Ex-NFL GM explains how and why GMs might use mock drafts
Charley Casserly provided three ways that he used mock drafts as the Redskins and Texans GM.
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2 min read
Mock drafting is difficult. It's a hard-enough task to grade NFL prospects -- it's another task entirely to view each prospect through the lens of each NFL team. I prefer Jared Goff over Carson Wentz, but how do the Browns view those two quarterbacks? Do they really care that much about Goff's smaller hands or is that simply a smokescreen? Are they worried about Carson Wentz's level of competition in college or are they more concerned with Goff's college offensive system?
Given the difficulty of the task, demonstrated by the questions above, it can be easy to dismiss mock drafts as mindless offseason speculation. But, according to one former NFL general manager, there's a way for general managers around the league to use mock drafts to their advantage.
I'll let former Redskins (1989-1999) and Texans (2002-2005) general manager Charley Casserly explain -- as he did on NFL Network -- the three ways he used mock drafts.
1. Consensus and non-consensus names:
"We'd take five mock drafts ... and we got a consensus on who was going to go in the first round. We didn't care about what team they had him with, but what we found was this: The consensus names ended up always being in the first round. The non-consensus names would be at the top of the second round. So I would take those non-consensus names and make sure we spent a little more time on them when we're discussing second-round players. That's the first thing."
2. The mindset of each team:
"The second thing is: I did my own mock draft. I had two members of the media, which I certainly cannot divulge their names, and they got great information. But what I really was looking for is give me the mindset of each team. Who are the names they are going to consider and what do they want to get out of the pick? Because names can change in the order they come, but concepts and the list of names, that didn't change. That really helped me -- on draft day -- strategize, as far as trading."
3. Connections:
"Only the week before they're worth reading, to be honest with you, because that's when the information is decent. But if you knew certain people had certain connections to certain teams, you paid attention to that. And there you could pick and choose some of them that you knew were right. You just had to know who was tied into what teams."
And, on that note, if you want to see the consensus and non-consensus players, if you want to figure out the mindset of each team, and if you want to try to identify our mock drafters' connections, you can do all of that right here at our home for 2016 NFL mock drafts.
