Mock Drafts Goofy and Strangely Interesting

Mock Drafts are every where. There is nothing wrong with that.  The goofy and interesting thing about that is the person making the mock draft can do and say anything that they want.  And they do.  Most of these mock drafts only go one maybe two rounds.   They have become so popular now that there are some people that are doing full 7 round drafts with trades.  While that seems a bit extreme it is a job that I would love to have.  Getting paid to sit around and project on something that makes no difference if you are right or wrong.

Clearly it is what people want.  They want to see who people think their team will draft.  There seems to be a few reasons why people want to see this.  They want someone to tell them their team is going to pick a really good player.  They also want them to say that their team is going to make a choice they disagree with so they can argue with them.  It all comes down to some good fun in the slow part of the year.

NFL has the most Mock Drafts

By far the NFL has the most mock drafts.   The NBA only has a two round draft.  The NHL the players that get drafted are not well enough known.  The same is true of the MLB.  So for the most part that leaves the mock drafts to the NFL.  Not that the other ones do not have some sort of mock drafts.  The NFL clearly draw the most interest and the most different iterations of mock drafts.  It has become such big business that there are whole sections of sports web sites and network programs that are dedicated to them.

I found this interesting article that goes though the history of Mock Drafts.  No one is completely sure when they started.  The article does say there were references to Mock drafts as far back as te 40’s.  They really started to take off in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  This coincides with when sports talk really started to grow in our entertainment.  It also around the time that sports popularity really started to explode.  Sports have always been popular.  But when access to every game and more team information became available it allowed more and more people to follow.

But we digress the popularity of sports is for another post.  This is about the Mock Drafts that are on every site that has anything to do with sports.  We have not done our own mock draft at biglakesports yet.  We plan to in the near future.  With how popular they are there is no reason to not do one.

Probably the most popular Mock Draft analyst is Mel Kiper Jr.   He has been doing his mock draf for ESPN since 1984.  That is a long time to do something that was made completely up and in the big plan means absolutely nothing.   In 2006 in True ESPN fashion they knew that having a competing Mock Draft could only be good for business.  So they brought in Todd McShay to put out a competing mock draft so that Mel and Todd could argue about who has the draft right.  The duo worked ber well and made both of them very recognizable.

In fact they did such a good job with it that they are able to put their Mock Drafts in ESPN+ and get people to pay to see them.  That is another whole story we will deal with down the road.  Hey it is up to you for the premium content but I would rather deal with ads than pay extra for it.  Clearly I am in the minority on this.  It has been that way for a while.  With each of them putting out at least three Mock Drafts each year I am sure that ESPN is making some alright money.

Mock Drafts are so popular that I found a site that tracks the Mock Drafts.  Really another thing I wish I had though of.  A site to track all the Mock Drafts out there.  This is another thing that points to just how popular the NFL is.  There are so many people that are doing the Mock Drafts that you need another site just to keep track of them.  Fantastic.

We have not done one yet but now that the combine is done it is probably time for us to do one.  What do you think should we do the first Biglakesports mock draft?