Hello everyone, /u/Idolpriest and I just partook in the /r/NFL mock draft, which was an entire pre-draft and seven round mock draft that took place over the last couple of weeks, and we would like to share what we did, and get some feedback on how we did. Obviously, we are not expert drafters, and did what we could with the time we had, but we did really enjoy the opportunity and gave us a new respect of what real GMs go through to make some of these moves happen. With this being said, let us get into the pre-draft process.

PRE-DRAFT--The pre-draft phase basically consisted of trades, and scouting prospects. The way the draft worked was everything before March 25th, 2023 was based on the real league (*For example, if we traded a pick in the mock draft, that was later traded IRL, then our mock draft trade would be cancelled)*. After the 25th, the mock draft and real life decisions began to separate, so any moves we made stuck even if the pick was traded IRL.

​

Rams Recieve: Eric Murray S

Texans Recieve: 7.251

This was our first trade made in the mock, our though process was we just lost 2 safetys in free agency. We thought trading away a late 7th, to take a flyer on a guy who could be a veteran prescence in a DB room with so many young players would be worth the pick. Also secondary depth was a major concern, so we made the move.

Rams Recieve: 6.211, Jalen Reagor WR

Vikings Recieve: 6.191

Im ready for the hate on this one. As you'll see later we need more WR depth, we thought moving back 20 spots, for a former 1st round pick was worth the chance. Obviously its pretty clear hes not going to live up to the hype, but if anyone can get anything out of a WR its Sean McVay. Also he could be pretty important for us on special teams, given our PR carousel.

Rams Recieve: Yetur Gross-Matos EDGE, 2025 7th

Panthers Recieve: 6.189, conditional 2024 7th (Turns into a 6th, with 5 sacks in 2023)

I liked this move because if we are weakest at anything, its definitely edge rusher, and we think Yetur Gross-Matos is that type of player who could take it to the next level next to a guy like Aaron Donald. Our goal overall in this pre-draft process was to find guys who could potentially be signifigant contributers to our team, without giving up a ton, or costing too much money. We think Gross-Matos fits this bill especially.

​

Rams Recieve: Caleb Farley, 5.147

Titans Recieve: Allen Robinson II

This move followed the trend of our last couple moves, invest in young players who couldn't find a role on their original teams, who are cheap. Besides edge rusher, CB was our next most depth needy team, we think Caleb Farley, when healthy could be a major contributor to this team for the future. Also with Allen Robinsons poor performance in 2022, we wanted to move him and get him off our books, considering his price tag, getting back both a player, and a 5th was more than enough compensation for us.

PRE-DRAFT RECAP---This is the end of the pre-draft phase, all-in-all we did the thing we wanted to going in. Try to fill our roster out with young talent, who could contribute in the future, for little loss. One of the major lessons I learned through this process was the value of those late round picks, so looking back we may have been a bit trade happy, but that's a lesson learned, and overall we are happy with what we did.

DRAFT TIME: The draft was split into 2 days, with day 1 consistenting of the 1st, and 2nd rounds, with a 10 minute clock, and day 2 consisting of rounds 3-7, with a 5 minute clock for round 3, and a 2 minute clock for rounds 4-7. After all our moves, and getting our compensatory picks, this is what we looked like pick wise going into the draft.

2.363.693.775.1475.1675.1716.1827.223

Heres how the draft went:

Pick Player Reason

TRADE: Pitt Recieves: 36 77 Rams Recieve: 32 80 -- --

2.32 Will McDonald IV, EDGE, Iowa St.- We moved up to secure this pick, McDonald was our dream pick coming into the draft, and when we saw how he was falling, we had to move up to get him. I think he will be a star next to Donald, and if/when Donald retires he can be that pass rush threat that he was (ok maybe not that good, but he'll be a threat)

3.69 Michael Wilson, WR, Stanford- This guy is Cooper Kupp 2.0, he has similar measurables, and as an athlete coming from Stanford, similar intelligence. We think under Kupps tutoring, he could be our number 2, and could be our major threat, if/when Kupp decides to hang it up. (Also picked at the same spot as Kupp, it was meant to be)

3.80 Darius Rush, CB, South Carolina- Unfortunately we weren't able to nab the 2 corners we wanted at this spot so we settled for Rush; however looking at his-- he was a sneaky solid pick. He has a 6'2 stature and ran a 4.38. Our CB room is young and the starting positions are truly up for grabs

TRADE: Rams Recieve: 3.99 Vikings Recieve: 5.147 6.211 -- --

3.99 Sydney Brown, S, Illinois- Brown wasn't on our radar that much, but we did like him. We thought after addressing Edge with our first pick, we wouldn't have what it took to get him after that. Once we saw how far he was moving, we had to move up to get him, he will very much help out secondary out with the loss of 2 key contributors, and think we found a gem in the third here who could be a future starter.

5.167 Dee Winters, LB, TCU- Dee Winters is more of a run stopping linebacker rather than a pass coverage guy which is a perfect compliment to Earnest Jones; we needed a guy who could come in and compete with Rozeboom for that MLB 2 spot

5.171 Luke Haggard, T, Indiana- We were not expecting how fast offensive line was moving throughout the draft, we had a wide margin between 3.99 and 5.167, but wanted to stay put to get more picks in. This considered we really like Haggard and think he could be solid depth, or possible starter in the future. Dude is a real athlete for his size, he has some work to do in the pass pro department though.

6.182 Ochaun Mathis, DE, Nebraska- Rams are really lacking in the edge rush department, getting McDonald early was huge but adding Ochaun provides much needed depth. Ochaun was a 4 year starter and has good size and length. He is very comparable to Leonard Floyd.. he is very raw but his athleticism makes up for it

7. 223 Jaren Hall, QB, BYU- Rams have zero QBs on the depth chart besides Stafford. The Rams have actually visited with Jaren Hall IRL..Hall actually had a very similar career at BYU as Zack Wilson, however the Rams were able to nab him 221 spots later. Rams will most likely target a top QB in next years draft but Hall can be a solid career backup

DRAFT RECAP:Overall I really like what we did, given the way the board fell. Obviously first major critiscm would be lack of offensive line picks. Like I said in the Haggard writeup, there was a huge run on OL that caught us off guard, and really shook up our draft board. Overall though I think considering getting Bruss back, and adding depth in Haggard, our Oline is looking better, we could probably get some help in FA though. Another major question mark for us was RB. We were open to trading Akers in the pre-draft process but we couldn't get the value we wanted for him, considering his ending to the season, so we decided to keep him. After the 31st of March we couldn't make any more player trades, but ideally we could have used him during the draft to move up to get someone like Charbonnet, or Kendre Miller when he fell, but with Akers, and Williams, we weren't super high on getting an early RB. Lastly, I think we could have attacked the QB spot more aggressively, we had a chance to nab Hendon Hooker with 3.80 but decided we needed to add some quality at the corner position. We ended up with Jaren Hall after Dorian Thompson-Robinson was nabbed from us, who we really liked. Jaren Hall is still incredible for where we got him, and think he could be something in the future. Overall we had a great time doing this, and would love to hear feedback and opinions how we did, what you would do differently, just please keep it respectful. Thanks Everyone!

P.S. They are opening the draft discord to the public, as a draft server, and another one of these in 2024, if you are interested in doing this next year, come join: https://discord.gg/ndxgdZ62

Day 1 Full Recap:https://old.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/128pofz/official_rnfl_2023_mock_draft_day_1_of_2/?Day 2 Full Recap: https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/129ok1w/official_rnfl_2023_mock_draft_day_2_of_2/

​

​

Thanks /u/idolpriest for the write up---