The Athletic

Mock draft season is back! While I generally detest doing mocks this early in the process, it is a helpful exercise to get a sense for potential team needs and how the order may play out. Three things to keep in mind: First and foremost, a mock draft is not what I would do or what I think teams should do. All of my mock drafts are strictly what I’m hearing based on my conversations with scouts and front office personnel contacts around the league. Second, if the draft happened today, this would be the order based on win-loss records and strength of schedule (the second tiebreaker). I know many will be hoping to see their team trade down, but there are no trades in this projection. And finally, we have five months to go until the 2023 NFL Draft, so this will be a fluid process. The phrases “things will change” or “it’s just too early” came up multiple times when I discussed players and potential landing spots with NFL scouts and personnel execs.