One of the most locked in NFL draft reporters in the business. Remember what he sees from draft talent and how he ranks them is on his big boards, what he hears from teams is how he makes his mocks
The Lions in this mock takes Akheem Mesidor from Miami DE (Now in the top 20)
Big things from this mock:
Jordan Tyson drops to the Panthers at 19 (holy shit Tyson and Tet is a deadly duo ngl)
The problem is Mesidor is 25 on draft day, and didn’t take off until he was multiple years older than the guys he was playing against, and on a line where a lot of the attention was on someone else. I like him, but I’d be stunned if he goes this high. DJ’s sources be damned.
There is unlikely to be many this year. This is a pretty weak draft at the top. I suspect Downs and Love will be close to 7… maybe Mendoza too?
I would also caution that Zierlein has one of the lowest hit rates among national analysts. He’s great for learning the strengths and weaknesses of players, and sometimes getting a little nugget from a scout, but for overall extrapolation of a prospect’s prospects, other guys are much better.
Last year they both had Shedeur top ten, Will Johnson top 20, and DJ had Azareye’h Thomas, Mike Green and TJ Sanders in his first mock. To his credit he was the only one without Jack Sawyer (he was in Kiper’), but he still had him top 50.
Granted a lot of those were part of the narrative at the time, but I think that’s what Mesidor has become at this point (a lot like Sawyer after his playoff run). In fact I’m willing to bet really good money he doesn’t go in the 1st, I wonder what kind of odds I could get for that right now? This is when we really miss @jman
Prolly not, im with you that he likely doesnt go in the first at all
Honestly, biggest surprise is prolly Jordan Tyson and Tate falling out of the top 10, but i do think OT help is always a massive need so we will see some teams draft for need instead of BPA for it
See I’ve always shared that POV that Tate and Tyson (and Lemon) are not typical “top 10” talents for WRs - in fact I’m not sure they’re #1s at all - but the lack of talent at the top and all the WR need has been pushing them up the board, at least in mocks
Actually I DO think Tyson is that sort of talent, probably around that 10-11 range for me normally, but you just can’t ignore his injury history. It has to factor into his grade and thus he’d make me very nervous in the top ten.
That was his 2nd best year probably, but I would say “lit it up” is stretching it a little. 5 sacks as a DPR for a team that faced more ~25% more snaps than most teams is a good year, but if he was a senior instead of a freshman you wouldn’t call it lighting it up. And 3 of those 5 sacks came against Eastern Kentucky and a Kansas team that would go 0-9. What made it seem impressive at the time was it was good for a freshman.
