Mock Draft Scoring at The Huddle Report
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Do you ever wonder, “Who really gets these right?” when examining mock drafts? Well, thanks to The Huddle Report, we can know.
The Huddle Report has a few simple rules. They give a deadline (up until draft day) and they have two measures of points.
Measure 1) You receive 1 point for the player correctly being included in the first round
If you read into that, you will note that simply by having the correct top-32 players drafted into the round, you will receive 32 points. Last years winner, Spencer & Engle at Draft Breakdown (great site), won with a final score of 50 points just edging out Dan Kadar at Mocking The Draft who had a score of 49. So, if you’re real good at picking the top 32, then you can at the least be competitive. Do you note this?
Measure 2) You receive 3 points for correctly matching a player to a team.
Now, the possibilities arise. You can see where the points really come in. Take all this into consideration and use it to grade yourself if you like. It’s a little more difficult to get onto the site.
This is an excerpt from an e-mail they sent me in regards to my mock getting onto the site:
"Entries included in The Huddle Report’s draft grades are submissions from one of the following: major media outlet (TV, publications), websites dedicated to the NFL draft (covering the NFL draft year-round)."
Regardless, they’ve still given us the tools to grade our own against the talking heads and great writers on the websites that study these players year round. So, let’s score.
We’ll use my mock draft from last year as an example.
My final mock draft was posted on April 20th at Draft Breakdown, they were kind enough to allow me a guest appearance writing there. Some of the draft reasonings aren’t the best but it was a decent attempt for my second year.
The 2010 NFL Draft’s first round can be found here.
The Beginning
Looking at my mock, I was able to get the first four picks correct: Sam Bradford, Ndamukong Suh, Gerald McCoy and Trent Williams. At this point, I have 12 points, the maximum possible.
At pick 5, my streak was lost as the Chiefs took Eric Berry and I gave them Rolando McClain. I get one point for Eric Berry being drafted in the first round.
Sitting at 13 points.
I finished the top-10 with 19 points and 5 correct picks. I gave the Jaguars Brian Price (DT, UCLA). This gives me my only zero so far as Price was not drafted in the first round.
The Next 10
After pick #20, I’m sitting at 27 points. I have gotten 0 points on 3 selections: Brian Price, Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame QB) and Sergio Kindle (Texas OLB/DE). All three of these went in the second. Jaguars got a similar player and Kindle went to a 34 defense as I had (Ravens not 49ers). So, I’m feeling decent about this.
Pick 21-25
I correctly mocked TE Jermaine Gresham, Oklahoma to the Cincy Bengals. Then I got another complete miss at pick #23–Green Bay Packers getting OT Charles Brown, USC. Brown went to the Saints at 64th overall. The Packers took Brian Bulaga who wasn’t available in my mock. No points but correct position so that’s a plus.
I finished with 33 points at pick 25.
The End
Picks 26-32 were not that good to me, and I must admit that I wasn’t aware of the scoring system. This is evidenced by my Taylor Mays pick. I didn’t take it seriously enough. Mays was a 3rd-round type to me on potential alone. I don’t know if I would have even drafted him. This year, I know the scoring and should be able to fare better except that the top-8 are pretty difficult to predict.
I missed pick #28 with Terrence Cody to the Chargers (they traded up and took RB Ryan Matthews) and they still need a nose tackle. I then missed pick #29 with Taylor Mays to the Jets (they took CB Kyle Wilson who reminded me of a young Rashean Mathis, good pick). My final complete miss was pick #31 to the Colts. I gave them USC DE Everson Griffen, who was picked by the Vikings with pick #100. It can easily be argued that he was a better pickup than DE Jerry Hughes, but this is year 1 so we’ll wait.
My final score: 37 points and 6 correct picks.
This ties me for 57th along with:
- Pat Kirwan, NFL.com
- Randall Weida, FF Toolbox.com
- Chris Dunfee, Draft Prestige
- Frank Coyle, Draft Insiders
I was one correct pick ahead of Brian Galliford of Mocking The Draft.
Other Notables I beat:
- Matt McGuire of WalterFootball.com
- Drew Boylhart, The Huddle Report
- Sideline Scouting
- Matt Miller, New Era Scouting
- Michael Shottey, Draft Tek
Now, in my opinion, every single one of these guys knows a lot more about football than I do at this point. Am I even remotely close to Pat Kirwan? No!
The reason the draft is entertaining is because nothing is for sure, not even selecting a player. Mock Drafts are nearly useless. The only reason to read them is to familiarize yourself with the players that are available around this spot and that team. This way you are not lost.
We research and you learn. Most mock drafts are very wrong, especially the pre-combine drafts.
Even if I were to sit and correctly analyze the first 100 picks and then mock them out to the teams, something will go wrong. And such is life in the NFL.
So if you want, make a mock. You have just as much a chance to get a decent score as I do. Neither one of us work for the NFL, so put it up somewhere and grade it and we can compare next week. Google will give you a free blogspot to host it somewhere. It’ll be fun.
Maybe this year I’ll at the least get the Jaguars pick correct.
UPDATE: Just for kicks, I found my 2009 Mock Draft (first year) from April 16, 2009.
I scored based on that copy. The day of the draft I decide to go with Peter King and give Kansas City a certain LSU D-lineman, this moved Crabtree to the 49ers. They seemed like the only team that would take him next. This would’ve scored 6 points, but it was draft day and Huddle Report doesnt do that. So it doesn’t count haha.
Final 2009 Score: 38 points, 6 correct picks
- Matthew Stafford, Lions
- Aaron Curry, Seahawks
- Darrius Heyward-Bey, Raiders (haha)
- Malcolm Jenkins, Saints
- Hakeem Nicks, Giants
I got a zero on 4 picks. I placed Rey Mauluga, Everette Brown, Eben Britton and James Laurinaitus as first rounders.
It’s interesting to review, to say the least.