NBC Sports

● By Peter King

Accuracy: 33.41%14th Place
I am, by nature, a hopeless optimist. (After you see my 2020 NFL Mock Draft 2020 below, you’d think the more apt description is hopeless masochist.) So I am glad the draft is going on despite the pandemic. It’s a pain for teams, of course, but competitively, it’s the same for everyone. The Chargers’ Tom Telesco will make the sixth pick in the first round from his dining-room table; Kansas City’s Andy Reid and Brett Veach will wheel and deal the 32nd pick up or down from their basements, connected by cell and text and email and videoconference. In the last 10 days, I have not heard a coach or GM, even off the record while gathering informational chum for my mock, complain about the inconvenience of drafting alone and from home. Veach shares his home with a wife, four kids and two Australian shepherds, and it might get loud sometime during the draft. “Eliminating the fighting and eliminating the dog-barking—I think those will be the biggest challenges,” he said the other day. Sound familiar, work-from-home America?

Top Players Not Included

These players appear in the top 32 of our

Consensus Big Board

, but do not show up in this mock.