate, and I'm not complaining about being forced to participate. At the same time, I think expressing mild annoyance toward the NFL's well-known campaign to make its activities relevant all year in a thread that arguably highlights the ridiculousness of that campaign is fair.
It's not like I go around looking for threads to shit-post in. It's the same as you complaining about me complaining. You didn't have to, but you felt justified, and you don't go around slamming each of my posts.
It's the same as you complaining about me complaining. You didn't have to, but you felt justified, and you don't go around slamming each of my posts.
Dude, I actually agreed with you. It came across as a little more than "mild annoyance", but I wasn't "slamming " your post, I was just pointing out that it's easily avoidable.
And I agreed back! More enraging (/s), is the fact that I further agreed that you weren't slamming my post! And you're right, I could have easily avoided the topic. But for me, at that time, I felt that it would be more personally satisfying to not avoid it and express my mild annoyance (it really was only mild annoyance, but, as you probably can gather by this point, I don't mind writing, and enjoy being verbose, so I can agree that the extent to which I expressed myself could give the impression of more). Please note. Any and all further responses will be in all caps. Despite this fact, know that I absolutely agree with you, completely.
NFL Schedule release next week, baby!
this is absolutely, completely correct.
the idea that you can "just ignore it" is silly. pick a day and go to espn.com on internet archive. i guarantee you that at least one (and probably two or three) of the "top headlines" sidebar will be an nfl story.
there are four today, including "eagles gm explains awkward nfl draft fist bump" and "sources: jets dt williams (foot) out 8-10 weeks" and "jimmy g ready to help 49ers rookie qb lance." the fourth - "villaneueva signs 2-year deal with rival ravens" is a stretch, but a free-agent pro-bowler signing is marginally noticeable.
there's really no reason to call any of these a "top headline," but espn can't stop itself from covering the nfl's self-important self-pleasuring, 24/7/365. come back in a month and it will be the same crap, different day.
I've been to one California HS football game in my ~15 years out here. I saw Oaks Christian (seniors Charbonnet & Thibodeaux) vs. St. John Bosco (junior DJ Uiagalelei) in a state semi-finals game. At the time Thibodeaux was still undecided while Zach had already verbally committed to Michigan. I was really hoping he would have pulled Thibodeaux to Ann Arbor, but we weren't even on his list. Kid is a beast, looks like things have worked out for him.
I also used to go to the Elite 11 finals at Redondo Union for several years. One of those years I sat next to Tyler Shough's parents the entire time. At that point he was mostly down to Michigan and Berkeley. His father wanted Michigan but he was very hands off his son's decision. I also got to meet Tyler, great kid. Looks like his decision to go to Oregon will also pay off as well.
Shough played pretty well at Oregon, but he actually transferred to Texas Tech this offseason.
ahh, I hadn't been following. Thank you.
When I see speculation about the draft this early, I'm more curious about the prospects who will blow up between now and then. Look at Joe Burrow. He was kind of an afterthought going into the 2019 season, and then he had the kind of season that made him the #1 overall draft choice.
Not every prospect will blow up as thoroughly as Joe Burrow did, of course, and I'm sure they're a slim minority of draft prospects. Nonetheless, I think those are the most interesting players in any given college football season.
Is this list just 2021 seniors and not underclassmen because Hill will definitely be going pro after this year and should be taken in the first round. We are losing a lot of experience after this year - especially on D.
Where do you have Cornelius Johnson going?
He was not rated highly enough coming out of high school (this is not a typo) to be included in a 2022 NFL mock draft.
Chris Hinton first round?!
I thought there were recent reports that he was practicing with the 2s. Some people just looking a his high school recruiting profile to scout him for the NFL or something?
He's a 1st team DT and the 2nd team Nose, hence practicing with the 2s.
Dax Hill will be a first rounder
These mock drafts frustrate me because I feel they over hype our players which leads to players leaving early (see Jalen Mayfield). Chris Hinton has 2.5 career TFLs, name one thing other then being a highly rate recruit and playing for Michigan that would make you think Chris Hinton would be a first round pick.
His dad had a 13 year NFL career. I don't think that matters much or at all to the people drafting, but it might to the people putting these lists together.
if it makes you feel better, if they're that wrong about the team you care and know about, you just have to assume they're also that wrong about everyone else's team too.
None of those OSU guys are consensus 1st rounders. The WR's will be playing with a QB that hasn't thrown a pass in a real game, and it's nice to see Zach Harrison not living up to the hype.